Donald Trump elected: will the President of the United States escape criminal prosecution?

The year 2024 promised a judicial journey for Donald Trump, whom some even saw behind bars before the presidential election. By dint of appeals and delaying tactics, the Republican candidate, targeted by 88 charges, ultimately escaped three of the four resounding trials (new window) that he feared.

A final legal obstacle nevertheless awaits him on November 26 in New York before his official return to the White House on January 20: the pronouncement of his sentence in the only one of his four criminal trials that his lawyers have not succeeded in delaying. beyond 2024.

On May 30, Donald Trump was found guilty by the courts of the State of New York of “aggravated accounting falsification to conceal a conspiracy to pervert the 2016 election”, i.e. a payment of $130,000 to the actress Stormy Daniels pornographic films (new window). A sum paid so that she keeps quiet about a sexual relationship that she says she had with him in 2006, which he has always denied. The ex-president's lawyers requested a new delay last July following a resounding decision by the American Supreme Court in Washington, with a conservative majority, which broadened the scope of presidential criminal immunity.

Donald Trump will be fixed on November 12

New York judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial of the Stormy Daniels affair, must rule on the request for annulment made by Donald Trump's lawyers in light of the Supreme Court decision on November 12, indicates CNN (new window). By limiting the evidence that can be presented to a jury, it could lead the judge to drop the charges against him. If the request is denied, his lawyers could then request another delay so they can appeal to state appeals courts and potentially all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could take months, according to the outlet. American.

In the event of defeat, the Republican candidate could face up to four years in prison. Now that he is elected, could he, once invested in January 2025, obtain an end to the proceedings against him? On LCI, Franco-American lawyer Christopher Mesnooh returned to the question of presidential immunity from which Donald Trump could benefit. “There is a decision from the Supreme Court which was rendered on July 1 and which said to summarize when we talk about the central functions of a president, Trump or another, immunity is absolute. When we talk about functions peripheral to the role of the president, immunity is relative, but important and real. And only when the acts fall within the private domain and not the functions of the president, in this case, there is no presidential immunity.”explains this specialist in the video at the top of this article.

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Although it is still too early to say what effect his election will have on his legal torments, Donald Trump now has all the cards in his hands to escape prison. “Of these four trials, at least two or three have already been slowed down, time to apply this new Supreme Court jurisprudence to cases involving Mr. Trump. This can potentially cover all casesbelieves Christopher Mesnooh. The file [du procès Stormy Daniels] is in the courts of the State of New York, it is not at the federal level” as for the affair of January 6, 2021 and the assault on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump. However, to hear it, it is the same jurisprudence of the Supreme Court which will apply.