Donald Trump Is ‘Desperate’ To Remain President To Avoid Prison Time, Journalist Says
Journalist Jim Clancy believes that Donald Trump’s recent attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election are motivated by a fear of going to prison after leaving the White House.
“It’s almost like Pres. Trump is desperate to stay in the White House to keep himself out of prison.,” he tweeted on Saturday.
The writer’s comment was a response to reporting from The Guardian on Trump’s early return from Washington amid the plot to challenge the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Wednesday. The publication noted that the announcement the U.S. leader cut his holiday trip to Mar-a-Lago short came hours after Republican senator Josh Hawley announced that he would be objecting to the ratification of Biden’s win.
“It was not clear what triggered the president’s change of plans. He declined to answer questions upon boarding for his flight back to the White House on Thursday morning,” the report read.
Clancy is not the only one to suggest that Trump’s battle against the election is motivated by fear of prison time. According to Vanity Fair, the head of state has privately expressed worry about the legal scrutiny he will face after his time in office, including the existing New York investigations and possible new federal probes.
“In unguarded moments, Mr. Trump has for weeks told advisers that he expects to face intensifying scrutiny from prosecutors if he loses.”
Still, Clancy’s comment came before The Washington Post’s report on Trump’s alleged phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who he purportedly pressured to overturn the state’s section in his favor. Attorney Seth Abramson claimed that the U.S. leader’s reported actions meet the definition of a federal crime as outlined by 52 U.S. Code Section 20511. According to Abramson, Trump’s purported crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Whether Trump ends up in prison or not, he has already faced many legal battles throughout his life that have thus far failed to send him behind bars. In a piece for The New Yorker, Jane Mayer argued before the election that Trump’s apparent string of luck with the law might be set to run out and compared his situation to former President Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign after the Watergate scandal that sent many of his top aides and advisers to prison.
“Given that more than a dozen investigations and civil suits involving Trump are currently under way, he could be looking at an endgame even more perilous than the one confronted by Nixon.”
