Lawyers are split over whether prosecutors will seek to charge Donald Trump once his Senate impeachment trial is over. AFP
There’s little chance Donald Trump will be convicted by the US Senate of inciting an insurgency but his legal troubles won’t end with the conclusion of his second impeachment trial.
The former president could soon be indicted on criminal charges, not to mention the multiple civil actions that have been filed against him.
The ex-New York property tycoon, now ensconced in his luxurious Florida residence, is no stranger to the legal system, with his army of lawyers long accustomed to defending him and attacking his opponents during civil hearings.
Now that Trump is once again a mere citizen without the protection of presidential immunity, he risks the unprecedented infamy of being indicted.
He is the target of at least one criminal investigation, led by Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, who has been fighting for months to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns.
Initially focused on payments before the 2016 presidential election to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump, the state-level probe is also now examining possible allegations of tax evasion, and insurance and bank fraud.
In July, the Supreme Court ordered the president’s accountants to hand over the financial documents to Vance’s team. Trump’s lawyers have challenged the scope of the requested documents and a ruling is pending.
Trump has called the investigation “the worst witch hunt in US history”.
Vance’s case, heard behind closed doors before a grand jury, appears to be moving along, though.
According to US media, investigators from Vance’s office recently interviewed employees of Deutsche Bank, which has long backed the former president and the Trump Organisation. They spoke to staff at Trump’s insurance broker Aon, too.
The investigators have also interviewed Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who received a three-year prison term after admitting making hush payments to the two alleged mistresses of Trump.
The ex-lawyer had testified to Congress that Trump and his company artificially inflated and devalued the worth of their assets to both obtain bank loans and reduce their taxes.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, is also investigating the allegations.
Her team interviewed one of Trump’s sons, Eric Trump, under oath despite the opposition of Trump attorneys, and obtained documents on some of the family’s properties.
Her investigation is a civil one, but she said recently that if she finds any evidence of criminal activity it will “change the posture of our case”.
If Trump is ever convicted he would be at risk of imprisonment. Unlike federal offences, state convictions cannot be pardoned by the president.
And while Biden has vowed reconciliation with Republicans he would be highly unlikely to interfere in any criminal prosecution in any case.
