Former President Donald Trump is likely to grow more aggressive as the legal battle plays out alongside his reelection bid, said legal analyst Andrew Weissmann.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, has three criminal charges pending against him as he competes for another shot at the White House. The charges range from state-level racketeering charges in Georgia to violations of the Espionage Act related to his handling of classified documents found on his private property in Florida.
Trump has also been accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and he made history in May by becoming the first former US president to be criminally indicted in the Manhattan hush-money case. He denied all the charges against him and claimed that the charges were an attempt to “disrupt” his re-election campaign.
At send it to Xago on Twitter, on Thursday, Weissmann, professor of law at New York University and former general counsel of the FBI, said that the plethora of Trump’s legal woes is likely to increase the pressure ahead of November, and warned that the stress will lead to “more violent. “version of Trump district.
“DUE TO DIFFERENT JAIL PROSPECTS, Trump will be worse, more racist, more violent, more criminal,” wrote Weissmann, who said he capitalized it to make the point “emphatically.”
“For him, it’s ‘no holds barred’ now,” he added. “MEDIA and law enforcement must be alert!”
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.
It is unclear whether Trump will face jail time for any of the charges against him. In a felony conviction in Manhattan, where he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the payment of hush money to a porn star during the 2016 election, each charge is a class E felony, which according to New York law does as. a maximum prison sentence of four years. Trump will now face sentencing in the case on September 18.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek some expect Trump to be sentenced to probation in the hush money case, noting, “Home confinement is unlikely during a presidential election, and confinement with Secret Service protection is even less likely and a logistical nightmare.”
Rahamani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, added via email that it was also unlikely that Trump would face jail time in the classified documents case, in which presiding judge Aileen Cannon “appears to be biased in favor of Trump.” The case was dismissed by Cannon last month, and special counsel Jack Smith appealed the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The bottom line is, it’s far from certain or even likely that Trump will go to jail,” Rahmani said.
Imprisoned or not, other legal experts agreed with Weissmann that Trump is likely to “break” in response to the pending case.
“Donald Trump’s strategy for legal matters — criminal and civil — is that the best defense is an aggressive offense,” said Michael McAuliffe, a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general-elect. “That approach has brought some victories, but it has also resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal and civil liability.”
McAuliffe noted via email that Trump is not the only one facing pressure in the courtroom. In recent weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris has seized momentum in the 2024 race and closed the gap that Trump once enjoyed with President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.
“Overlaid on it all is a changed presidential campaign,” McAuliffe said. “His (Trump’s) position appears to be weaker than when Biden was a candidate. The lack of campaign momentum combined with legal exposure to create a new chaos – one that is out of control.”
“His history of backlash during expulsions is predictable,” he said. “What has changed is that his aggressiveness is starting to be seen as a weakness, not a strength. That creates a perverse incentive for Trump to take more extreme actions to keep the public’s attention.”
McAuliffe added that one example of Trump trying to draw attention back to the campaign was his attack on Harris’ racial background during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week.
“Trump’s almost inexplicable attack on Harris’ multiracial background is an example of all words, no action,” McAuliffe said. “And the country should worry not only about more vitriolic actions by Trump, but the same extremist actions of his most loyal loyalists.”