Donald Trump made several promises to the American people in his victorious presidential campaign. He pledged to curb inflation, slash burdensome regulations, and strengthen the southern border. To deliver on those promises, however, he’ll need to be freed from his looming court proceedings—and from all anti-democratic attempts to use the legal system to harass the nation’s duly elected president.
After Trump left office in 2020, Democrats filed a spate of lawsuits against him, seeking to seal off his political future. Some Democratic prosecutors won their offices, effectively, on “getting Trump.” The lawsuits that they and other politically motivated officials filed not only imposed significant financial burdens on the outgoing president but also forced Trump and his team to spend untold hours in legal preparation, impairing their ability to focus on the 2024 campaign.
Many of Trump’s legal woes at the federal level are still pending, but they won’t be for long. Special prosecutor Jack Smith’s cases against Trump—for alleged election interference and mishandling of classified documents—will no doubt be suspended, since the Department of Justice can’t prosecute a sitting president. Reuters reports that the department is considering how to “wind down” the prosecutions. That Smith’s various prosecutions will no longer vaporize public funds should be welcome news to taxpayers of all political persuasions.
While the federal cases will conclude, Trump faces numerous state cases not subject to DOJ control. In Georgia, for example, the president-elect faces another election-interference case, despite the laughably corrupt conduct of local district attorney Fani Willis. He also is an unindicted co-conspirator in cases brought by left-wing attorneys general in Arizona and Michigan. For the sake of the country, these prosecutors should nolle prosequi—permanently drop—these pending cases.
Early signs are not promising, however. Despite Democrats’ election rhetoric in the wake of Trump’s victory about setting aside division and working together, they have wasted no time in relaunching what the Washington Times described as a “political retribution machine.” An organization called “Dem Turnout” has reportedly mass-texted Americans with the message “sign the petition to pass Chuck Schumer’s ‘No Kings Act’ and strip Trump of his immunity.” Unable to win at the ballot box, Democrats are telegraphing their intention to undermine American democracy—and Trump—by again abusing the legal system.
Trump’s election victory, in the face of unprecedented legal challenges, ought to chasten his opponents. The time has come for partisans to set aside their lawfare campaigns and let the duly elected president-elect get to work for the American people.
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