Trump allies remain in legal peril despite his election victory

 President-elect Trump’s White House victory set his legal cases on a downward spiral, but his allies who have faced prosecution or other legal trouble are not yet in the clear. 

Dozens of Trump aides, associates and backers — including top officials in his first administration — have faced criminal charges tied to efforts to keep the former president in power after he lost the 2020 election. Many also faced disbarments, bankruptcy and civil litigation. 

While Trump’s criminal cases are winding down upon his imminent return to the nation’s highest office, those same protections he has as president don’t extend to his allies.

In Georgia, more than a dozen people were charged alongside Trump with attempting to subvert the state’s election results. Biden won the state by 11,779 votes in 2020. 

Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani, the ex-New York City mayor who helped lead the 2020 push, are co-defendants in that case, in addition to several lawyers and aides. Trump supporters who signed false paperwork saying they were the state’s true electors are also charged. 

A Justice Department opinion on separation of powers makes it clear that state criminal prosecutions against Trump must, at the very least, be put on ice while he’s in office, said Gregory Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University, in a blog post after November’s election.

“In all likelihood, the state criminal cases will be put on hold during Trump’s presidency,” he wrote. “If they try to continue with the prosecutions, or even to impose a stayed sentence, I suspect the decisions will be reversed on appeal.” 

But that’s not the case for the 14 other defendants with remaining charges. 

In fact, with Trump effectively out of the picture, any limitations the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision would have put on the prosecution — barring certain evidence and causing further delays — are gone now, said Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor. It could make his allies’ prosecutions more potent.

“They’re kind of living on a hope and a prayer that something has changed in the world to their benefit,” Kreis said of Trump’s co-defendants, citing the former president’s election win. “But when it comes down to the actual trial practice, they might be more sorry than glad.” 

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis won her own reelection this fall, allowing her to maintain her place at the helm of the historic case. In an interview with Atlanta News First, she declined to nail down a plan forward but indicated that she doesn’t intend to let the case crumble – for any defendant. 

“If someone has an indictment in this office, no matter who they are, we continue to pursue those charges,” Willis said. “I’m here for eight more years, is my plan. So, if that’s what it takes for us to get justice in some cases, we come to work every day, we’ll come to work and look for justice.” 

Still, the immediate fate of the Georgia case is in the hands of a state appeals court, which is weighing whether to boot Willis from the prosecution over her previous romantic relationship with a top prosecutor on the case, who has since resigned.  

Arizona’s 2020 election case, in which Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator of 16 defendants still facing charges, is also expected to push forward, according to the state’s Democratic attorney general. 

“I have no intention of dropping that case,” Mayes said last week. “A grand jury in the state of Arizona decided that these individuals who engaged in an attempt to overthrow our democracy in 2020 should be held accountable.” 

The prosecution hit a roadblock earlier this week when the judge overseeing that case recused himself after urging colleagues to call out attacks against Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign in an email to other judges. 

A spokesperson for Giuliani said the judge’s remarks underlined “the partisan and baseless nature of this whole case,” but Mayes’s office pushed back that the email represented a “cry for decency and respect” and was “not reflective of bias.” Mayes spokesperson Richie Taylor said the case has “never been motivated by politics.” 

The Arizona case is set to go to trial in January 2026, though the judge’s recusal could cause delays. 

Trump’s troubles in Arizona might not be over, either. The state’s statute of limitations on most felony offenses is seven years, meaning that it’s possible the former president could face charges there in the final year of his term and leave office with few mechanisms to stop them, Kreis said.

Three Trump allies also face charges in Wisconsin, and 16 so-called “fake electors” are charged in Michigan. In Nevada, charges were brought against six alternate electors, but a trial court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction; the state appealed. And in New Mexico and Pennsylvania, prosecutors have said legal standards were not met to bring charges.  

If there are convictions for Trump’s allies in the state cases, he won’t be able to issue pardons or other relief, as that power is exclusively reserved to federal offenses. 

Criminal prosecutions aside, Trump’s allies have faced a slew of other legal issues for their efforts to keep Trump in the White House. 

Giuliani has been disbarred and was forced to turn over most of his assets to two election workers he defamed. Two others involved, Jeff Clark and John Eastman, have also faced disciplinary proceedings. And attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis have pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from their post-2020 election work.  

Even as president, there’s little Trump can do to help. 

“I think they’re out on their own,” Kreis said. 

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4993504-trump-allies-legal-peril/