This week the last federal criminal case against Donald Trump was dropped. It's a dramatic end to a year in which began with Trump facing nearly 100 criminal charges connected to the two federal cases and others. It was unprecedented legal territory for a former president, becoming the first to face a criminal trial and later conviction, in a case tied to a payment made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. With just under two months until he's back in office, is he likely to use the Justice Department to pursue his enemies, and will there be wholesale pardons for people convicted for the January 6 riots? HOSTS: * Sarah Smith, North America editor * Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter * Marianna Spring, Disinformation and Social Media Correspondent GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email Americast@bbc.co.uk * Or use #Americast This episode was made by Chris Flynn with Rufus Gray and George Dabby. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm
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I like it because it's political warfare, as you would call it, or political lawfare, another name.
I got a lot of names for it, but usually it takes place in third World cup in Banana Republic.
This was a sham trial, but when you have an opportunity to see it up close and personal, you can see it's actually a scam trial.
You know, if I started a story with a convicted felon in a hooker walk into a bar, you would immediately know that it's a joke.
That's what we have here, a joke of a trial.
This is a made up crime.
It's like the Mr.
Potato Head doll of crimes where they had to stick together.
A bunch of things that did not belong together.
That was Donald Trump and some of his closest allies complaining about the legal cases that were brought against him over the course of the last year or so, which they repeatedly called a legal witch hunt and said was the political weaponization of the Justice Department.
Well, he's about to be in charge of that department and it seems that winning re election has made a lot of his legal problems simply disappear.
Two of the most important cases have been dropped.
Two of them are pretty much at a standstill and he's going to put his guys in to run this very department.
Could that mean he'll be indulging in that political lawfare he was complaining about?
That's what we'll be discussing.
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