Trump cases: One down, three to go but unlikely before election

WASHINGTON, United States — The New York hush money case against Donald Trump was considered the weakest by many legal experts but it resulted in a stunning conviction and is likely to be the only one of the four facing the ex-president to be tried before the November election.

Trump, 77, has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on far more serious charges -- seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Republican, who is seeking to recapture the White House in November, also faces charges in Florida for allegedly hoarding top secret documents after leaving office in January 2021 and refusing to return them.

Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the New York case, in which Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to a porn star, was "relatively minor."

"Trump should have faced trial for trying to subvert the 2020 election," Hasen said on X, formerly Twitter. "That hasn't happened and likely won't."

Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor, said the New York hush money case was a much simpler case than the others, focused on "private conduct" by Trump before he became president.

"That allowed it to proceed more quickly because it didn't involve a lot of difficult constitutional questions," Eliason told AFP.

The other three cases facing Trump are considerably more complicated because they involve actions taken while he was president or after leaving the White House.

Trump had been set to go on trial in Washington on March 4 on the election subversion charges but the case has been frozen pending a Supreme Court ruling on his claim that a former president is immune from prosecution.

The conservative-dominated Supreme Court heard arguments on the immunity question at the end of April.

A ruling is expected by the end of June but it is unlikely a trial can take place before November, when Trump is expected to take on Biden in a rematch of their 2020 contest.

Trump is charged in Washington with conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing the January 6, 2021 joint session of Congress held to certify Biden's victory and conspiring to deny Americans the right