Trump in trouble with the law in the final stages?

Special counsel Jack Smith has launched a new challenge, reviving the issue of former President Donald Trump's efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. After the original indictment was dismissed by the Supreme Court, Smith has continued to pursue the case, demonstrating his determination to bring the former president to justice, even though a trial may not happen before Election Day. "I think this is basically Jack Smith's message: 'I still have a chance,'" said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, now a CNN legal and national security commentator, after the special counsel filed an amended indictment that was approved by a new grand jury. The move highlights the enormous personal investment Trump has made to win the presidential election in November. He not only wants to return to the highest office in the country, but also hopes to wield the authority to quash federal cases against him, including the ability to block convictions that could result in prison if convicted. “This is a very important year, a very important election,” former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori told CNN’s Alex Marquardt on Tuesday. “This case is in the crosshairs of the election, because if Trump wins, it goes away. But if Trump loses to Harris, it will come to some sort of conclusion.” The conservative majority’s ruling earlier this summer that Trump could be immune from criminal prosecution for some of his actions as president is considered one of the most important moments in the history of the Supreme Court. The decision has far-reaching implications for the US system of government . Many mainstream scholars have criticized the ruling, saying it goes against the spirit of the country’s founders because it appears to give the president significant unchecked power. The decision sent shockwaves through an already volatile presidential race, as it appeared to open the door for a former president who once believed he had all the power to pursue authoritarian rule if he won in November. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris sharply criticized the ruling in her convention speech last week: "Think of the power he would have... Imagine Donald Trump unchecked, and how he would wield the enormous power of the presidency of the United States." Jack Smith's move also has profound political , legal and constitutional implications, at a critical moment in the nation, just 10 weeks before an election that could profoundly reshape America and once again test the country's institutions to their limits. What's in the new indictment? The facts and evidence in Jack Smith's case remain unchanged. The indictment further accuses Donald Trump of conspiring to defraud the government system to control the vote and to corrupt and obstruct the process of certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. It also accuses Trump of conspiring to attack basic civil rights, including the right to vote and have his vote counted. However, in order to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling, Jack Smith dropped allegations that Trump used the Justice Department to advance his election fraud claims. He framed much of the remaining alleged conduct as the actions of a “candidate” rather than a president performing official duties, addressing the core issue of the court’s ruling. However, Smith’s case still faces many obstacles. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan must now interpret the high court’s ruling to determine what evidence remains admissible. The former president’s legal team will continue to oppose Smith at every stage and pursue every opportunity to appeal. They could accuse Smith of violating the Justice Department’s practice of avoiding proceedings against major political figures so close to an election. The reason the original version of the case was not heard before the election was partly due to successful delaying tactics by Trump’s legal team. “If Donald Trump was unhappy with the way things were going, he shouldn’t have delayed it and dragged it out for months,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who served on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said on CNN’s “The Situation Room. ” “Jack Smith is playing the cards that Donald Trump and his allies on the Roberts Court have dealt him, who have slowed things down as much as possible. And I think there’s something quietly heroic about Jack Smith’s determination to make sure that this scheme is brought to light.” While the former president’s team successfully delayed the federal lawsuit on Jan. 6, it was unable to prevent Trump’s conviction in a hush-money case related to the 2016 election and a major fraud verdict against him, his company, and his adult sons in New York. Trump was also found guilty of defamation in a separate case involving sexual assault allegations by writer E. Jean Carroll. However, a Trump-appointed judge in Florida recently dismissed Smith’s classified documents case against Trump, and the special counsel is appealing the decision. Another election interference case in Georgia has also been delayed multiple times. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges in all cases. The immediate political reaction The political implications of Jack Smith’s renewed effort to hold Donald Trump accountable for unprecedented violence have added a new dimension to the confrontation between the former president and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris. The amended indictment will bring Trump’s criminal and authoritarian ambitions back into the minds of voters. It comes after Trump’s legal troubles had faded somewhat during the campaign amid disappointment with Joe Biden’s debate performance, his withdrawal from the race, and Harris’s strong start to her campaign. While the case is unlikely to be heard before the election, any effort by Smith to hold evidentiary hearings in the coming weeks could create a new wave of news about the allegations against Trump as early and absentee voting begins. Being indicted in the middle of a presidential campaign would be embarrassing for most candidates. But Mr. Trump has been adept at using his criminal problems to bolster his campaign, especially in the Republican primary. The new indictment comes almost exactly a year after Mr. Trump was incarcerated in an Atlanta jail and brought to trial with a mugshot that his campaign has turned into a symbol of defiance. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has struggled to build momentum for his campaign against a new Democratic candidate. The former president’s legal troubles have not been a focus of the recent election race. But the Trump campaign quickly revived the core narrative of his bid for a second term after Jack Smith’s new charges were announced. Trump has claimed he is the victim of election interference from the Biden Justice Department, suggesting Smith is trying to “revive a dead Witch Hunt” in Washington, DC, in a desperate move. He also alleged that the new indictment was an attempt to interfere with the election to distract from “the disaster that Kamala Harris has inflicted on our nation.” Less than an hour after the new charges were announced, a new fundraising campaign based on the case appeared in the email inboxes of Trump supporters. A new challenge for Kamala Harris The return of Donald Trump’s legal troubles to the center of the campaign has posed new challenges for Kamala Harris. In the early weeks of her campaign for the White House, Harris has focused on Americans’ pain from rising food prices, in an effort to reduce her political vulnerability and present herself as the candidate of generational change compared to Trump. While not as publicly supportive of her campaign as President Biden, Harris has criticized Trump’s legal troubles, describing him as “a man who is not serious” and could have “extremely serious” consequences if he returns to the Oval Office. Many of Harris’s supporters appreciate the contrast between the vice president, a former prosecutor, and Trump, a convicted felon and indicted suspect. This is sure to be a key talking point on the debate stage on September 10. The latest indictment against Donald Trump also reinforces Kamala Harris’s message that Americans are facing a “precious, fleeting opportunity” to move past the bitterness, cynicism and chaos of the Trump era and toward a more optimistic future. But Harris’s campaign has reason to worry that some moderate, swing voters may view the new indictment of the former president as overreach. Beyond the direct political and electoral implications of the new indictment, Jack Smith’s case underscores the surreal reality of a former president now being charged with deliberately ignoring the will of the voters and maintaining power after losing the election. Joe Biden’s departure from the campaign trail and the fanfare of the conventions have detracted from the threat Trump poses to democracy. But the question of how a president who tried to subvert American democracy could evade accountability and potentially run for the White House again, and even win, will surely be an important issue for future historians to consider.

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