Law professor on Trump’s acquittal and what comes next

Alex: Now, we’ll discuss last Saturday, when Trump was acquitted.

Michael: Acquitted, right.

Alex: Does it make sense if someone claims this means that since Trump is fine, that means he didn’t do anything wrong and that Democrats were just trying to find a problem. Is that logical, or not?

Michael Schwartz: Many of the Republicans who voted to acquit did so because their argument was that… Let’s back up a little bit. Republicans who voted to acquit stated that they didn’t have the constitutional power to acquit a former officer. They did not say what Trump did was okay. They didn’t say that what happened on January 6th wasn’t a problem. Their position was that Trump is already out of the office. You can’t convict him. Removing him has already been done by the election process.

Alex: Now, a lot of people have been criticizing Senator Mitch McConnell from all sides including Democrats and Republicans, the very far right, and the very far left. They’ve all been criticizing him. He did say he voted to acquit, but after that he said Trump was responsible.

Michael: He held him responsible.

Alex: It looks like McConnell said due to the Constitution, you can’t convict the president if he is out of office.

Michael: A former president.

Alex: Former. What’s your view on McConnell?

Michael: McConnell said former officers cannot be touched. But he himself delayed the House article of impeachment. The House was ready to bring it to him immediately on January 13th after it was voted. There could have been a trial right away that tried Trump as president before January 20th. It didn’t happen because McConnell didn’t want that, so for him to say he can’t touch a former officer, well…

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Alex: Trump has been acquitted from the political “justice system” with the Congress, Senate, and the overall process but hasn’t been in the clear because right now there’s an investigation in New York City, the state of New York, and Georgia.

Michael: We can start with, I believe, at least two defamation lawsuits brought by two separate women. Both alleged that Trump engaged in inappropriate behavior with them.

Trump said they are both liars. He damaged their reputations - that’s what they claim, so they both sued him. In Georgia, there’s evidence that he called the Georgia Secretary of State and another election officer to ask them to “find enough votes to overturn the Georgia results”. So they’re investigating this in Georgia. The Fulton City District Attorney in Atlanta is doing an investigation of these phone calls. Plus Lindsay Graham, a senator from South Carolina, also called them. So, now, they’re investigating whether the conduct, which is documented, supported the criminal conduct and felony charge of interfering with election results. That’s in Georgia.

In New York, it’s under investigation as you said, with the Attorney General and District Attorney. The Attorney General is doing more of a civil investigation about Trump's organization and funding. If they uncover criminal conduct, they will refer it to the DA. The DA investigates charges, so there’s a possibility that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which covers Manhattan…

Now, that’s three things with Georgia and the two agencies in New York, and there’s also a fourth. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, DC. DC is not a state, therefore the U.S. Attorney for DC is both a federal and local prosecutor. They are investigating the circumstances of the riot, and that’s what Mitch McConnell’s statements after the vote was about. He was sending out a signal to investigate Trump. So, there’s plenty of evidence of Trump’s conduct up to January 6th. You can’t look at the January 6th event in isolation. You have to also look at the history that led up to it, and then determine whether Trump broke the law.

Alex: I’m predicting that Trump will defend himself by saying that his actions on January 6th or others are protected because he was the president during that time, and the investigation can only be based on events that happened after January 20th. If we do something now, we can “catch” him, but the phone calls to Georgia or the lawsuits are all under the president…

Michael: No president is above the law. Just because he was president doesn’t mean he conducted a crime. Now, the justice department has a policy of not inducting a sitting president. But once he’s out of the office, he can be persecuted for that conduct.

Alex: If Fulton City in Georgia doesn’t find anything in their investigation, and the New York investigations don’t find anything, and the U.S. Attorney in DC doesn’t find anything either, that means you could say it’s over and it’s just your opinion. But if DC, Georgia, or New York actually file charges against him then it would be a different story. Do you think it’s up to them to decide right from wrong? It’s interesting how that works.

Michael: Remember, Trump is a private citizen. He has all due process rights afforded to him by the Constitution and state criminal laws. During the Senate trial, the Republicans made a lot of noise about the due process. The problem is that the impeachment trial in the Senate is not a criminal process. It’s not a civil process. It’s a political process.

So, the criminal process will play out. Believe me, Georgia, New York, and DC know the world is watching. Everybody is watching. So they’ll be very careful in their investigations. I can guarantee you, they will turn over every stone and they’ll come to a conclusion whether to prosecute or drop it and not prosecute. We’ll have to wait and see what the outcome is.

Thank you for the opportunity to chat.

Alex: Thank you!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/politics/summer-zervos-trump-lawsuit/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/09/politics/new-york-judge-doj-represent-trump-e-jean-carroll/index.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-mcconnell-s-full-remarks-following-senate-vote-to-acquit-trump-100994117808

https://www.ajc.com/politics/fultons-da-opens-criminal-investigation-into-trump-demand-to-overturn-election/YWJPS4B4BREHDLHQCZYDDWBVIA/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/13/new-york-donald-trump-investigation-loans