After a slew of civil lawsuits, a “hush money” criminal case in New York, and a federal indictment led by special counsel Jack Smith, it’s hard to imagine prosecutors – and the Biden Justice Department – thinking it wise to charge former President Donald Trump another time.
Chances are, though, it’s about to happen.
Donald Trump Is In Legal Hell: What Is it This Time?
British newspaper The Independent reported this week that sources close to the matter said that the Biden DOJ is preparing to seek yet more indictments against the former president, and senior aides and figures in his orbit, in the coming weeks.
The indictments would make history yet again and add to the former president’s problems as he attempts to take back the White House in 2024.
The newspaper reported this week that the Justice Department is preparing to introduce a “superseding indictment,” a new set of charges against the defendant that would include yet more serious allegations of criminal activity. The charges would also be brought against the former president in the Southern District of Florida – the same as the last set of indictments over the classified documents case.
According to the sources, however, prosecutors are also considering bringing charges against Trump in an entirely different venue if they believe that the Florida judge overseeing the case, Aileen Cannon, is giving “undue deference” to the president.
In other words: prosecutors are worried they don’t have a judge radical enough to back all their charges in the face of accusations that the indictment is politically motivated.
Sources say that prosecutors working for Special Counsel Jack Smith are preparing an “additional 30 to 45 charges” against the former president, which would be added to the 37 charges already filed against him on June 8. Such a move would be unprecedented, and while it may convince Democrats that Trump is the criminal they always said he was, it’s unlikely to deter Trump voters in the Republican primaries and could – at least in theory – add weight to Trump World’s claims that the Biden administration is weaponizing the Justice Department against a political opponent.
Trump allies might expect charges, too, according to the sources. Rudy Giuliani, once the personal attorney to former President Donald Trump and the man who spearheaded the legal efforts to empower state legislatures to reject the result of the 2020 presidential election, reportedly met with Smith’s team under a Proffer agreement. Giuliani could, then, find himself charged alongside Trump – or, perhaps, he could turn on the former president.
Trump’s problems are about to get a whole lot worse – but the Biden administration may be wise to exercise restraint.
Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
From 19FortyFive
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