#legalliabilities

Donald Trump Scott Olson/Getty Images With Election Day approaching and his poll numbers still flagging, President Donald Trump has allegedly begun to express concerns to aides about the potential criminal liabilities which may await him in a post-White House life. The threats are broad: Trump's businesses are currently under investigation by the New York State attorney general and the Manhattan District Attorney's office for possible tax and financial crimes. He is also worried about the potential for new federal investigations, And according to a newly report from The New York Times.

Politics President Trump tells advisers that he fears prosecution if he loses the election: report Salon Roger Sollenberger ,Salon•November 2, 2020

This article originally appeared here on Salon.com

With Election Day approaching and his poll numbers still flagging, President Donald Trump has allegedly begun to express concerns to aides about the potential criminal liabilities which may await him in a post-White House life.

The threats are broad: Trump's businesses are currently under investigation by the New York State attorney general and the Manhattan District Attorney's office for possible tax and financial crimes. He is also worried about the potential for new federal investigations, And according to a newly report from The New York Times.

Trump has reportedly expressed these concerns to advisers "for weeks." Aside from the known state and local probes, The Times did not specify which specific liabilities might have unnerved the president at the federal level.

The difference is significant, because presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes; they do not extend to state and local levels. The constitutional question of whether Trump would pardon himself before leaving office — which no president has tried — has simmered throughout his term. It even came up during Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings last month.

While former special counsel Robert Mueller's final report did not directly accuse Trump of any crimes, "it also does not exonerate him." Though Mueller laid out what many legal experts called textbook examples of obstruction of justice, he did not make a decision "either way" about whether to prosecute Trump. The lack of conclusion maddened the president's supporters and detractors alike.

That decision largely — but not solely, according to testimony from Attorney General William Barr — hinged on existing Department of Justice guidance which bars a sitting president from be criminally prosecuted. That same guidance deterred federal prosecutors from listing Trump as a co-conspirator by name in the indictment which ultimately sent his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to federal prison.