Can Trump Face Criminal Trials After Leaving Office? What To Know -- As Jack Smith Argues He Could've Been Found Guilty

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : Trump was indicted in the two federal cases in 2023, becoming the first sitting or former president to ever be federally charged.
45% : "It will be years before it'll be clear whether a second round of Trump indictments will actually happen.
37% : The Justice Department made Smith's final report on the election investigation public early Tuesday morning following a court battle over its release, as Trump and his co-defendants in the documents case sought to keep it hidden.
37% : While the cases were supposed to go to trial in early 2024 -- with the election case slated for trial in March and the documents case in May -- Trump managed to successfully delay the cases past Election Day, ultimately killing them.
36% : That prosecution is unlikely to end before Trump takes office -- at which point it will be up to Pam Bondi, Trump's attorney general pick, to decide whether the report should be made public, which she is unlikely to grant.Smith's moves to dismiss Trump's cases "could be an effort to keep the cases alive in the long term," former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade wrote in an op-ed for MSNBC in November, noting that by insisting the cases be dismissed without prejudice, the special counsel "blocks Trump's attorney general from dismissing the cases for all time."
31% : Even if Democrats took back the White House in 2032 or 2036, it would then be too late under the statute of limitations to bring charges, even excluding the time when Trump was in office.
30% : Another potential step Trump could try to take to shield himself from future legal liability would be to pardon himself while he's in office, though it's a legal grey area whether he would be allowed to do so.
29% : If Trump tried to pardon himself, the issue would likely become tied up in court and ultimately be left to the Supreme Court to decide.
28% : Trump has requested the charges against him be dismissed in that case because of his election, but even if the case gets revived -- either with Willis or a different prosecutor -- and the court declines to throw out Trump's charges, it's all but certain the case wouldn't go to trial until after he leaves office.
26% : "It may be that a future attorney general ... will lack the appetite to resuscitate the cases against Trump in 2029," McQuade added.
25% : It's also still too early to say whether indicting Trump again would be a priority for the federal government by the time he leaves office, given Trump's advanced age and the fact he will not be eligible to run for president for a third term.
23% : Trump was sentenced in his criminal case in New York state court Friday, receiving an "unconditional discharge" that means he's been formally convicted of the 34 felony counts he was found guilty of, but will not face any penalties like prison time, fines or probation.
16% : Former Special Counsel Jack Smith believes there was "sufficient" evidence to convict President-elect Donald Trump in his criminal case over the 2020 election, the prosecutor wrote in his final report on the investigation, reviving the question of whether the federal government could try to re-indict Trump in the future after he leaves office -- though prosecutors would have to overcome some legal hurdles.
13% : The election case was paused for months while the Supreme Court deliberated whether Trump should be immune from prosecution, ultimately ruling in July to shield him from some criminal charges -- a major hurdle that would likely pose issues even if Trump is charged again after leaving office.
12% : While Smith dropped the government's charges against Trump in the documents case, he did not end separate cases against Trump aides Walter Nauta and Carlos deOliveira, who were charged with helping Trump conceal classified documents.
10% : The report lays out Smith's case against Trump as the prosecutor defended his decision to indict the ex-president, writing Trump "resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power" after he lost the election and his "knowing deceit" was "pervasive" throughout his post-election efforts.
10% : Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he will not release the second volume, which covers the case against Trump for allegedly withholding White House documents, while Trump's co-defendants in the case are still being prosecuted.
10% : The charges would probably be contingent on a Democratic president replacing Trump when he leaves office, as a GOP successor would be unlikely to try and punish Trump.
4% : Trump and his allies repeatedly "used specific and knowingly false claims of election fraud" to try to convince state lawmakers, state officials, then-Vice President Mike Pence and others to reject the results, Smith wrote, arguing prosecuting Trump was necessary and his allegedly criminal conduct went beyond "mere political exaggeration or rough-and-tumble politics."

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.