Trump vs. Justice
Former President of the United States Donald Trump confirmed on his Truth Social platform that on Tuesday, January 9, he will be in person in Washington DC, where Justice is evaluating whether the Republican magnate can be tried for his attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 elections. at the federal level or if, on the contrary, he then had presidential immunity, the argument of his defense. Special prosecutor Jack Smith raised the question with the Supreme Court last month, although it declined to deal with the case immediately, leaving it in the hands of lower courts.
The trial season and the campaign for Donald Trump begin less than 11 months before the United States presidential elections. He does so with a clear positioning: the former president will defend his immunity in person on Tuesday, January 9, at the Washington DC Court of Appeals hearing that will evaluate whether or not the Republican magnate had presidential immunity between November 2020 and January 2021. .
This was confirmed this Monday on his Truth Social platform, with a brief statement:
“I will be attending Federal Appeals Court arguments on presidential immunity in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. Of course I had immunity, as president of the United States and Commander in Chief. I was not campaigning, the election was already over. I was looking electoral fraud and finding it, which was my obligation to do, and on the other hand running our country. If I don't get immunity, then corrupt Joe Biden has no Immunity (…) Joe has opened a gigantic Pandora's box.”
The former US president is criminally accused by special prosecutor Jack Smith of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election at the federal level. Events that led to the violent assault on the Capitol by its most radical followers on January 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying the electoral victory of Democrat Joe Biden.
Specifically, Smith accuses Trump of four federal criminal offenses: “conspiracy to defraud the United States”; “conspiracy to obstruct official proceedings”; “obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding”; and “conspiracy against the rights of Americans.” In total, these crimes add up to 55 years in prison.
However, the Republican's defense alleges that Trump was then carrying out his presidential duties and, therefore, he has immunity that prevents him from being tried for it. Furthermore, according to his legal team, the controversial former head of state exercised his right to freedom of expression when he said, without evidence, that there was electoral fraud.
The special counsel's indictment states that repeated claims that Trump had won the election were “false, and the defendant knew they were false.” But the defendant repeated them and disseminated them widely anyway to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, to create an intense national atmosphere of distrust and anger, and to erode public faith in election administration.”
Given the controversy, Jack Smith requested on December 21 that the federal Supreme Court urgently resolve whether, in fact, Trump had immunity or not. An extreme that the High Court rejected, leaving it in the hands of the Washington Court of Appeals in the first instance.
The trial, pending what the state Justice evaluates, is expected to begin on March 4, one day before 'Super Tuesday', a key date for the nomination of the future Republican candidate.
On the other hand, electoral interference has also sparked a broad legal debate framed in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. It refers to an eventual “insurrection” in which Trump would have participated, encouraging his followers to storm the Capitol.
The federal Supreme Court has not ruled on it for the moment either, but some high state courts in Colorado and Maine have done so, waiting for the higher judicial bodies to be able or not to reverse their decision. These regions ruled that Trump cannot appear on the Republican nomination ballots, considering that the magnate did collaborate in an insurrection against his own country.
The electoral machinery is activated
Trump faces court, just when the race for the White House officially begins next week with those known as caucus of the state of Iowa. On January 15, the electors' assemblies in the 1,678 establishments of that state will determine which candidates are best positioned to win the party's nomination and, therefore, compete to win the Presidency on November 5.
The caucus of that rural state are essential because it is the first time this year that citizens speak out about their electoral desires beyond the polls. On the Republican side, Trump leads all polls to win a resounding victory, although in recent weeks his campaign team has wanted to lower expectations.
In recent days, Trump's advisers have privately reminded him that no Republican candidate has won Iowa by more than 12 points since Bob Dole in 1988.
According to experts, judicial pressure, the strength of other Republican campaigns and even adverse weather conditions can contribute to discouraging broad neighborhood participation.
But the race for the Republican nomination does not begin and end in Iowa: on January 23, the state of New Hampshire will decide the primary. Next will come South Carolina. Until 'Super Tuesday', March 5, the date on which 15 other states will do so, including California, Texas or Colorado, where Trump's name may not appear.
The calendar will extend until July, when the Republican convention in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) will officially name its candidate, who according to the polls, It will be Donald Trump. This year, the timing It is combined with a network of judicial processes.
Justice will knock on the door of the former president
Trump's electoral future also depends on his criminal future: there are four open cases against the former president, who in March 2023 made history by becoming the first United States president, in office or not, to be accused of criminal charges.
In the civil branch, on January 15 the second part of the trial begins in which the writer E. Jean Carroll accuses the magnate of sexually abusing her and defaming her. Although Trump was already convicted for it in August, Carroll filed a new complaint for the public mockery of the Republican, who alleged that he did not even know her.
On May 4, if Justice does not prevent it, the trial for Trump's electoral interference at the federal level will also begin. And 21 days later, the process known as 'Stormy Daniels' will begin, in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records from his 2016 election campaign to pay a $130,000 bribe to porn actress Stormy Daniels to silence a relationship. extramarital affair with her in 2006.
Just two months later, the trial for the classified Mar-a-Lago documents is scheduled to begin. Trump is accused of taking 'top secret' documentation from the White House after leaving office. Among the papers would be a plan to attack Iran. And in August, prosecutor Fani Willis of Fulton County, in the state of Georgia, will begin the process that seeks to elucidate whether the former president led a mafia structure to reverse the results of the 2020 elections in that territory.
In the search for immunity, the shadow of the insurrection and Republican leadership, Trump faces an unusual start to the year that could leave him between jail and the White House.
Read alsoDonald Trump: between prison and the White House?
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With AP and local media
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