How prosecuting Trump backfired
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
All the time and effort poured into prosecuting Donald Trump only ended up putting him — and every future president — further above the law.
The big picture: Efforts to prosecute Trump for his first-term conduct are officially on ice, and he's entering his second term with the knowledge that it'll be extraordinarily difficult for anyone to prosecute him for anything he does this time around.
Driving the news: Special counsel Jack Smith moved Monday to drop two cases against Trump, for subverting the results of the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents.
- Sentencing for his conviction on 34 fraud-related charges in his New York hush money case was postponed indefinitely, and the case may be dismissed.
- The election interference case in Georgia is technically still in limbo, but don't hold your breath.
By far the most significant outcome from all of those charges was the Supreme Court's ruling that former presidents are immune from prosecution for their "official acts."
- Because the Justice Department won't continue trying to prosecute Trump while he's president, the courts won't fill in the details of what constitutes an "official act" until the next time a former president is indicted. That could be a while.
- But the Supreme Court's initial definition was broad enough to give Trump, and the presidents who come after him, a whole lot of confidence that hardly anything they do while in office will land them in prison later.
What they're saying: The Justice Department should have moved faster to begin prosecuting Trump once President Biden took office, some Democrats and liberal legal experts argue.
- Smith wasn't appointed until late 2022, and delivered his first indictment just over 6 months later.
- If that process had moved faster, they say, Smith would have had time to keep litigating the definition of an "official act," and might have gotten some part of his Jan. 6 indictment to stick.
The bottom line: Trump was the first former president convicted of a felony. But after four trials and dozens of charges, he returns to office on firmer legal footing than ever.
