Trump: very immersed in politics, increasingly alone before justice

Patricia de Arce

Washington, Oct 28 (EFE).- Donald Trump has no shortage of allies in his race for the White House and has a good part of the Republican apparatus in his favor, but in the courts things are complicated for him: some of his most loyal supporters They now turn their backs to save themselves and he begins to be more and more alone.

This week Trump achieved a new political victory with the election of one of his own, Mike Johnson, as the new leader of the House of Representatives, but he has suffered more than one defeat in the judicial field.

And the way prosecutors are building criminal cases against him or the agreements they are reaching with other defendants willing to collaborate make his defense more difficult, as experts consulted by EFE agree.

Of the four criminal cases that the former president faces, the one in Georgia, regarding attempts to reverse the results of the presidential elections in this state, is probably his "greatest threat" at this time, emphasizes the Georgetown Law School professor. David Super.

Not just because it is going "faster" than others and Trump has "little chance of stopping or delaying it." Also due to the agreements with the Prosecutor's Office already reached by four of the 18 defendants with him in Georgia, three of them lawyers for his 2020 campaign.

All four have pleaded guilty to several crimes, have cleared major charges and have agreed to be witnesses for the prosecution.

The last to do so was Jenna Ellis. This week, her image on the verge of tears went around the world, declaring her guilt and justifying having made false accusations of electoral fraud because she was influenced by lawyers "with much more experience" than her, pointing directly to Rudolph Giuliani.

For Super, the team led by prosecutor Fani Willis in Georgia already had "sufficient evidence" against Trump, but these will allow a lot of information to be "completed."

After all, these people, who include two important lawyers on Trump's team, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, "were present when the president gave his orders" during this conspiracy, he recalled.

Although the defense will try to discredit them because they are going back on what they defended for months, the fact that there are three Trump lawyers testifying against him is going to be "very powerful" in this trial with no date yet decided.

Both Super and Emory University Law School professor Kay Levine are convinced that more Georgia defendants will reach plea deals - as is often the case in cases involving criminal organizations, such as the one in Georgia.

"With each more person who says: I'll tell you what I know, the stronger the case will be for the prosecutors," Levine told EFE in a video conference from his office at this university located in Atlanta, where the Georgia case will be tried.

He admitted, however, that the next agreements may not be so favorable. "Those who reach an agreement first are the ones who achieve the best one."

And it does not appear that the Prosecutor's Office is offering deals to the "big fish" of this conspiracy, including Trump himself or Giuliani. As always happens in processes against criminal organizations, negotiations are made with the weakest to hunt down the most important, Levine recalled.

But the Georgia four aren't the only ones leaving Trump alone.

This week, ABC announced that its former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has reached an immunity agreement with the special prosecutor investigating Trump, Jack Smith, although the degree of said immunity and whether it affects Georgia is still unknown. , where the former chief of staff is one of the main defendants.

The possibility of Meadows going to the other side must have "made many nervous," according to Levine, due to the "significant amount of information" he has on both the Georgia and Washington cases.

Smith is a federal prosecutor and has no powers in Georgia, but the experts consulted by EFE agree that it is most likely that Meadows has also reached an agreement in the state case.

"If he's willing to negotiate with Smith, he's willing to negotiate with Prosecutor Willis, and he's probably doing that right now," said Professor David Super.

Meadows' possible betrayal caught Trump himself by surprise, who questioned the news about immunity from one of his closest collaborators, who even wrote a book defending Trump's theories of electoral fraud.

But if confirmed, their collaboration could be a blow to Trump in the courts.

And in the case of Georgia it is "increasingly likely" that Trump will be convicted, according to Super, who is nevertheless skeptical about the possibility of the former president (2017-2021) going to prison.

"Neither Republicans nor Democrats want him, and the Secret Service can claim that they cannot protect him in prison," the Georgetown professor said.

It remains to be seen if Trump reaches his party's nomination as a candidate for the White House if he is convicted sooner. For Super, it is possible that in that case the Republicans "will make the effort to look for another candidate. What is not clear is who."

Everything is unknown because there is no precedent for a possible presidential candidate - or a president if he wins the elections - convicted. Of course, in the case of Georgia, because it is a state, it would not allow self-pardon. EFE

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