Donald Trump criminal charges for 6 January could strain 2024 candidacy

Analysts are considering the political and legal implications for Donald Trump as he faces criminal charges for efforts to overturn 2020 election.

The former president is accused of four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.

The indictment is “breath-taking” and historic, wrote Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, because “not since the framers emerged from Independence Hall on that clear, cool day in Philadelphia 236 years ago” has a former president been accused of “plotting to hold on to power” in an “elaborate scheme of deception and intimidation that would lead to violence in the halls of Congress”.

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The indictment “instantly became one of the most consequential documents in American history”, said CNN, and its “harrowing details” of a “clear and chilling alleged plot” will “reverberate for years to come”.

Yet “even as the criminal proceedings against him pile up”, Trump is “betting that he can use them to his political benefit”, said the Financial Times, “at least in the race for the Republican presidential nomination”.

The indictments “could still strain his candidacy”, it added, “especially if he faces trials in several jurisdictions next year”. Democrats hope Trump’s legal problems will “alienate” the independent and swing voters who “turned their backs” on his preferred candidates in last November’s midterm elections.

Then there is the obvious legal peril itself. His “pettifoggery” is unlikely to work in a federal trial, wrote Jacob Heilbrunn for The Spectator, “where patience for his well-known antics will be at an all-time low”. So, as he campaigns for a “new term in the presidency” Trump “may discover that he can run but he can’t hide”, he added.