Donald Trump's fear of going to jail could keep him from the presidency in the 2024 election, his former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said.
The former president, who remains the overwhelming front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination, is facing four criminal cases. Federal prosecutors have charged him in connection with the Department of Justice's investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as the case involving classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
In New York City, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with falsifying business documents in connection to a hush money payment made to an adult film actress during his 2016 campaign. And Georgia prosecutors have charged him for allegedly attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in that state.
Trump maintains his innocence in all of the cases and has pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges. He has accused prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes, saying the cases are aimed at damaging his presidential campaign.
Trump has vowed to stay in the presidential race even if he is convicted of a crime, as he is legally allowed to run regardless of whether or not he is convicted. But if he is convicted and runs, it would mean unchartered territory for U.S. presidential politics.
Mulvaney outlined how Trump's legal woes could play out in an opinion piece published in The Hill Wednesday morning.
He described an "outlandish" scenario in which President Joe Biden offers Trump a deal if the former president is convicted. Under that agreement, Biden would pardon Trump in exchange for his dropping out of the presidential race. Biden would then end his 2024 campaign to assure Americans that the deal was not done to make his reelection chances easier.
Mulvaney predicted Trump would ultimately accept that offer. While he said the scenario is not likely to happen, he described how the former president might approach such an offer to avoid serving time in prison
"Trump pauses, and in an instant contemplates the prospect of spending the rest of his life in jail. And equally bad, in his mind, he considers the permanent tarnishing of his 'brand,'" Mulvaney wrote.
He continued: "He also struggles with the realization that one of his favorite half-jokes has been turned back on him in haunting fashion: it is always interesting, he has commented many times, how people can change their minds when they 'realize that they are going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly.'"
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.
Mulvaney served as Trump's chief of staff from January 2019 to March 2020. He later served as the special U.S. envoy for Northern Ireland. He resigned from that post following the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when Trump supporters violently tried to block certification of Biden's Electoral College victory.
"I called [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo last night to let him know I was resigning from that. I can't do it. I can't stay," Mulvaney said at the time.
In June, Mulvaney predicted that the chances Trump will face jail time are "pretty high."
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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