President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, marking the beginning of his second term as the 47th President of the United States. As Trump stepped back into power, the country watched his new Executive Orders and policies consume the White House. However, the nation’s attention still questions the verdict on his numerous court cases that still loom large over the country. Trump remains as the first convicted felon in history to be elected as the President of the United States.
Towards the start of his second presidential term, there were a total four federal criminal cases against President Trump: “Hush” money, hoarding classified documents, election interference, and election subversion attempts. All four cases had been thrown out after Trump was re-elected due to Department of Justice (DOJ) policies prohibiting sitting Presidents to be subject to federal consequences.
Criminal Cases overview
First, in 2020, Trump had allegedly tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in 2022. He had pleaded not guilty for having attempted to overturn the results of the election through a plot where “Pro-Trump” states of fake electors were created. This scheme was aimed to falsely claim that Trump had won the Electoral College vote in certain states after he allegedly forced then-vice president Mike Pence to count the fake electors.
This as well sparked investigations about Trump’s possible involvement in the 2021 United States Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
However, following Trump’s election in 2024, DOJ Prosecutor Jack Smith had filed a motion to dismiss the interference case without prejudice, meaning it is only temporarily dismissed. Smith cites the Department of Justice’s policy of not prosecuting sitting Presidents as his argument. It was on November 25, 2024 that US District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved the request and dismissed the charges.
In March of 2023, Trump was put on trial by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a $130,000 hush-money payment to film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 before the election. Trumps [then] personal attorney Michael Cohen was sent to complete the payment to Daniels in late October of 2016 to silence Daniels from going public about an alleged affair with her and Trump years before. It was on May 30, 2024 that Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
During November of 2024, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay Trump’s sentencing which had been originally set for November 26. It has been rumored that Trump is likely to not be sentenced until after the end of his presidential term.
In June of 2023 Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials. Allegedly, Trump repeatedly refused to return hundreds of classified documents which contained classified information ranging from U.S nuclear secrets to communications with foreign leaders regarding military attacks, plans, and support for terrorist activity.
Since early 2022 the government has attempted to retrieve the documents after National Archives officials retrieved 15 additional boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida that had been “improperly” removed just at the end of Trump’s first term in the White House.
Federal officials had visited Mar-a-Lago to search for additional materials despite the fact that Trump’s attorneys signed a statement attesting that all classified documents missing had been turned into federal investigators. However, when FBI agents had raided the South Florida estate two months later, they found an additional 100 documents with classified markings that hadn’t been turned over yet.
After Trump was reelected president, special counsel Jack Smith dropped his prosecution of Trump. This was due to the long-standing Justice Department policy that prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents.
Judicial system: Does Presidency mean clean slate?
After the Supreme Court made the decision to not prosecute Trump for his four criminal cases, they also made sure that no president ever will get prosecuted for official crimes in office. In Trump vs. United States, the Republican-appointed justices announced a new constitutional additive that grants the president immunity from any criminal acts the president may use his powers in office to do.
According to the Supreme Court they held that “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.” They continue to say that he is granted “presumptive immunity” in his official acts, but no immunity for unofficial criminal acts. This set a precedent for any president to be able to escape criminal accountability no matter how corrupt the job may have been. With all this said, yes, Presidency does mean a clean slate thanks to President Trump and his cases.
The Arcade’s Thoughts – The outcome of Trump’s cases:
After carefully educating ourselves and reading about Trump’s federal criminal cases, it doesn’t take a law official to agree that the temporary dismissal of Trump’s cases is unfair and morally incorrect. Fully understanding the power that President Trump, a federal offender, carries as the leader of our nation slightly frightens us for our country’s future.
Differentiating human flaws from criminal offenses is highly important when educating oneself on President Trump’s legal troubles. President Trump has made countless promises to protect the country from criminals, claiming that the majority of them come from Hispanic backgrounds. What seems unpromising from his words is the hypocrisy behind them.
We would be lying if we said that we weren’t worried about having a federal offender as our President, the leader of our country for a second term. It doesn’t make political or humane sense to have him in office as there are many dangers we need to protect. The next four years will be a situation where everyone will be on the edge of their seats worried about what he can attempt to enact next.
We at the Arcade encourage students and educators to do their own additional research and properly educate themselves on our President’s past. It is important to know what President Trump is capable of and what he is planning for our countries future.
