Trump elected president: What happens to the court cases against him?
Al Jazeera
From January 6 to Stormy Daniels, can Trump now expect presidential immunity from charges? And if so, for how long?
Donald Trump has many reasons to celebrate his victory in the United States presidential election, but one in particular stands out.
The president-elect could now be freed of the criminal cases that have been hanging over him like a sword of Damocles – at the very least while he remains in the White House.
Over much of the past year, Trump has been battling four simultaneous prosecutions, two related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, one on his mishandling of top-secret state documents and one on his hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Just hours after his declared win on Wednesday, federal officials were already looking at ways of winding down two cases relating to election interference and mishandling of classified documents under the assumption that sitting US presidents cannot be prosecuted or jailed while in office.
That assumption is based on a longstanding US Department of Justice policy dating back to 1973 and reaffirmed in 2000 that maintains sitting presidents cannot be tried or jailed while in office.
