Explainer: Citizen Trump will face legal woes

[rooster59]

Explainer: Citizen Trump will face legal woes

By Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is reflected as he departs after speaking about the 2020 U.S. presidential election results in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 5, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since taking office in January 2017, President Donald Trump has been besieged by civil lawsuits and criminal investigations of his inner circle.

 

With Democrat Joe Biden capturing the presidency on Saturday, according to all major U.S. television networks, Trump's legal woes are likely to deepen because in January he will lose the protections the U.S. legal system affords to a sitting president, former prosecutors said.

 

Here are some of the lawsuits and criminal probes that may haunt Trump as he leaves office.

 

A NEW YORK PROSECUTOR

 

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who enforces New York state laws, has been conducting a criminal investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization for more than two years.

 

The probe originally focused on hush money payments that Trump's former lawyer and self-described fixer Michael Cohen paid before the 2016 election to two women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump, which the president has denied.

 

Vance, a Democrat, has suggested in recent court filings that his probe is now broader and could focus on bank, tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsification of business records.

 

Republican Trump has called Vance's case politically motivated harassment.

 

The case has drawn attention because of Vance's efforts to obtain eight years of Trump's tax returns. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court, denying Trump's bid to keep the returns under wraps, said the president was not immune from state criminal probes while in office, but could raise other defenses to Vance's subpoena.

 

Vance will likely ultimately prevail in obtaining Trump's financial records, legal experts said.

 

The U.S. Justice Department has said a sitting president cannot be indicted. Vance is not bound by that policy because he is not a federal prosecutor, but he may still have been reluctant to charge Trump because of uncertainty over whether the case was constitutional, said Harry Sandick, a former prosecutor in New York.

 

"Those concerns will disappear when Trump leaves office," Sandick said.

 

The investigation poses a threat to Trump, said Corey Brettschneider, a professor of political science at Brown University.

 

“The fact that they have issued the subpoenas and have litigated all the way to the Supreme Court suggests that this is a very serious criminal investigation of the president,” Brettschneider said.

 

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROBE?

 

Trump could conceivably face a criminal prosecution brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, led by a new U.S. Attorney General.

 

Some legal experts have said Trump could face federal income tax evasion charges, pointing to a New York Times report that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017.

 

"You've got the stuff that has come out of the New York Times that has all kind of indicia of tax fraud," Nick Akerman, a lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney and a former federal prosecutor.

 

Akerman cautioned that it is not possible to know for certain until seeing all of the evidence.

 

Trump has rejected findings from the Times report, tweeting that he had paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled to depreciation and tax credits.

 

Such a prosecution would be deeply controversial, and the Justice Department could decide charging Trump is not in the public interest even if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

 

Biden has approached that question very carefully, saying he would not interfere with his Justice Department's judgment.

 

Biden told National Public Radio in August that pursuing criminal charges against his predecessor would be "a very, very unusual thing and probably not very - how can I say it? - good for democracy."

 

A lawyer for Trump did not return requests for comment.

 

NEW YORK CIVIL FRAUD INVESTIGATION

 

New York's Attorney General, Letitia James, has an active tax fraud investigation into Trump and his family company, the Trump Organization.

 

The inquiry by James, a Democrat, began after Trump's former lawyer Cohen told Congress the president inflated asset values to save money on loans and insurance and deflated them to reduce real estate taxes.

 

The Trump Organization has argued the case is politically motivated.

 

The inquiry is a civil investigation, meaning it could result in financial penalties but not jail time.

 

Trump's son, Eric Trump, an executive vice president for the firm, was deposed in October because of what the attorney general described as his close involvement in one or more transactions being reviewed.

 

E. JEAN CARROLL

 

E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after the president denied Carroll's allegation that he raped her in the 1990s in a New York department store and accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book.

 

In August, a state judge allowed the case to go forward, meaning Carroll's lawyers could seek a DNA sample from Trump to match against a dress she said she wore at the store.

 

A federal judge in Manhattan rejected a bid by the U.S. Justice Department to substitute the federal government for Trump as defendant in the case. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said that Trump did not make his statements about Carroll in the scope of his employment as president.

 

Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan, said she expected Biden's Justice Department to abandon the effort to shield Trump from the case.

 

"It would seem unlikely for DOJ to continue to pursue what I see as a frivolous argument in a new administration," said McQuade, a former federal prosecutor.

 

SUMMER ZERVOS

 

Trump also faces a lawsuit by Summer Zervos, a 2005 contestant on Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice,” who says Trump kissed her against her will at a 2007 meeting and later groped her at a hotel.

 

After Trump called Zervos a liar, she sued him for defamation.

 

Trump said he is immune from the lawsuit because he is president.

 

The case https://de.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-zervos/trump-fails-to-end-apprentice-contestants-lawsuit-idINL1N21115J has been on hold while a New York state appeals court reviewed a March 2019 decision that Trump had to face the case while he is in office. Trump's immunity argument would no longer apply once he is out of office.

 

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-08

 

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[PatOngo]

 Lock him up! ????

[Salerno]

6 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Such a prosecution would be deeply controversial, and the Justice Department could decide charging Trump is not in the public interest even if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

 

Strange position to take; "if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing" and they decide against it would most likely be seen as further proof that the law  doesn't apply to the "rich" and powerful IMO.

[Tug]

Don’t do the crime if ya can’t do the crime nothing to hide nothing to fear 

[Captain_Bob]

There is a deep-orange pantsuit waiting for Trump in Gitmo carefully color-matched for his butt-bronzed face paint. 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Scott

[Scott]

Troll posts removed.

