The US Department of Justice is looking for ways to end the two federal cases against former President Donald Trump before the Republican's inauguration, to comply with the policy that a head of state cannot be prosecuted. It was one of the expected results with the election of the Republican, already convicted in one of the cases.
According to broadcaster NBC News, the Department of Justice is evaluating how to act in the two cases that Trump faces, for allegedly instigating the invasion of the Capitol in 2021 and for the alleged mishandling of confidential documents when he left office after his first term.
This option to dismiss the cases would go against the position of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has been the most pressing federal case against Trump and whom the president-elect on Tuesday promised to fire immediately after arriving in the Oval Office in January.
NBC News noted that it is up to Smith to decide how to handle the situation and said there are many unknowns, such as what would happen to the charges once Trump leaves office in 2029 or whether they might expire by then.
Trump faces four parallel criminal trials, two federal and others in local courts, which the defense has tried to postpone precisely because of the election campaign and which could come to nothing when the tycoon returns to be President.
The only case where a conviction occurred was in New York for falsifying business records to cover up a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom she allegedly had an affair in the past, to avoid damaging her image.
In May, a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 charges against him and, in principle, the former president was expected to return to court on November 26 to hear his sentence, barring last-minute changes.
Trump faces a possible sentence of up to four years in prison, although experts consider it likely that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan will opt for a lighter sentence that involves no prison, probation with periodic court visits.
The sentence may even be invalidated because defense lawyers doubt that a court can convict an elected President.
The objective of Trump's defense team, according to the television station, is that all cases against the Republican, both federal and local, are archived.
In New York, the possibility of postponing the hearing indefinitely is also being considered.
According to the US Constitution, a President cannot pardon himself on a state charge, as is the case in New York, and in the case of Georgia the governor could not grant a pardon to Trump either.
NBC News noted that the Justice Department appears to have assumed that neither the Washington nor Florida proceedings can occur in the near future and now that he has been elected again they see no room to continue them.
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