Trump's prosecution is unprecedented within the US – but other countries have also prosecuted former politicians

A jury in Manhattan on May 30, 2024 convicted former President Donald Trump He is accused of falsifying business documents in reference to the cover-up of his relationship with a porn star.

Although this process is now over, Trump still faces three further charges: the state case against Trump and 18 others alleging they attempted to rig the 2020 election in Georgia; the federal indictment accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election; and a second federal indictment alleging that Trump illegally stored classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after the tip of his presidency and obstructed efforts to recuperate those documents.

While the indictment of a former president for criminal offenses was a primary within the United States under Trump, in other countries former heads of state routinely investigated, prosecuted and even imprisoned.

In March 2021, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to 1 12 months in prison for corruption and influence peddling. Later that 12 months, a trial began against Israel's long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in reference to breach of trust, bribery and fraud; it just isn’t yet finished. And Jacob Zuma, the previous President of South Africa, who accused of cash laundering and arranged crimeprobably is in court in 2025 after years of delay.

At first glance, Prosecution of current or former senior officials Being accused of illegal behavior appears to be an obvious selection for a democracy: everyone needs to be subject to the rule of law.

But presidents and prime ministers will not be just anyone. They are elected by the residents of a rustic or their parties to guide. They are sometimes popular, sometimes revered. So legal proceedings against them are inevitably perceived as political and result in divisions.

Destabilizing law enforcement

This is partly the explanation US President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, his predecessor, in 1974. Despite clear evidence of criminal misconduct within the Watergate scandal, Ford feared the country can be “necessarily prevented from facing our challenges if we remained deeply divided as a people” over the punishment of the previous president.

Public response by the point was divided along party lines. Today now you see Nixon's acquittal as mandatory to Heal the Nationwhile others consider it was a historic mistake, even taking into consideration Nixon's deteriorating health have in mind – if only since it encourages future impunity of the sort Trump is accused of.

Our research on the prosecution of leading politicians concludes that each broad immunity and overzealous prosecutions can undermine democracy. However, such prosecutions pose different risks for older democracies similar to France and the United States than for younger democracies similar to South Africa.

Mature democracies

Strong democracies normally have sufficient competence – and a sufficiently independent judiciary – to prosecute politicians, including high-ranking politicians, who behave badly.

Sarkozy is the second modern president of France to be convicted of corruption, after Jacques Chirac in 2011 for bribery and attempted bribery of a judge. The country didn’t collapse after each convictions, and Sarkozy now faces additional charges related to Alleged illegal campaign financing from Libya.

In mature democracies, prosecutions that Holding leaders accountable can consolidate the rule of law. South Korea investigated and convicted five former presidents from the Nineteen Nineties onwards, a wave of political persecutions that began within the Impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in 2018 and shortly after, her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, was convicted and imprisoned.

Have these prosecutions deterred future leaders from committing wrongdoing? At least Korea's last two presidents have to date stayed out of legal trouble.

Overzealous law enforcement versus the rule of law

Even in mature democracies, prosecutors or judges can abuse law enforcement. But overzealous political prosecutions are more likely and potentially more damaging in emerging democracies, where courts and other public institutions not sufficiently independent from politicsThe weaker and more dependent the judiciary is, the better it’s for politicians to take advantage of the system, be it to expand their very own power or to overthrow an opponent.

Brazil embodies this dilemma.

Former President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silvaa former Shoe shiner became a preferred leftistwas arrested for bribery in 2018. Many Brazilians considered his indictment a politicized efforts to finish his professionBut Lula was elected in October 2022.

One 12 months later the identical prosecutor team accused the conservative former president Michel Temer of accepting bribes amounting to tens of millions. After the tip of his term in office in 2019 Temer was arrested; his process was later suspended.

The trials against the 2 Brazilian presidents were a part of a years-long, comprehensive judicial investigation into corruption that has seen dozens of politicians arrested. Even the lead prosecutor within the investigation is accused of corruption.

Depending in your perspective, Brazil’s crisis shows that nobody is above the law or that the federal government is irredeemably corrupt—or each. In the face of such confusion, it is less complicated for politicians and voters to view politicians' misdeeds as normal business practices.

For Lula, a conviction didn’t mean the tip of his profession. He was released from prison in 2019 and the Supreme Court later overturned his conviction. Lula won the 2022 presidential election against Jair Bolsonaro, with Bolsonaro now charged in reference to fraud in coping with the pandemic.

Stability versus responsibility

Mexico has historically taken a unique approach to prosecuting former presidents: it doesn’t.

In the twentieth century, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in Mexico established a system of Patronage and corruption The held its members in power and other parties within the minority. While they placed on a show, pursue smaller fish for small indiscretions, the legal system run by the PRI wouldn’t touch high-ranking party officialseven essentially the most obviously corrupt.

Impunity provided stability during Mexico's transition to democracy within the Nineteen Nineties, calming PRI members' fears of prosecution after they left office. But government corruption flourished, and with it organized crime.

However, that would change. In early August 2022, the Mexican Federal Prosecutor's Office confirmed that several investigations were underway in former PRI president Enrique Peña Nieto for alleged money laundering and election-related crimes, in addition to other crimes that appear to still be energetic.

Mexico is much from the one country that ignores the bad deeds of past leaders. Our research shows that only 23% of nations which have made the transition to democracy Between 1885 and 2004, former politicians were accused of crimes committed after democratization.

Protecting authoritarian regimes, including those answerable for human rights abuses, could seem at first glance to be contrary to democratic values. However, many transitional governments have concluded that such protection is mandatory for democracy to take hold.

This is the deal South Africa made when a long time of racial segregation and human rights abuses under apartheid resulted in the early Nineteen Nineties. South Africa's white-dominated government negotiated with Nelson Mandela's black-led African National Congress to be certain that outgoing government officials and supporters avoid prosecution and largely retain their assets.

This strategy helped the country Transition to majority black rule in 1994 and avoidance a civil war. But it damaged the efforts to create a more equal South Africa. As a result, the country has one in every of the the world's largest racial wealth gap.

Corruption can be an issue, as shown by the indictment of former President Zuma for the lavish private use of public funds. But South Africa has a famously independent judiciary. Despite delays and appeals, the indictment against Zuma continues, and he was barred from running for president this 12 months.

How ripe is ripe?

Israel is partly proof of the rule of law – but additionally partly a warning concerning the criminal prosecution of political leaders in democracies.

Israel didn’t wait until Netanyahu left office to analyze the misconduct. But several legal proceedings have been beset by delays, partially because Netanyahu used his state power to oppose what he called “Witch hunt.”

Netanyahu tried unsuccessfully to acquire immunity and stable while his Likud party cried foul. He was even re-elected while under indictment. In December 2023 the variety of trial days per week is restricted due to the war in Gaza, however the Cases are ongoing.

With Trump's Manhattan jury verdict, the trial revealed something fundamental about American democracy. Given its implications, the decision will likely be viewed as a matter of law in addition to politics.

This is a substantially updated version of an article originally published on March 16, 2021.