IT’S TRUMP’S BACK TO THE WALL:
Lawsuits loom over President facing polls defeat as legal armour of office would suddenly vanish
IF Donald Trump is booted out of the Oval Office this week, he stands to lose more than just his presidency.
With it go the legal protections afforded to the most powerful man in America – and in come a raft of possible investigations, both criminal and civil.
Already the Trump Organisation is at the centre of a criminal probe into its financial dealings, while the outgoing leader also faces a case over his taxes.
Until now he has used “executive privilege” to prevent people from testifying against him but that will change if he loses to Joe Biden, as expected.
White House insiders have claimed to the Mirror his outbursts over the election being “stolen” from him are in part fuelled by his fear of going to prison.
Harry Sandick, a former US federal prosecutor, says: “In every regard, his leaving office makes it easier for prosecutors and plaintiffs in civil cases to pursue their cases against him.
“For example, he is claiming a higher protection from subpoenas in the criminal cases and also in the congressional subpoena cases ,[ and that] is based largely on the fact that he is President.”
In September last year, Trump’s legal team made an attempt to defeat a subpoena from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which had petitioned for eight years of tax returns.
Lawyers for New York State are trying to determine whether the Trump Organisation falsified company records concerning payouts allegedly made to Playboy model Karen Mcdougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s attorneys have vehemently fought the requests for the documents arguing it was unconstitutional as the founding fathers believed US leaders should not be subject to the criminal process.
As a private citizen, the former US Apprentice host would also be open to defamation lawsuits sparked by hi s denials of accusations from dozens of women that he sexually assaulted them.
They include writer E Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her in a changing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid1990s. 1990 Asked about her claims, Trump simply simp said: “She’s not my m type.”
Another Ano defamation lawsuit law waiting in the wing wings is by former Apprentice Apprentic cont est ant Summer Zervos. Z Shortly
before the 2016 election, she accused the then- candidate of “aggressively ” kissing, groping and rubbing his genitals against her in 2007.
Trump called her allegations “fiction ”. But his most immediate danger by far is the criminal probe into the Trump Organisation.
The allegations cover the time the US leader was in charge, before handing over to his sons Don Jr and Eric when he was made President.
Prosecutors have subpoenaed for documents detailing business transactions and tax records, which Trump has bitterly fought. On five occasions courts have said the requests are valid.
On top of the criminal probe, the New York Attorney General is pressing ahead with a civil law investigation into whether the firm falsely valued several assets, inf lating or lowering them to secure loans or tax breaks.
Several of Trump’s golf courses, hotels and tower blocks are said to be at the centre of the probe.
The Internal Revenue Service – the US’S HMRC – is circling too.
According to the New York Times, tax investigators are l ooking at a €61.5 million refund he claimed. Elsewhere, the Attorneys General of Maryland and Washington, DC sued the President three years ago, claiming he corruptly benefited from the presidency by putting the interests of American citizens below his own, earning millions of dollars.
In many civil litigations, Trump has sought to use his
“privilege” to avoid giving evidence or, in Carroll’s alleged rape, refuse to provide DNA.
Already probes into his administration have begun.
On Thursday the US Office of Special Counsel opened a case into whether the Trump campaign’s use of the White House violated federal law.
Representative Bill Pascrell
called on the watchdog to conduct an investigation, to which the agency responded that it “was not consulted on the decision to use space inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building as a campaign war room”.
The Hatch Act prohibits the use of federal property for campaign events.
But it’ s not just l aw enforcement agencies taking action – the President’s niece Mary Trump is suing Donald, his sister and the estate of their deceased brother.
She alleges fraud, saying they deprived her of her entitlements in the family property empire.
Some legal experts have predicted that if he does lose, Trump will use his final days in office before Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20 to pardon himself of any and all federal crimes.
If he did, any decision to reopen those cases would fall to Biden.
Trump may also be damned by former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony in 2016 that a President could be charged “with a
crime after he left office”.
He claims protection based on the fact he is President HARRY SANDICK EXFEDERAL PROSECUTOR