According to Ari Fleischer, a longtime Republican strategist, the 2024 election could be about “Donald Trump’s freedom. If convicted, he could be sentenced to prison unless he wins and he uses the levers of justice to reverse it or stop it or drop it”.

Critics have often alleged that Trump’s fear of prosecution was a chief motivator for his decision to fight another campaign. While Trump denies that — insisting that charges never would have been brought had he decided against running — the new indictment ensures his campaign and legal issues are now intertwined.

The combined 78 state and federal charges against Trump are already dominating his speeches as he seeks to portray himself as the victim of a politicised Justice Department bent on damaging the prospects of President Joe Biden’s chief political rival.

Trump will appear in federal court in Washington on Thursday to face the latest charges, before headlining an Alabama Republican Party dinner on Friday. He faces another arraignment next week in Florida after special counsel Jack Smith filed additional criminal charges against him there in the case related to his handling of classified documents. That will come between a campaign stop in New Hampshire and a possible trip to the Iowa State Fair.

Trump also faces the potential of new charges in Atlanta related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and must also decide whether to attend the first Republican presidential debate on August 23.

Trump campaign officials said they were not worried about such logistical challenges.

But the challenge for Trump goes beyond politics. Each of the cases against him — ranging from the classified documents case in Florida to allegations in New York of making improper hush-money payments to women and the indictment released on Tuesday — will require intense preparation.

“Obviously, under normal circumstances, it is impossible to prepare for more than one criminal trial at a time,” said Barry Boss, a leading white-collar criminal defence attorney.

The investigations are also dominating Trump’s campaign spending. So far this year, the former president’s political operation has spent more on legal fees defending him, his staff, and his allies than on travel, rallies, and other campaign expenses combined, an AP analysis found.

If he is elected anew, he could direct his attorney general to dismiss the federal cases, fire prosecutors, or test the limits of presidential power by trying to pardon himself. But those efforts would only apply to the federal cases, not the state criminal charges he faces in New York or could face in Georgia.

Even if Trump does not end up the nominee, a different Republican president would likely face enormous pressure from Trump to drop the charges to placate his supporters — a type of pressure no president has faced since Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, for his Watergate crimes.

But so far, Trump has faced little political fallout from his indictments, his big lead over Republican challengers even growing as they struggle to respond. At the same time, he has used the prospect of jail time to try to raise cash.

(With AP inputs)

Updated: 03 Aug 2023, 06:44 AM IST