The FBI raid into former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate has caused many Americans to speculate about the next actions that the Justice Department will take in their investigation and if the former President will be charged.
The midterm elections are less than a month ago, and if the DOJ charges Trump during this time, it would break their policy which stops them from investigating or filing charges within 60 days of an election. This policy tries to eliminate the possible influence that the charges could have on race.
The DOJ has already faced a lot of criticism about its handling of Trump’s case, and it could come under more fire if it chooses to charge Trump so close to the midterm election. Still, it is important to remember that Trump is technically not on the ballot in November. However, he has backed 460 candidates and he has so far had a 92 percent success rate in the primaries.
According to the 60-day rule, the last day for charges before the election was September 10. Simultaneously, the request for a special master who has been appointed with looking through all of the recovered documents also sets back the DOJ. Former prosecutor Shanlon Wu told Newsweek that the DOJ had only just managed to get the classified documents back, and therefore the chances that they would be charging within the next month were low.
A former federal prosecutor and state attorney Michael McAuliffe also said that there was almost zero chance of Trump being arrested before November 8th. He said that outside of the delays faced by the DOJ, Trump was also facing four other investigations and charges.
