President-elect Donald Trump, President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden and billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk are just some of the prominent politicians ordered to go on trial in 2024. Not too much.
That year saw a flurry of election-related lawsuits in battleground states across the United States, special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the president-elect was discontinued, and a Supreme Court ruling in July expanded the view of presidential immunity. Many things happened. thing.
As the year draws to a close, we highlight some of the most important moments from the political courts of 2024.
Trump trial in Manhattan
President-elect Donald Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in April of 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, which he at the time called “corrupt.” At the trial, he vehemently criticized the incident, calling it a “disgrace.”
Mr. Trump's sentencing hearing, originally scheduled for July 11, was scheduled to begin in 2024, with the 2024 election and his status as the Republican presidential candidate scheduled for four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The case was adjourned by Judge Juan Marchand in Manhattan.
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Former President Donald Trump arrived at Manhattan criminal court with his defense team ahead of the start of jury selection in New York. (Javin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
His decisive victory in November put further pressure on Marchand to dismiss the charges.
Last week, Marchan granted Trump's motion to dismiss the charges, giving the president-elect's legal team until Dec. 2 to file a motion to dismiss and giving Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his prosecution team Dec. 9. I have given a deadline of up to a day. to respond.
Marchan also pushed back Trump's sentencing date, which Trump's press secretary and incoming White House communications director, Stephen Chan, described as a “decisive victory” for the president-elect.
Still, the case dominated headlines throughout the 2024 campaign, including President Trump's repeated characterization of the case as politically motivated and by the presiding judge as “corrupt.” It also included.
Federal lawsuit in Florida DC
Special Counsel Jack Smith moved this week to dismiss two federal lawsuits against President-elect Donald Trump. Trump's return to the White House and the Justice Department's longstanding policy of barring investigations of sitting presidents.
Mr. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate allegations that Mr. Trump and his allies sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and after Mr. Trump left the White House in 2020. Both were asked to investigate the storage of allegedly classified documents at a state residence. 2020.
Prosecutors are acting on an Office of the General Counsel memo first filed in 2000 that argues that the Justice Department's investigation of a sitting president violates separation of powers. It supports the claims made at the time of the incident. Such a proceeding “unreasonably interferes with the duties of the President in a direct or formal sense,” the memo said.
Smith and his team made clear in their filings that the closure of both cases does not reflect the lawsuits themselves, but is based solely on these protections afforded to sitting presidents. “This prohibition is categorical and does not override the seriousness of the crimes charged, the strength of the government's evidence, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government fully supports,” prosecutors said in the filing. mentioned in.
But Trump reveled in the outcome on social media. “I persevered despite all the adversity and won,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Supreme Court expands presidential immunity
The Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump should be granted absolute immunity from prosecution for actions taken while exercising his “core constitutional powers” as president. did. The 6-3 ruling, with the justices split along partisan lines, expanded the concept of presidential immunity not just to Trump, but also to past and future presidents.
The justices said the presumption of immunity also applies to other acts committed while in office.
However, the decision did not specify whether the president would have the same level of constitutional protection against state convictions, and the court has never heard the issue.
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Journalists work out of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Elon Musk sues over pro-Trump PAC's $1 million daily donations
Larry Krasner, Philadelphia's top prosecutor, said: Sue Elon Musk A PAC backed by President Trump is offering $1 million in daily giveaways to voters in battleground states in the run-up to the November 5th election, calling it an “illegal lottery” in violation of Pennsylvania law. It is an attempt to prevent this.
The civil suit alleged that both musk His political action committee, America PAC, offers daily giveaways that encourage “Philadelphians” and others in the Commonwealth to “give up their personal identifying information in exchange for a chance to win $1 million.” The government was encouraging the government to make a public pledge. It also claimed the giveaway violated Pennsylvania's consumer protection law, citing “deceptive” and “misleading” statements made by Musk about the nature of the contest.
Mr. Krasner's office and Mr. Musk's lawyers debated whether the case should be filed in federal or state court and when the proceedings should proceed. lost the bid).
Earlier this month, Musk's lawyers admitted to Judge Angelo Folietta that “there are no prizes up for grabs” and the winners “were not chosen at random.” Rather, Mr. Musk's lawyers said he had selected the best registrants to be spokespeople for the pro-Trump America PAC, and described the $1 million payment as a “salary” given to these people.
In response, Krasner called the plan “political marketing disguised as a lottery” and “disgusting.”
But ultimately, the prosecutor's office last week asked that the case against Musk and his America PAC be dropped.
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Elon Musk jumps onto the stage as former President Donald Trump speaks at an October campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Hunter Biden case: Testimony from ex-girlfriends, support from family
Hunter Biden's criminal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, dominated headlines this summer. A jury ultimately found Hunter guilty on all charges in the case, which centered on whether Hunter had made a false statement when purchasing a firearm in 2018, but Hunter's daughter Naomi Biden Personal family events, such as testimonies, have also come to light. As well as several ex-girlfriends. During the trial, Jill Biden was a regular in the courtroom, sitting behind her son as he faced several days of harrowing testimony.
Three of Hunter Biden's ex-girlfriends took the stand as part of that trial. The long list of witnesses also included Hunter's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhl, with whom he shares three children. Buhle said in her testimony that the two ended their relationship in 2017 after she discovered a cracked pipe on her balcony.
Hunter Biden arrived at the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The court also heard testimony from Harry Biden, Hunter's former sister-in-law and girlfriend, whom Hunter began dating in 2015 after Hunter's brother and Harry's husband, Beau, died of brain cancer. The two had an on-and-off relationship until around 2019, and in her testimony Harry described how Hunter introduced her to crack cocaine (she quit drinking in 2018).
“What I went through was a terrible experience, and I was embarrassed and ashamed. … I regret that period of my life,” Harry Biden told the court Thursday about his crack cocaine use.
A series of election-related lawsuits
Republican and Democratic lawyers filed a flurry of lawsuits in key battleground states ahead of Election Day, with the bulk of the legal challenges concentrated in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. — or the battleground states considered most likely to help elect the president.
High-profile cases also arose in Virginia and Pennsylvania, with two Supreme Court decisions handed down just days before the election.
In Virginia, the Supreme Court granted the state's emergency appeal to block a lower court's decision to restore the names of 1,600 voters to the state's voter rolls, and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin appealed. and a temporary victory for the state attorney general. The lawsuit goes to the Supreme Court.
In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that allowed certain provisional ballots to be counted, dealing a blow to the state Republican Party and the Republican National Committee.
Overall, lawsuits filed by political parties are not uncommon, analysts told Fox News Digital, but preliminary lawsuits have increased this year, with parties filing existing lawsuits in battleground and battleground states. It served as a kind of “substitute'' for recognition. Maybe I'll revisit it after the election.
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But that wasn't the case this year, as Trump was expected to win a decisive victory in the 2024 election. Republicans also regained and maintained majorities in the House and Senate.
“In the five presidential elections that I've covered, I don't think any pre-election challenges have had a significant impact,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital ahead of Election Day. he said.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.
