Legal analysts details 'practical impact' of Trump win on court cases: 'They succeeded spectacularly'

19 November 2024

CNN national security analyst Carrie Cordero and chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid on Tuesday detailed the “practical impact” of Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, explaining while it may not have been “what voters intended,” his victory ultimately means Trump will not be prosecuted federally for crimes he committed prior to his reelection.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office on Tuesday “suggested deferring all remaining proceedings” in Trump’s hush money trial “until after Trump leaves the White House in 2029,” ABC News reports. Trump in May was convicted of 34 felony counts related to his conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election.

“This is viewed internally as an enormous victory,” Reid said Tuesday. “This case was defended by Todd Blanche, Trump's nominee to be the deputy attorney general of the United States. They have successfully delayed this sentencing, and now they will litigate this issue of the constitutional protections that a president-elect is entitled to.”

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Reid added the Manhattan D.A. decision “parallels a similar conversation” regarding Trump's federal cases.

“[Special counsel] Jack Smith is in conversations with top Justice Department officials,” Reid said. “He believes that it's pretty clear that, based on internal Justice Department guidance, you cannot continue cases against the president-elect. And they're working out the mechanics of winding those down, likely dissolving those cases before Trump gets into office.”

Cordero, who’s the Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow and General Counsel at the Center for a New American Security, added “the practical impact” of Trump’s win “is that a president-elect and a president is in a unique position when it comes to prosecution and specifically with respect to these federal cases.”

“The long standing Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel assessment is that you cannot have an ongoing prosecution of a sitting president,” Cordero said. “And so whether or not that is what voters intended, that is the practical result.”

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“They succeeded spectacularly,” Reid said of Trump’s lawyers. “… I’ve been talking to his lawyers for years. They just wanted to delay, delay, delay, get him reelected, so the federal cases go away. The state cases are on ice. This is the manifestation of that plan they set in motion years ago.”

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