According to a recent report from the Washington Post, officials in the Biden Justice Department intend to continue pursuing criminal cases against Donald Trump beyond Election Day, even if he wins.
Sources say these Biden administration officials believe that departmental guidelines prohibiting the charging or prosecution of a sitting president would only apply after Inauguration Day in January.
Senior law enforcement officials have long viewed the two federal indictments against Trump — the 45th president and the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s election — as operating with potential time constraints. That’s because of long-standing Justice Department policy that officials cannot criminally charge a sitting president.
Lawyers in the department do not believe the policy bars them from proceeding against a president-elect, however, according to the people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
The plan to continue filing motions, seeking court hearings, and potentially conducting a trial between Election Day and Inauguration Day underscores the highly unusual nature of prosecuting not just a former president, but also possibly a future one. In the months after winning election, a president-elect assumes some of the trappings of the office, such as more security and high-level briefings, but that person is not the commander in chief.
In the midst of a presidential election in which criminal cases have played a central role, any court activity involving a president-elect would push American politics deeper into uncharted territory. Ultimately, it would be up to the courts to decide when and how to hold hearings or a trial involving a president-elect. [Emphasis added]
Anthony Coley, a former Justice Department spokesman for Attorney General Merrick Garland, believes the effort to continue going after Trump, even after he wins, is justified.
“The Justice Department isn’t governed by the election calendar. Its prosecution of Trump is based on the law, the facts, and the Justice Manual — the department’s bible that lays out the post-Watergate norms that have prevented it from being weaponized,” Coley told the Washington Post. “Until those norms change, or they’re ordered otherwise, I’d expect this Justice Department to be full speed ahead. And they should be.”
Current officials, who requested anonymity, echoed the view that if Trump were to win the election, the countdown on the two federal cases against him would continue until January 20, when he would assume office as the 47th president.
Sources familiar with the discussions revealed that even before the Supreme Court's immunity ruling earlier this month, officials in the Biden Justice Department doubted the possibility of a federal trial for Trump before the 2024 election. The classified documents case was just dismissed Monday morning. However, the federal election interference case in D.C. and the election interference case in Georgia are both still pending.
This is how desperate the radical left is to punish Trump for winning in 2016 and running again in 2024.
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