Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, securing a return to the White House four years after the end of his first term. The result put him on course to become both the 45th and 47th US president and only the second person in the country’s history to serve nonconsecutive terms.
The previous president to return after losing re-election was Grover Cleveland. Cleveland won in 1884, lost the Electoral College to Benjamin Harrison four years later despite a narrow popular-vote lead, and won again in 1892. Trump’s victory ended the 132-year interval since that precedent.
The election also created an unprecedented legal situation. Trump had been convicted in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and faced three other criminal cases. The supplied BBC reporting said he would be the first president to enter office with several criminal proceedings pending. How each case would proceed was unresolved on November 6.
New York conviction remains beyond presidential pardon
A New York jury found Trump guilty in May on all 34 counts connected to the recording of a payment to an adult-film actor. Judge Juan Merchan had postponed sentencing until November 26, after the election. The sentencing could still have gone ahead, although legal experts cited by the BBC considered imprisonment unlikely for an older first-time offender.
Any sentence could be appealed, potentially creating years of litigation. Because the conviction was brought under state law, presidential pardon power would not apply. No US president has attempted to pardon himself, but that unresolved federal question would not erase a New York state conviction.
Federal cases expected to wind down
Special counsel Jack Smith had charged Trump over efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. The case had been delayed after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have partial immunity from prosecution for official acts. Smith refiled the case, arguing that the alleged conduct at issue was not part of Trump’s official duties.
After Trump’s election, discussions began between his team and the office handling the federal cases about bringing them to an end, the BBC reported through its US partner CBS. A former federal prosecutor cited by the BBC expected the election case to be dismissed because a sitting president cannot be prosecuted. Trump had also said during the campaign that he would dismiss Smith if returned to office. These were expectations and stated intentions, not completed actions on the event date.
Smith was also appealing the dismissal of a separate federal case concerning classified documents kept at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property after his first term. Trump denied allegations that he mishandled sensitive material and obstructed government efforts to recover it. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case in July after finding that Smith had been improperly appointed. Talks about ending the appeal were under way after the election.
Georgia prosecution faces delay
Trump separately faced state charges in Georgia over efforts to reverse the 2020 election result there. That prosecution had already been slowed by litigation over whether District Attorney Fani Willis could remain on the case. Legal experts expected a trial to be paused while Trump served as president, though dismissal or a longer delay was also possible. As with the New York case, a president could not use federal pardon authority to dispose of state charges.
The November 6 result therefore settled Trump’s political return but not his legal exposure. Federal proceedings appeared likely to recede as he prepared to take office, while state cases posed constitutional and scheduling questions without clear precedent. His nonconsecutive victory had a historical comparison in Cleveland; the combination of electoral success, a felony conviction and unresolved prosecutions did not.
