Trump, who has faced a slew of legal accusations, is expected to turn himself in Tuesday in New York over a $130,000 payment allegedly made to an adult film star to buy her silence during his 2016 campaign over an affair.“There is evidence out there that democracies can be, and are, able to hold former leaders accountable,” said Shelley Inglis, a former United Nations expert on democratic governance and rule of law who is now at the University of Dayton.
The most frequent international comparison to Trump has been Italian tycoon and three-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has faced dozens of trials, including over alleged bribery and sex with an underage girl.Why not sooner in US? In Brazil, leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was jailed for corruption, although the conviction was overturned and he is again president.
But Nixon paid a price – uniquely in US history, he was forced to resign as president, after support within his Republican Party deteriorated. At the global level, prosecuting former leaders “is not only something that has happened historically, but it’s becoming increasingly common,” Long said.