The life of Donald Trump, which is certainly not poor in turbulent weeks, could now be joined by the next one: Two more investigators are preparing to bring the former US President to court. According to his own statement, he expects charges “at any time” in connection with the Capitol storm of January 6, 2021, as Trump wrote on his “Truth Social” platform and insulted the responsible special investigator in this context as “disturbed”.
The investigations into Trump in the state of Georgia for interfering with the election have also apparently been completed: “The job is done,” prosecutor Fanni Willis told WXIA television. The investigator did not want to say whether and who could expect to be charged, as a jury panel will decide on this. However, it is expected that the decision will be made very soon.
Both possible lawsuits are based on Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election. At that time he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, but did not accept his vote-out. Instead, to this day he claims to have been divorced from office through fraud. In fact, it was Donald Trump who tried to stay in power by unfair means. In Georgia, for example, he was just 11,779 votes short of winning the state majority.
During the count, he called Georgia’s chief election commissioner, Republican party colleague Brad Raffensperger, for an hour-long phone call asking him to “find” enough votes to “recalculate” and rotate the result. Investigations are therefore underway against him and, among other things, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The unprecedented attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol had drastic consequences. Numerous people were injured and five died. The reason for the storming: On January 6, Vice President Mike Pence was supposed to certify the election result. Trump not only threatened his own deputy, but once again stirred up his supporters by claiming that massive election fraud had robbed him of his victory.
In the past few months, charges have been brought against the ex-head of state in two other cases in New York and Miami. One case is related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, the other revolves around the storage of top secret government documents in Trump’s private home. In the latter case, an employee of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate has now been heard in court. The property manager is accused of obstructing justice, destroying evidence and making false statements. He is said to have destroyed Donald Trump’s video recordings at his request.
Donald Trump reliably angry to abusively comments on the round of legal difficulties as a politically motivated “witch hunt”. The team of Capitol Storm Special Counsel Jack Smith as a “partisan criminal squad” whose actions are nothing more than “election interference”. However, the current and future proceedings are definitely expensive: As the Washington Post reports, Trump’s political financing committee spent the equivalent of around 36 million euros on legal costs in the first half of the year alone.
In a way, though, the former president might see the money as a good investment. From a political point of view, every indictment has helped him more than harmed. His poll numbers have known only one direction for weeks: upwards. At least for his Republican party, which will vote on the official presidential candidate in a few months. Trump’s lead over second-place Ron DeSantis is 36 percentage points. Never before has a candidate given up such a head start. And in a direct comparison with Joe Biden, he is only a hair’s breadth behind.
The presidential candidacy can no longer be taken away from the former head of state. The past elections have already shown that Trump does not resonate with people despite his appearance, but precisely because of it. In addition, his opponent, DeSantis, who has so far only been taken seriously, is doing everything wrong that he can do wrong: his performances are devoid of charisma, his speeches are too long, his agenda is a deterrent for minority voters such as blacks. But his biggest mistake is probably his attempt to lure Trump’s supporters away – but they prefer to go for the original.
Sources: DPA, AFP, RealClearPolitics, “Politico”, “New York Times”
