Tipsheet

Trump Secured Two Wins on Election Night

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  November 07, 2024 1:30 AM

President-elect Donald J. Trump has scored another win. It’s not a new state, though he’s already shattered the Blue Wall, but at the Biden Department of Justice, which has been trying to indict Mr. Trump on a variety of politically motivated cases involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents and that little riot on January 6. 

You knew things were getting desperate in that building when Special Counsel Jack Smith released a 165-page court document refiling some of the charges against Trump. It was done to influence the election, which is why former assistant US Attorney and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig roasted Smith for this deed. As Mia wrote earlier, Smith is now in the process of dismantling his cases against the president-elect (via NBC News): 

Justice Department officials have been evaluating how to wind down the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office to comply with long-standing department policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News. 

The latest discussions stand in contrast with the pre-election legal posture of special counsel Jack Smith, who in recent weeks took significant steps in the election interference case against Trump without regard to the electoral calendar. 

But the sources say DOJ officials have come to grips with the fact that no trial is possible anytime soon in either the Jan. 6 case or the classified documents matter — both of which are mired in legal issues that would likely prompt an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, even if Trump had lost the election. 

Now that Trump will become president again, DOJ officials see no room to pursue either criminal case against him — and no point in continuing to litigate them in the weeks before he takes office, the people said. 

“Sensible, inevitable and unfortunate,” said former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg, an NBC News contributor. 

What about the Stormy Daniels case in New York? You could probably guess: Judge Merchan, who delayed sentencing Trump until after the election for obvious reasons, is mulling tossing the case. Politico explained how this circus is likely to end as well: 

In the one case where Trump has already been found guilty, his electoral victory means he likely can defer any punishment. 

Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the Manhattan criminal trial this spring that ended in Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, is scheduled to sentence Trump on Nov. 26. But the president-elect’s lawyers, who have already successfully delayed the sentencing twice, are certain to argue against hauling him into a state courtroom in the middle of his presidential transition. Also pending before Merchan is a request from Trump that the guilty verdict be set aside in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. 

Should Merchan proceed with the sentencing as scheduled, he’ll face the unprecedented task of deciding whether to impose a prison sentence of up to four years on a defendant who is set to occupy the White House come January. If he does order Trump to prison, Trump almost certainly won’t be required to serve that sentence until after he leaves office in 2029. 

And even if Merchan opts for a punishment without a prison term — home confinement, say, or community service — Trump’s lawyers will likely seek to delay those, too, arguing that logistical challenges and constitutional duties should preclude a president-elect, or a sitting president, from having to carry out any sentence. 

The show is over. Trump won twice on Tuesday. He beat the Democrats, Kamala Harris, the liberal media, and the corrupt Department of Justice.