For all that former president Donald Trumphis choice to a second term it was a remarkable political comeback, it was also the culmination of a bold and stunningly successful legal strategy that could allow him to evade responsibility for the multitude of charges against him.

The string of indictments during Trump’s two years in office, seemingly enough to end almost any politician’s career, has become in his hands a good fundraiser and rallying cry, a deep reservoir of fuel for his anger and a call to exact revenge. . The intensity of his campaign has fueled recognition that his personal freedom may be at stake.

He was indicted not just once, but twice for conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. He was charged with mishandling national security secrets and obstruction. He was found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation and of inflating his net worth. And he was found guilty of criminal charges stemming from a the payment of the money is silent a porn actor.

Throughout it all, however, beginning with his first indictment in the hush money case, legal proceedings to hold him accountable only seemed to bolster his support. His political status strengthened, he was relentless in fighting some charges, delayed a trial against others and relied on the election itself to resolve what he could not win in the courtroom.

The upshot is that this week’s decision by voters to return Trump to the White House could delay or derail all or many of the proceedings against him.

By pitting political power against the rule of law, Trump has flipped the script he’s been handed and made the courts’ efforts to hold him to account a central element of his campaign message.

And, as the election results suggest, he succeeded in convincing some of his supporters that the cases brought against him were not attempts at justice, but rather an effort by Democrats to hurt him, and by extension, them.

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“He built a legal strategy around his political reality, and that meant he did things that no ordinary defendant could have done, or perhaps would do — achieving incredible success in the cases against him.” said James Burnham, a Republican lawyer who worked under Trump. administration.

Having taken his bet, Trump will now receive his reward.

Jack Smith, the special counsel, has begun discussions on how to drop the two federal cases he has brought against Trump, in line with a longstanding U.S. Justice Department policy barring the prosecution of sitting presidents. a person familiar with the discussions said Wednesday. .

That policy effectively dooms the indictment in Washington accusing Trump of undermining the 2020 election. And it will likely result in prosecutors under his command dropping Smith’s attempts to re-indict the classified documents, which were rejected this summer in a surprise decision by a federal judge in Florida.

As for his two state criminal cases, Trump and his lawyers are sure to go after them, arguing that they should not survive Justice Department directives barring prosecution of sitting presidents.

If the tactic is successful, it could interrupt or end the case Trump is facing in Fulton County, Georgia, where he is accused of conspiring to reverse his election loss four years ago.

In New York, where he is to be sentenced in state court this month in the hush money case, he has already signaled that he plans to seek a stay, forcing the court to consider the wisdom and constitutionality of imposing prison or probation. the man who is to become commander-in-chief.

Less clear is the effect of his election on the civil cases he faces.

A New York state court has fined Trump more than $450 million (€416 million) for overstating the value of his business holdings. And a federal jury in New York’s Manhattan borough ordered him to pay $83.3 million for defaming E Jean Carroll, a New York writer whose account of being sexually assaulted by Trump decades ago was supported by instance. He struggles with both judgments.

Trump also faces a constellation of lawsuits from US Capitol police officers and members of Congress who accuse him of inciting violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The U.S. Supreme Court has historically shielded presidents from civil litigation based on their official actions, and a court is working to decide which category to place his role in the Jan. 6 trial. However, the court has allowed lawsuits against a sitting president to take place for private actions, such as alleged sexual misconduct.

Trump’s success in using his campaign as a protective shield has no parallel in legal or political history and highlights the many ways politics and justice have become closely, if uncomfortably, since he first sought the presidency with about a decade ago.

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“I’ve never seen a criminal case play out more on the political stage than in the courtroom,” said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice. “Instead of focusing solely on the legal issues, Trump’s defense has taken a high-stakes legal tack that has turned these criminal charges into political opportunities and, in essence, bet hard on the outcome of the election.”

The story of how efforts to impeach Trump came to fuel his candidacy involves many steps—some of his own making and some made by others.

It resulted from his willingness to abandon traditional political thinking and to tolerate legal risks that few other public figures would accept. And he relied on turning the charges against him on their head, turning them into evidence that powerful partisan forces were out to get him.

But the story was also assisted by a sympathetic majority of the supreme court he helped create. That majority first pushed Trump’s federal impeachment trial until after Election Day, when it considered what appeared to be a long-standing argument that former presidents enjoy a substantial degree of immunity from prosecution, and then took delivered a landmark legal victory.

Trump’s success in evading accountability also rested largely on luck.

In the case of the classified documents, he was lucky enough to attract one of his own appointees as a judge: Aileen Cannon, an inexperienced lawyer who had previously stepped in to assist him in the investigation. She ultimately dismissed the charges — against decades of precedent — on the surprising ground that the special counsel, Smith, had been illegally appointed to his position.

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And in the Georgia case, the prosecuting attorney, Fani Willis, sabotaged herself and her indictment by having a romantic relationship with one of her top deputies. That ruling was an unforced error that led to defense claims that she should be disqualified from the case, a move that left the case in limbo even before Trump’s victory at the polls.

– This article originally appeared in The New York Times.