 

[Somtamnication]

Yep, can't wait. From you're fired to you're arrested, January 20 can't come fast enough.

[alianware]

Stupid !! 

If trump goes to jail than biden and family, hillary-clinton's family and and all the companies behind will also go to jail. 

Dont be stupid !!! 

Edited November 7, 2020 by alianware

[Chomper Higgot]

His creditors will immediately start foreclosures, they want their money out before the Federal and State Governments take it all.

 

This is the start of stripping away the facade of lies and fakery that is Donald Trump, it’s going to leave an awful lot of people with nowhere to hide from the fact that he’s conned them. 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Chomper Higgot

[Chomper Higgot]

1 minute ago, alianware said:

Stupid !! 

If trump go to jail than hunter biden, hillary and joe biden and all the comapnies behind will also go to jail. 

Dont be stupid !!! 

People who are found guilty of committing crimes go to jail.

 

Please keep that in mind.

[cmarshall]

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

People who are found guilty of committing crimes go to jail.

 

Please keep that in mind.

Or they go to countries without extradition treaties.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, Salerno said:

 

Strange position to take; "if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing" and they decide against it would most likely be seen as further proof that the law  doesn't apply to the "rich" and powerful IMO.

Agree with you, but a preemptive pardon will solve this issue for Trump.

[stevenl]

23 minutes ago, alianware said:

Stupid !! 

If trump goes to jail than biden and family, hillary-clinton's family and and all the companies behind will also go to jail. 

Dont be stupid !!! 

Why?

[Lacessit]

I don't know whether he is going to jail or not. Having said that, if I was one of his lawyers I'd be wanting my money up front.

[Pinot]

The celebration spilled out into the streets across the country — a sigh of relief from sea to shining sea. 

 

It ain't going to be easy. 100k new covid cases a day. Years of incompetence, mismanagement and neglect. 

 

I thought I'd seen the last of America's worst President in 2008. Boy, was I wrong. Trump made GW look like Abe Lincoln. 

 

Trump faces enormous legal problems as soon as he leaves office...and he's broke and no one will ever lend him money again.

 

See ya! Don't want to be ya. 

[cmarshall]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

Agree with you, but a preemptive pardon will solve this issue for Trump.

 

Exactly right, but it can only come from President Pence.

[luckyluke]

3 hours ago, Salerno said:

 

Strange position to take; "if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing" and they decide against it would most likely be seen as further proof that the law  doesn't apply to the "rich" and powerful IMO.

Ex French president Jacques Chirac was given a 2 year suspended prison sentence for corruption.

Ex French president Nicolas Sarkozy is actually charged with corruption and membership in a criminal conspiracy, verdict soon.

[Salerno]

2 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

Ex French president Jacques Chirac was given a 2 year suspended prison sentence for corruption.

Ex French president Nicolas Sarkozy is actually charged with corruption and membership in a criminal conspiracy, verdict soon.

 

And they're both just glad this isn't the end of the 18th century.

[stevenl]

23 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

 

Exactly right, but it can only come from President Pence.

I am convinced it will. Health reasons (bonespurs playing up again) will force him to resign.

[cmarshall]

2 minutes ago, Salerno said:

 

And they're both just glad this isn't the end of the 18th century.

 

Particularly now I am nostalgic for the traditional ways of dealing with the ancien regime.

[cmarshall]

1 minute ago, stevenl said:

I am convinced it will. Health reasons (bonespurs playing up again) will force him to resign.

 

Biden will breathe a sigh of relief and Atty Gen Tish James of NY can plan the furnishings of the governor's mansion if she can put him away.

[ThailandRyan]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

 Lock him up! ????

Just like Al Capone, except Alcatraz would have to be rebuilt into a 5 star resort prison of the Federal penitentiary level.

[J Town]

4 hours ago, alianware said:

Stupid !! 

If trump goes to jail than biden and family, hillary-clinton's family and and all the companies behind will also go to jail. 

Dont be stupid !!! 

And your point?

[J Town]

3 hours ago, stevenl said:

Agree with you, but a preemptive pardon will solve this issue for Trump.

Federal pardons issued by the president apply only to federal law; they do not apply to civil, state, or local offenses.

[Mike Rodik]

Biden will quit soon after taking office, than you will have the first WOMAN president

[Salerno]

9 minutes ago, Mike Rodik said:

Biden will quit soon after taking office, than you will have the first WOMAN president

 

And?

[stevenl]

10 minutes ago, J Town said:

Federal pardons issued by the president apply only to federal law; they do not apply to civil, state, or local offenses.

Yes, and we were talking federal issues.

[J Town]

1 minute ago, stevenl said:

Yes, and we were talking federal issues.

Maybe you are, this article is considering civil suits as well.

[stevenl]

2 minutes ago, J Town said:

Maybe you are, this article is considering civil suits as well.

Not maybe.

[soalbundy]

4 hours ago, stevenl said:

Agree with you, but a preemptive pardon will solve this issue for Trump.

That's exactly what will happen, he will resign in anger because he ''was cheated out of the presidency'' and Pence will pardon him. Two birds with one stone, that will leave Pence with the unenviable job of congratulating Biden at the inauguration and he also gets off scot free from his crimes. The DOJ is avoided the embarrassing task of investigating and sentencing of an ex president, everyone is happy except the plaintiffs although his reputation is then shot to pieces, a pardon is admission of guilt.