Former President Donald J. Trump’s legal woes are becoming far too numerous to keep track of.
At the federal level, he has Jack Smith’s two cases involving claims that the former president mishandled classified documents as well as another case in which President Trump is accused of attempting to incite an insurrection on January 6.
At the state level, Trump has been indicted for alleged hush money payments to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
He has also been found liable in a New York civil court for defamation and battery (sexual assault) of the columnist, E. Jean Carroll.
Trump faces further legal woes, this time from an Atlanta-based grand jury investigating his alleged attempts to unduly influence the 2020 Presidential Election count in Georgia.
Each of these trials that Trump is facing carry with them serious consequences, should Trump be found guilty.
Donald Trump and A Recording Like No Other
In the Georgia case, there is a damning recording of the former president seemingly demanding that Georgia election officials “find” him an additional “11,780 votes” that would have allowed for him to win reelection in 2020.
It looks as though the meandering Georgia investigation is aiming for conspiracy charges to be made against the former president.
The prosecutors involved have supposedly secured the cooperation of multiple individuals who were allegedly involved in Trump’s “fake elector” scheme, and they could prove decisive in convicting Trump by making the claim that his infamous phone call to Georgia election officials was part of a larger conspiracy to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The recording itself is damning.
Even if there is missing context (which, there very well could be), proving that in a court of law is going to be difficult—especially when paired with testimony from people who were supposedly directly involved in Trump’s design to deny the results of the election three years ago.
Trump’s Paper-Thin Legal Defense
The legal defense for Trump will be difficult. In fact, one play that the Trump lawyers could make would be to go for what’s known as a hung jury.
A hung jury is when a jury cannot reach a verdict by the required voting margin. Given that Georgia is a southern state that is usually friendly to Republicans, and that jury selection will be intense, it is possible that the Trump legal team will be able to find at least one juror who will be unmoved by the prosecutor’s case.
If that’s so, then, Trump will get a mistrial. Yet, that’s hardly a satisfactory end for the former president. After all, a mistrial is not the same as being found not guilty. It would merely eventuate in a retrial.
No Escape
There’s an added complication for the former president. Even if he were to win the 2024 Presidential Election, he cannot pardon himself from this case.
Since it is a state-level grand jury investigation, and the presidency is a federal office, Trump could only conceivably pardon himself from any federal charges he faces (such as the mishandled classified documents and Jack Smith’s January 6 riot investigations).
Donald Trump could not pardon himself either for the Stormy Daniels hush money Manhattan case, the E. Jean Carroll civil case in New York, or the Georgia case.
The Administrative State is certainly sparing no cost or resource in pursuing Donald Trump. But don’t fall into the trap of believing that the forty-fifth president is entirely innocent in these cases. In many instances, Trump’s actions and big mouth gave his enemies all the ammunition they needed to go at him.
In the Georgia case, President Trump never needed to call the election officials in Georgia in the middle of their count and make the absurd comments that he did about needing them to find votes.
Donald Trump Truly Foolish
That no one in the Trump White House—either Trump himself or his close advisers—contemplated that someone might record such a caustic conversation between the president and state election officials, and that that recording would be used in a legal case against the former president, betrays a level of naivete and arrogance that is truly astounding.
Whether it be this case or the other assorted cases against Donald Trump, the former president’s actions have not helped him avoid truly damaging trials.
The thing about the Georgia investigation is that it is going to take an extraordinarily long period of time to resolve. Trump will have to contend with this trial long after the 2024 election.
And this entire case was avoidable, had Trump just kept his mouth shut. Or, had Trump at least not made his stunning remarks on the phone, where he could have been (and was) surreptitiously recorded by the other side of the conversation.
Alas, Donald Trump is incredibly sloppy (which is yet another reason for why it’d be nice the GOP picked someone other than him as their nominee in 2024).
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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