NEW YORK — It has long been Justice Department policy not to indict a sitting president. But come January, Donald Trump will be out of office — and perhaps in legal jeopardy.

“I definitely think he’s susceptible to criminal investigation and criminal prosecution,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a former prosecutor and professor of law at New York Law School.


What You Need To Know

  • Once out of office, Trump will no longer enjoy immunity from federal prosecution

  • Some have speculated Trump will try to pardon himself, or step down and have VP Mike Pence pardon him

  • Manhattan DA Cy Vance is on the verge of obtaining Trump’s tax returns, part of an unspecified criminal probe

  • State Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the Trump Organization’s inflation of assets

Trump could attempt the legally questionable act of pardoning himself, or he could step down prior to January 20 and allow Vice President Mike Pence to pardon him. But a pardon only pertains to federal crimes, and won’t protect Trump from two local nemeses: State Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.

Vance has been seeking Trump’s tax returns in connection to a criminal case that is widely believed to involve tax fraud. Trump fought the effort all the way to the Supreme Court, where he lost. Now, the Supreme Court is set to rule on Trump’s last attempt at an appeal. A win for Vance would accelerate any potential prosecution.

James, meanwhile, is investigating the Trump Organization’s financial dealings, including the inflation of assets. Just last month, her office deposed Eric Trump.

But Roiphe urges caution in bringing any legal action against Trump.

“He will say that anytime that anybody brings any case against him, that it’s politically motivated, that it’s a witch hunt. He’ll continue that rhetoric,” she said. “And the important thing is that any prosecutor who brings a case have an ironclad case, so that it can resist those accusations.”

Trump also faces defamation suits here in New York brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll and by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos. Both accused Trump of sexual assault. And he’s been sued here in New York by his niece, Mary Trump, who says she was cheated out of inheritance money.

On the federal level, Trump could theoretically face obstruction of justice charges for his attempts to thwart the Russia investigation.

 

President-elect Joe Biden has said his Justice Department would be totally independent and that he wouldn’t tell the Justice Department whom to prosecute. But he's also said in an August interview that prosecuting a former president would be “probably not very good for democracy.”