Should Donald Trump fail a second time to be re-elected he faces the very real possibility of jail time and massive financial penalties due to the sheer volume of criminal cases and civil lawsuits that are on hold until after the election.

That is the opinion of Syracuse University law professor Greg Germain who explained in an interview with Newsweek that the former president’s only path to get out from under the federal cases he now faces is to beat Vice President Kamala Harris in less than two weeks and then push the Department of Justice to drop the cases filed against him.

As Germain stated, the multiple federal cases Trump is facing are solid and his only path to victory may be having them shut down.

Newsweek source: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-legal-cases-georgia-washington-florida-new-york-stormy-daniels-chutkan-cannon-1974406

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    criminal cases and civil lawsuits that are on hold until after the election.

    Why are they on hold? It’s insane it’s taken so long to push those cases, and it’s even more insane if they are on hold.
    Trump is a normal citizen, and shouldn’t enjoy special privileges.

    Except USA is no-longer a country of law, it’s a corrupt oligarchy.

    • granolabar@kbin.melroy.org
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      5 days ago

      Always has been but normal people just finally starting to understand how bad it really is.

      Modern oligarchs dont even pretend anymore and they dont have since peasants are fighting each. They dont care who wins elections for the most part as they will mostly get what they want either way

    • farngis_mcgiles@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Except USA is no-longer a country of law, it’s a corrupt oligarchy.

      it always has been lol originally only white property owners could vote

    • crusa187@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      Merrick Garland is a failure of epic proportions. It is a small silver lining that the Repugs blocked his Supreme Court nomination, not that their picks were better.

    • Lets_Eat_Grandma@lemm.ee
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      Except USA is no-longer a country of law, it’s a corrupt oligarchy.

      It’s always been this way. The internet just does a better job of propagating information about it.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        No, Nixon stepped down because of Watergate, you won’t see similar honesty from Republicans today.
        They are exploiting the judicial system, and to Prosecute Trump for things he did in the open as president to enrich himself and his family isn’t pursued, even now after 8 years.
        After Nixon the Republicans decided to try to control the courts and the political narrative, so they never would lose a case either legally or in the public eye like Watergate again.
        Republicans have been systematically undermining USA for 5 decades now.

        It’s way past the time to stop it, If Harris doesn’t win, and start the process towards legal and political normalcy, it could easily be to late.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      Not everything is on hold. The dates and deadlines are simply not right now. Lawyers are preparing motions and the like in the background. Work continues. Of course that varies by case.

    • Wojwo@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      I get the frustration, but I also get where the authorities are coming from. Imagine if precident gets set that a political candidate can be mired down in lawsuits, regardless if they’re plausible or not. Then someone like trump comes along and says cool that worker great against me, I’ll just throw a shit ton of made up lawsuits and cases against all my future opponents.

      • jettrscga@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Except that he’s explicitly choosing to be a political candidate for the purpose of avoiding the lawsuits. A lot of these allegations occurred before he announced he was re-running, and then the lawsuits got put on hold.

        Your scenario creates a method for anyone to delay consequences by running for office. Although we both know it wouldn’t really work for anyone. Trump gets his special treatment.

        • orcrist@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          I don’t think the lawsuits are his major problem, and they’re not a good example of badness in the system. Civil suits are often delayed if one of the parties has unavoidable scheduling conflicts, because they can be solved by money, and a month or two here or there doesn’t make a big difference to that, at least not most of the time.

          There can be corruption in civil suits, and there are reasons to use delay tactics if you’re trying to spend your money or shift it to offshore accounts, so rich people certainly can and will gain the system. But simply getting your court dates scheduled in November instead of October is not in itself nefarious on the civil stage.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        No that’s a false narrative, the criminal cases are based on public prosecutors running them.
        What you are claiming is for civil suits, of which a couple have been settled, despite obstruction attempts by Trump.
        If it gets to a point where a politician can ask public prosecutors to put opponents in jail, USA has long ceased to be a democracy.

        Trump is already a convicted criminal, and cannot vote in several states, still he can run for president, and enjoy privileged treatment.
        Where an ordinary person voting because she was told she could, got 5 years prison for voter fraud!

      • Volkditty@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        In your scenario, do you imagine that all the Trump-appointed prosecutors and the Trump-appointed judges will willingly delay the cases of Trump’s “enemies of the state” until after the election out of some respect for the sanctity of the democratic process?

        It is a horrible, dangerous precedent to say we can’t justly hold the guilty accountable because some bad actor in the future may unjustly hold the innocent accountable.