In June, Donald Trump made history when he became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on federal criminal charges. Today Trump could make history again by being federally indicted a second time.
The twice impeached Republican is also facing other criminal probes and a pending trial set for October in New York District Court for allegedly falsifying business records.
Trump's latest indictment is related to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and a coordinated effort to manufacture slates of fake Electoral College electors with the intent to prevent Joe Biden from being sworn in as the next president of the United States. Trump has recently received a target letter from the lead prosecutor, Jack Smith, who is also prosecuting Trump for the mishandling of classified documents and hording them at his tourist attraction private residence, Mar-a-Lago.
And then there is the Georgia investigation into Trump and his allies who are being investigated for possible election interference.
Trump and nearly 20 other people have been advised they could face charges in the long-running investigation into how they tried to pressure Georgia officials to falsely award Trump the state’s electoral votes.
Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., is leading the investigation and has indicated she will seek charges by mid-August.
There’s no shame in admitting that it’s impossible to keep track of all of Trump's legal woes. Even political junkies who obsess over the news have a difficult time keeping straight all of Trump's legal problems.
This is all happening while Trump is running again for the Republican presidential nomination. While no vote has yet been cast, he is the clear front-runner, based on the polls. The Republican primary base voter doesn’t seem deterred from supporting Trump, despite the very real possibility he will be convicted of something and faces time in prison. In fact, Trump's best hope for staying out of prison is winning the presidency and pardoning himself—if that’s even constitutionally possible.
Trump is also claiming that he shouldn’t be prosecuted while running for president. He has called it illegal election interference, and there are elements of the Republican Party who claim that all the investigations and indictments are motivated in an attempt to topple his inevitable re-election. There is no evidence to support this. President Biden has not spoken publicly about Trump’s indictments.
Guests:
Philip Bump is a national columnist for The Washington Post; before that he led political coverage for The Atlantic Wire. One of the paper’s most read writers, he focusses on the data behind polls and political rhetoric.
Jon Taylor is a professor of political science and geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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*This interview will be recorded on Thursday, July 27.
