Donald Trump has managed to regain the presidencyand with her she brought a heavy suitcase full of legal baggage. As the world holds its breath to see the implications of his return to the White House, Trump is waiting to see what happens as the first US president to be criminally indicted when elected to office.

It’s safe to say it’s uncharted territory, so what does his presidency mean for the multiple legal cases against him?

Let’s break down the legal circus Trump is playing in:

What will happen to Trump’s “quiet money” case?

First, we have quiet money case in New York. Trump is to be sentenced on November 26 for 34 counts of falsifying business records. It’s all about covering payments made to an adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Trump denies the deal, but the court didn’t buy it.

Judge Juan Merchan he twice postponed the date so the sentence would fall after the election and gave himself until Nov. 12 to decide whether to drop it all because of presidential immunity. If not, the potential sentence can be anything from a slap, house arrest, probation to four years behind bars.

Dr. John Hart, who is a specialist in US politics at ANU, told PEDESTRIAN.TV that Trump is unlikely to be sentenced to prison.

“Most people don’t expect a prison sentence – it would be politically difficult. There would be a real risk of violence if Trump were imprisoned. There are also practical concerns because he’s a president, he has Secret Service protection, and if he’s been sent to prison, he should have Secret Service protection in prison.”

Because it is a state case, Trump does not have the power to pardon himself when he becomes president.

How will Trump’s federal cases be affected by his presidency?

Now, we turn to the federal cases. One case accuses Trump of illegally keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. In a surprising turn of events, Judge Aileen Cannona Trump appointee, dismissed the case in July 2024. However, the special counsel Jack SmithHis team appealed this decision.

The federal election interference case is the other investigation under Smith’s watch. The case alleges that Trump conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It is currently on hold as appeals courts consider Trump’s claims of presidential immunity. In October 2024, Smith filed a 165-page document arguing that Trump was acting as a private citizen, not the president, when he allegedly tried to overturn the election. Trump has spoken about his plans to end those investigations if he returns to the White House. He said he would fire Smith “within two seconds” of taking office.

Whether or not these challenges pass before Trump takes the oath of office, things get complicated.

“If (the cases) are not disposed of before Trump becomes president, in other words withdrawn by the special counsel one way or another, Trump will simply have his attorney general dismiss those charges once he’s in office and that will be the end. of any responsibility by the former president,” Hart said.

New York Times reported this morning that Special Counsel Smith is looking at how he can drop the federal charges against Trump.

Trump’s election interference case

This case indicts Trump for his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss, particularly in Georgia. According to Hart, the complicated thing about this case is that while Trump does not have jurisdiction to pardon himself in a state case, the Justice Department has a policy that is based on a reading of the Constitution that basically says that presidents would not have to go be tried or indicted during their presidency. Which begs the question: Does the Federal Department of Justice ruling prevail?

“I think there’s a risk that if they try to prosecute Trump and hold him accountable for interfering with the results of the 2020 election, they seriously run the risk of a revolt from Trump supporters. We have he already had a clue of what it could do, so there could be political pressure to drop it one way or another. I think it’s probably very unlikely that that case will be heard during the Trump presidency,” he explained.

Where do we go from here?

So what happens now? Well, anyone’s guess really. Trump has made it clear that he wants to use the presidency as a giant “get out of jail free” card. Hart said the “likelihood of any kind of liability now is pretty slim,” but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul it doesn’t have a bar in it.

“We will pass the uncertainty of a new administration in Washington because, as I said, we have done this before,” Hochul said at a press conference after the election results.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to accept an agenda from Washington that takes away rights that New Yorkers have long enjoyed.”

Attorney General of New York Letitia James reiterated his sentiment: “We are prepared to fight back once again because, as the attorney general of this great state, it is my duty to protect and defend the rights of New Yorkers and the rule of law.”

In the end, we’ll just have to wait and see how the first president to face criminal charges in his second term fares. I’m still wondering how that’s even an actual sentence I can write.