Former President Trump And Fellow Conservatives Address Annual CPAC Meeting
Former President Donald Trump was indicted on March 30, 2023 related to payments made to adult film star, Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 election. It is reported that Mr. Trump will be treated essentially like any other defendant, meaning that he is likely to be fingerprinted, photographed for a mugshot, and swabbed for the state DNA database. If convicted, Trump’s DNA would be placed in criminal databases.
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The New York State DNA Database is part of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). CODIS, established in 1998, contains more than 20 million DNA profiles used to match DNA left at a crime scene with DNA profiles in the database. Through CODIS, DNA from convicted offenders can be shared among local, state and national databases to solve crimes.
But would Trump’s DNA be placed in any criminal databases upon arrest? Ironically, the New York City Office to the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) maintains an unregulated DNA index that includes people who have not been charged or convicted of crimes. New York City, where Trump will be booked, has been criticized for having the least restricted and most expansive DNA identification index in the country. Regulation of the use of this DNA database has been described as similarly lax, described as violating privacy rights of individuals who have not been convicted of crimes. Most of these arrestees are Black and Latino, in parallel with the racially disproportionate rates of arrest in NYC. The OCME index is massive, containing over 30,000 DNA profiles. The DNA is constantly being compared with the forensic index, looking for potential matches.
How does Trump feel about DNA and privacy?
When Trump was the President of the United States, his administration was in favor of collecting DNA from all migrants in government custody – including children as young as 14 years of age. Although only 1% of those migrants are estimated to have done something fraudulent, the Trump administration supported having 100% of those migrants’ DNA entered in the FBI criminal database. The vast majority of those migrants are black, brown, and poor.
How might Trump’s DNA be used?
Trump is currently being sued by E. Jean Carroll, an author and former Elle magazine columnist, who has accused Mr. Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Ms. Carroll has a dress she was wearing during that incident that is stained with a DNA sample she claims is from Trump. Ms. Carroll’s legal team requested a DNA sample from Mr. Trump for comparison and he refused until after the deadline to disclose evidence and one day after both parties filed a joint order agreeing that they would not call any DNA experts as witnesses. So, his DNA sample could not be used in the upcoming rape trial in April. However, if Ms. Carroll’s team somehow received access to Trump’s DNA results, it is possible that they could determine if the decades old sample on Ms. Carroll’s dress matches that of Mr. Trump – even if it cannot be used in court.
Ms. Carroll is one of 19 women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, but the only person who has accused him of rape thus far (aside from his first wife, who said that Trump raped her, but not in a literal or criminal sense). If another sexual assault accuser had a saved DNA sample, it is possible that the sample could be used for comparison against Mr. Trump’s DNA sample. There is a state-by-state statute of limitations for rape, so whether charges could be brought may depend on where such a crime was committed. However, the majority of states allow for statute of limitations to pause or extend when DNA evidence is available. New York State has no statute of limitation for rape, but a limitation of 5 years for other sexual assault charges – although there is a DNA exemption to the statute of limitations if there is a DNA match.
In addition to rape and sexual assault crimes, DNA has also been used to solve many other types of crimes, including murder, burglary, and assault. When DNA is left behind and collected at a crime scene, DNA can be used to track down the perpetrator.
So, will Donald Trump be treated like any other arrestee in New York City and have his DNA entered into the OCME index? If convicted, will his DNA be entered into CODIS? Another rich and (in)famous New Yorker once bragged that, “only the little people pay taxes”. We will soon learn if the same is true for entry into DNA databases.