Trump trial precedent: Will it be open season on candidates?
- Could local prosecutors charge national candidates on flimsy evidence?
- ‘Crusading’ DAs might prosecute to become famous, says former deputy AG
- Blanket immunity for former presidents is no solution, says defense attorney
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LATEST UPDATE: A jury has found former President Donald Trump guilty of felony charges for falsifying business records in an effort to keep information from voters ahead of the 2016 election.
(NewsNation) — Could the prosecutions of former President Donald Trump open the floodgates to future prosecutions of candidates on questionable evidence, or no evidence at all?
NewsNation’s Leland Vittert presented one scenario Wednesday in his “War Notes” newsletter.
“In a few years, a rural district attorney in Missouri will figure out that Hunter Biden’s consulting company once paid an invoice in his county, giving him jurisdiction,” Vittert wrote.
“The rural DA will impanel a grand jury in the 80% red county. The grand jury will indict Joe or Hunter or both Bidens on conspiracy to commit bribery charges. Like the New York case (against Trump), it will be mostly smoke and mirrors surrounding very unsavory activity.”
“I do think it has opened the door, now, to at least entertaining that possibility,” said former Deputy Attorney General Tom Dupree. “You look at … crusading DAs of a conservative bent wanting to make a name for themselves.
“It doesn’t take a great legal mind to come up with some theory on which you could bring an indictment either against a former president or members of the former president’s family. Maybe the charges will stick, maybe they won’t. But you’ll have made a name for yourself,” he said.
So how does America avoid endless revenge or “ego” prosecutions?
“I don’t think there’s a legal solution,” said criminal defense attorney Shan Wu. “It would be a very bad solution, in my opinion, to have a legal safeguard … such as the Supreme Court saying a former president can never be prosecuted for anything. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Dupree fears the possibility that, along with making a “name” for themselves, a local prosecutor could affect the national debate by robbing a candidate of time.
“If that person is running for reelection or running for some office, you keep them off the campaign trail. So let’s hope that this doesn’t become a precedent. I think a real dangerous precedent, potentially, has been set.”