2023-06-10 17:10:30
Donald Trump in a meeting at Sanford International Airport in Orlando, Florida, on October 12, 2020 (AFP / SAUL LOEB)
Targeted by 37 counts for his alleged role in the retention of secret documents, Donald Trump plunged the United States into unknown waters: to see a candidate run for the White House following indictment, even conviction.
In his campaign to win back the presidency, the Republican billionaire immediately dismissed the idea that he might throw in the towel in the face of the charges once morest him – preferring instead to blame it on political adversaries ” corrupt” wishing to distort the elections.
Such a tactic “is unlikely to tip the scales for undecided voters, but will galvanize Trump supporters who may waver or consider backing a candidate with fewer pans,” security expert Matt Shoemaker told AFP. national and former intelligence agent.
Both in the case of the White House archives and that in New York of the purchase of the silence of a porn actress, prosecutors hope that Donald Trump will be tried before American voters go to the polls in November 2024.
Nothing is less certain, however.
And in the event of another electoral victory, the tempestuous billionaire might try to pardon himself, which would trigger an unprecedented constitutional crisis.
However, he would have little influence on non-federal prosecutions, and his most immediate concern remains the consequences of all these legal setbacks on his campaign for the Republican primaries.
– “They will not do anything” –
Donald Trump’s direct competitors in the Conservative Party nomination race — his former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among others — might have used his indictment, announced Thursday, to describe him as unfit for the duties of Commander-in-Chief.
Undated image of boxes of documents in a bathroom at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida (US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE/Handout)
But they would have risked alienating the fervent supporters of the ex-president, who reject the accusations once morest him, and therefore contented themselves with crying foul alongside him.
Therefore, the billionaire’s rivals “hope that Trump will be eliminated from the race (for the nomination) by a series of indictments”, explains political scientist Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia.
Because Donald Trump is also the subject of a federal investigation for his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And some American media are suggesting that the ex-president might be charged in particular with extortion in Georgia for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in this southern state.
“That’s all. It’s their strategy … They’re not going to do anything,” continues Larry Sabato regarding the competitors of the former president in the primary.
– DeSantis and Christie –
In the case of Donald Trump’s management of the White House archives, the indictment once morest him — made public on Friday — includes 37 counts, including those of “illegal retention of information relating to national security”, “obstructing justice” and “false testimony”.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis campaigning in Salem, New Hampshire on June 1, 2023 (AFP/Joseph Prezioso)
In New York, he had been charged in particular with accounting fraud.
Only half of respondents in a recent YouGov poll believed that falsifying accounting records to buy a pornographic actress to remain silent regarding an alleged affair was a serious offence.
But two-thirds of the respondents considered, on the other hand, that having carried away documents marked secret defense of the White House and hindered the attempts of the authorities to recover them represented indeed such a serious offense.
Among the Republicans, they were respectively 28% and 42% to think the same; non-negligible figures that suggest that Donald Trump’s campaign for the primary might be at an inflection point.
If Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has so far contented himself with measured comments vis-à-vis the legal setbacks of his main opponent, the campaign teams of the two candidates have raised their voices in recent weeks.
And former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie waded into the primary battle this week, promising not to spare Donald Trump.
Currently second in the polls, “DeSantis would benefit the most from Donald Trump withdrawing, but he seems to consider that they share a lot of the same voters, so he does not want to alienate them”, analysis with AFP Shana Gadarian, professor of political science at Syracuse University, New York.
“It may take someone like Christie to put his foot in the dish,” she said, adding that the former governor would no doubt have an interest in trying to attract former Republicans who had turned away from the party in because of Donald Trump’s presidency.
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