The hypothetical benefit of the civil approach is that it would at least offer some financial accountability for Trump without the potential downsides of criminal action. “I expect there to be some accountability on that conduct related to his personal business matters.” attorney in the Southern District of New York. “It remains unclear whether Donald Trump will be charged criminally, but I would fully expect there to be a civil enforcement action by the New York attorney general against him and the Trump Organization that may severely cripple the Trump Organization and potentially put it out of business,” said Daniel Goldman, the chief counsel for House investigators in Donald Trump’s first impeachment and a former assistant U.S. 6, 2021 New York Attorney General Tish James’ civil probe of Trump’s business Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal investigation of Trump’s business Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ criminal investigation of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election in Georgia and Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah’s criminal investigation of the Trump Organization’s Westchester golf course. Those investigations include the Department of Justice team looking into Jan. Those investigators, in various ways and to various degrees, seem to be dithering in deciding whether or not to prosecute Trump and his top allies. Ultimately, the various prosecutors investigating the former president have done nothing to demotivate Trump and his supporters from continuing their assault on democracy. Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.Īnd then, of course, there’s the former president himself, who New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said last week “is running” for president in 2024 “barring a significant change.” Trump continues to send out weekly missives against “cowards” and “many Republican leaders who didn’t act” to overturn the election, signaling another coup attempt would be on the table in 2024. Other leaders in Trump’s coup attempt, like former Roger Stone associate Jason Sullivan, continue to push the Big Lie and threaten violence against political opponents. Steve Bannon, for instance, has spent recent months helping to organize hundreds of fellow coup supporters to take over local election apparatuses ahead of the 2024 election, despite being under indictment for contempt of Congress. “If they’re not going to exercise, then we need to find people who will,” Eastman told the crowd.Įastman does not appear at all chastened by the threat of legal consequences for his actions. Among the ringleaders of the attempted 2020 coup, this cavalier attitude is not unusual. Indeed, video from a closed-door event in March showed Eastman rousing a crowd to pressure Wisconsin legislators to decertify the state’s 2020 election results. Last week, ABC News reported that John Eastman-the former Trump attorney at the center of the plot to overturn the 2020 election-was still at it.

The plot to subvert an election