Former President Donald Trump will likely grow more aggressive as his legal battles play out alongside his reelection bid, said legal analyst Andrew Weissmann.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has three pending criminal indictments against him as he vies for another shot at the White House. The charges range from state-level racketeering accusations in Georgia to violations of the Espionage Act related to his handling of classified documents found at his personal estate in Florida.
Trump is also accused of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, and he made history in May by becoming the first former U.S. president to be criminally convicted in the Manhattan hush-money case. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and claims the indictments are an attempt to “interfere” with his reelection campaign.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday, Weissmann, a law professor at New York University and a former FBI general counsel, said that Trump’s plethora of legal woes were likely adding pressure ahead of November, and warned that the stress would lead to a “more violent” version of Trump.
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“GIVEN THE DISTINCT PROSPECT OF JAIL, TRUMP IS GOING TO GET UGLIER, MORE RACIST, MORE VIOLENT, MORE CRIMINAL,” Weissmann wrote, who said he was writing in all caps in order to make his point “emphatically.”
“FOR HIM, IT IS NOW ‘NO HOLDS BARRED’ TIME,” he added. “THE MEDIA AND LAW ENFORCEMENT NEED TO BE ON ALERT!”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
It is unclear if Trump will face jail time for any of the charges against him. In his felony conviction in Manhattan, where he was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to a hush money payment to a porn star during the 2016 election, each charge is a class E felony, which under New York law carries as maximum prison sentence of four years. Trump is currently set to face sentencing in the case on September 18.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek on Thursday that he expects Trump will be sentenced to probation in the hush money case, noting, “Home confinement is unlikely during a presidential election, and incarceration with Secret Service protection is even less likely and a logistical nightmare.”
Rahamani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, added over email that it was also unlikely for Trump to face jail time for his classified documents case, where presiding Judge Aileen Cannon “appears to be biased in Trump’s favor.” That case was dismissed by Cannon last month, and special counsel Jack Smith has appealed that decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Bottom line is, it’s far from certain or even likely that Trump will be jailed,” Rahmani said.
Jailed or not, other legal experts agree with Weissmann that Trump is likely to be on the “offense” in response to his pending cases.
“Donald Trump’s strategy for his legal troubles—criminal and civil—has been that the best defense is an aggressive offense,” said Michael McAuliffe, a former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney. “That approach has brought some victories, but it also has resulted in felony convictions and hundreds of millions of dollars of civil liability.”
McAuliffe noted over email that Trump wasn’t just facing pressure inside the courtroom as well. In recent weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris has held the momentum in the 2024 race and closed the gap that Trump once enjoyed with President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.
“Layered over all that is a changed presidential campaign,” McAuliffe said. “His [Trump’s] position is demonstrably weaker than when Biden was the likely nominee. His lack of campaign momentum combine with his legal exposure to create a new kind of chaos—one he can’t control.”
“His history of counter-attack when he is being pushed back is predictable,” he continued. “What’s changed is that his aggressiveness is starting to be viewed as weakness, not strength. That creates a perverse incentive for Trump to engage in even more extreme conduct to keep the public’s attention.”
McAuliffe added that one recent example of Trump attempting to re-engage attention on his campaign was his attacks against Harris’ racial background during an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week.
“Trump’s almost inexplicable attack about Harris’s multiracial background is an example of an all words, no thought move,” McAuliffe said. “And the country should worry about not just more vitriolic actions by Trump, but similar extremist conduct by his most committed loyalists.”
