Washington — The filing of a federal indictment against former U.S. President Donald Trump is an extraordinary moment in which a former president and leading candidate for the upcoming 2024 presidential election is indicted against incumbent President Joe Biden.
The 49-page indictment, seen by Al Jazeera Net, includes 37 criminal charges that include charges such as violating the espionage law, making false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and others.
The case began when the National Archives, the custodian of U.S. historical records, recovered 15 boxes of documents that Trump had at his home in the Mar-a-Lago resort that should have been handed over by the end of his term on January 20, 2021.
Investigators then found that the former president and his lawyers, who were obstructing efforts to recover the documents, had more files hidden in Florida, leading to the FBI raiding Trump's home last August and retrieving about 300 documents.
Impact of accusations
Facing a former president federal charges is a big problem in itself, and it has never happened before in American history, and legally many of these charges fall under the anti-espionage law, which could lead to Trump being sentenced to many years in prison if convicted.
The issue is complicated by the fact that Trump is a former president, in addition to being the most advanced candidate in the polls in the Republican camp for the party's ticket in the 2024 elections, as he is expected to run against current President Joe Biden, as bringing federal criminal charges against Trump or even convicting or imprisoning him does not affect his ability to run in the presidential election.
So far, most of Trump's rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination have refused to criticize the former president, and many have not changed their minds even after the indictment against him was announced.
Without a doubt, the 2024 election will be strange even without these trials, especially as it may take place again between Trump and Biden, but it will become even more exciting and strange if Trump is convicted or sentenced to prison.
Trump's judicial troubles do not end there, as there are investigations that Trump still has to pass, the first related to his call for election officials in the state of Georgia to change the results of the 2020 election, as well as investigations into his role in the January 2021, 2020 attacks on the Capitol with the aim of obstructing the vote on President Joe Biden's victory in the <> election.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's indictment (Reuters)
Ease of conviction
William Barr, a former attorney general under Trump, believes that Trump's handling of top-secret and top-secret documents is easy and guaranteed success.
In an interview with Fox News, Barr asserted, "This is a fairly simple case, this Mar-a-Lago case represents a case that can be concluded quickly, and for this reason, I thought it was the main issue, because it is a very clear issue related to a set of documents that were not handed over to the government once requested, and it is certain and documented that Trump acted deceptively once the government tried to recover the documents."
Duration
No one knows for sure the timeline of the case, but Justice Department's special counsel Gal Smith said in his statement Friday that he would seek to expedite trial proceedings in every way possible.
Trump's first impeachment trial in campaign finance offenses, by paying $130,2024 to actress Stormy Daniel, will begin April <>, coinciding with the hottest Republican primary season.
The federal impeachment proceedings against Trump, which begin Tuesday, will undoubtedly extend for several months, and it may be in Trump's electoral interest to prolong the trials.
Will the trials end before the elections?
The timing of former President Donald Trump's trials is a major dilemma for legal experts: As Trump is firmly ahead of the rest of the Republican candidates and faces two trials, Trump firmly tightens his grip on a heavily loyal Republican electoral base of at least half of Republican voters.
Trump survived two impeachment attempts during his four years in office, and while Barr is likely to convict Trump, many experts do not rule out that Trump will survive ongoing and future prosecutions.