Sorting out the legal issues surrounding Donald Trump
John R. Vile
As the presidential nomination season begins, Donald Trump faces a plethora of civil and criminal legal suits.
In New York, E. Jean Carroll is back in court after she filed another defamation suit against him after previously winning a $5 million judgment against the former president for sexual abuse and defamation last May. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James has upped the ante to $370 million in damages in the civil case she had brought against Trump for fraudulent business practices. In March, Trump is set to face further criminal charges in New York for alleged hush money payments to an adult film actress.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is pursuing a criminal conspiracy case against Trump in Washington, D.C., for attempting to incite crowds to subvert the election results and, in Florida, for illegally retaining and sharing classified documents. The D.C. case partly hinges on whether Trump’s speech on and before Jan. 6 was protected by the First Amendment or whether it constituted illegal incitement to imminent violent action and to other illegal activities. Trump’s explanations for retaining classified documents remain weak.
In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has indicted Trump for racketeering in his efforts to overturn the results of that state’s election. In the meantime, Maine’s secretary of state and the high court of Colorado have ruled that the insurrectionist provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars Trump’s name from appearing on their states’ Republican primary election ballots.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear the state ballot access cases should clarify some key issues including whether Trump is an “officer” of the United States and whether he has violated his oath to the Constitution. The common-sense views that the occupant of the highest office in the land is such