Targeted by 37 counts for his alleged role in withholding secret documents, Donald Trump has plunged the United States into unknown waters: seeing a candidate run for the White House after an indictment, or even a conviction.

In the case of Donald Trump's management of the White House archives, the indictment against him, made public Friday, June 9, includes 37 charges, including those of "unlawful retention of information relating to national security", "obstruction of justice" and "false testimony". In New York, he was charged with accounting fraud.

" READ ALSO – Case of the archives of the White House: Donald Trump targeted by 37 counts of indictment

The Republican billionaire has immediately dismissed the idea that he could throw in the towel in his campaign to regain the presidency, in the face of the indictments against him, preferring instead to attribute the blame to "corrupt" political opponents eager to distort the elections.

Such a tactic "is unlikely to tip the scales for undecided voters, but will galvanize Trump supporters who might waver or think about supporting a candidate with fewer pots and pans," said Matt Shoemaker, a national security expert and former U.S. intelligence officer.

Both in the case of the White House archives and that, in New York, of the purchase of the silence of the actress of X movies "Stormy Daniels", prosecutors hope that Donald Trump will be tried before American voters go to the polls in November 2024.

Nothing is less certain though. And in the event of another electoral victory, the tempestuous billionaire could try to pardon himself, triggering an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

However, he would have little influence on non-federal prosecutions, and his more immediate concern remains the consequences of all these legal setbacks on his campaign for the Republican primaries.

" READ ALSO – United States: legal troubles accumulate for Donald Trump, unprecedented fact for a former president

Its competitors "are not going to do anything"

Donald Trump's direct competitors in the race for the nomination of the conservative party, his former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among others, could have taken advantage of his indictment, announced Thursday, to describe him as unfit for the position of commander-in-chief.

But they would have risked alienating the former president's fervent supporters, who reject the accusations against him, and were therefore content to cry injustice alongside him.

The opponents of the former president in the primary "hope that Trump will be eliminated from the race (for the nomination) by a series of indictments," said political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. "That's their strategy... They're not going to do anything," Sabato said.

Because Donald Trump is also under federal investigation for his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Some US media also suggest that the former president could be charged, among other things, with extortion in Georgia for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in this southern state of the country.

Inflection point of his campaign

Among Republicans, 28% and 42% respectively thought the same, significant figures that suggest that Donald Trump's campaign could be at an inflection point for the primary.

If the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has for the moment been content with measured comments vis-à-vis the legal setbacks of his main opponent, the campaign teams of the two candidates have raised the tone in recent weeks.

Currently second in the polls, "DeSantis would benefit the most from a withdrawal of Donald Trump, but he seems to consider that they share many of the same voters, so he does not want to antagonize them," Shana Gadarian, professor of political science at Syracuse University, in New York State, told AFP.

And former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie jumped into the primary battle this week by promising not to spare Donald Trump.

Maybe someone like Christie will have to put his feet in the dish," she said, adding that the former governor would probably have an interest in trying to attract former Republicans who had turned away from the party because of the presidency of Donald Trump.

With AFP

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