Trump Is President-Elect. So What Happens to Those Indictments?

Election Day wasn’t the only item on President-elect Donald Trump’s calendar in November. The once and future president has a date Nov. 26 with a New York judge for his sentencing hearing.

One day after the election, the Justice Department reportedly determined that special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations—of Trump’s contesting the results of the 2020 election and of the classified documents case—should be dropped because it’s department policy not to prosecute a sitting president. 

Both Fox News and MSNBC reported the termination of  Smith’s cases.

Meanwhile, a criminal case in Georgia is pending albeit troubled. 

The new Trump administration’s Justice Department likely could dismiss federal charges against him, but that leaves state charges in place. 

“Plenary authority of the president, with respect to the pardon power, affects federal cases,” said Charles “Cully” Stimson, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia and co-author of the book “Rogue Prosecutors.” 

“It does not affect state cases because, of course, we live in a republic and we have 50 sovereign states where the police power resides,” Stimson said. “So it does not affect the state cases.” 

“For all intents and purposes, his legal problems, although not over, are about to be sent to the dustbin of history,” Stimson, deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. 

Among the progressive prosecutors elected with the support of nonprofit organizations backed by billionaire George Soros is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The Democrat won Trump’s conviction in May on 34 counts of fraud involving money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about a tryst with Trump.

“Alvin Bragg can read English. He sees of course now the sixth high-profile Soros rogue prosecutor, [Los Angeles County District Attorney] George Gascon, lost in his race,” Stimson said. 

“Alvin Bragg is not stupid. The case was on thin ice to begin with,” he said. “So, I’m sure people around him will either advise him it would be prudent not to even move forward.”

However, Stimson said, anti-Trump motives might drive Bragg to keep the case alive. 

“A more practical approach, if he were reasonable—and of course he has shown himself not to be reasonable—is to withdraw the case and dismiss it with prejudice now,” Stimson said. “But he won’t do that. That’s not the way these people are wired. Trump derangement syndrome will live in some segments of society. Whether Alvin Bragg wakes up and smells the coffee remains to be seen.”

Bragg’s office did not respond to phone and email inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story. 

New York Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the Manhattan trial, scheduled the sentencing hearing for Nov. 26 after Trump’s lawyers twice pushed for a delay—and they could argue for more delays. 

Stimson said it’s possible that Merchan will decide on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling affects the Manhattan case. 

In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis secured a RICO indictment against Trump for challenging the 2020 election result in Georgia, which Joe Biden won on the way to the presidency. RICO is an acronym for Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations.

“The Fani Willis case will die on the vine of its own weight,” Stimson predicted. 

Defense lawyers in the case brought a complaint against the prosecution after discovering that Willis had a romantic relationship with a lawyer she hired to handle the Trump case. They alleged that Willis benefited through vacation trips with him. Willis and the special prosecutor she hired, Nathan Wade, denied wrongdoing.  

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story. 

Georgia has an independent State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which makes clemency decisions. But New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has the authority to issue pardons or commutations. 

Hochul’s office did not respond to phone and email inquiries from The Daily Signal. 

On Wednesday afternoon, though Hochul and New York state Attorney General Letitia James both spoke about plans to combat the incoming Trump administration. 

Hochul made mention of immunity. 

“New York has been a bastion of freedom and rule of law,” Hochul said. 

She then said, addressing Trump: “If you try to harm New Yorkers or roll back our rights, I will fight you every step of the way.”

James, who brought a successful state $450 million civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, later followed with a warning for Trump. 

“As attorney general for the great state of New York, my job is to protect and defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law,” James, also a Democrat, said Wednesday. “I will not shrink from this responsibility.”