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Mr. Trump has been charged in Florida and Manhattan, and federal and state prosecutors in other locations have initiated several inquiries.
Former President Donald Trump faces a multitude of investigations at both the federal and state levels, pertaining to matters related to his business and political careers, throughout the country.
A.fter leaving the office, he obstructed the government’s efforts to recover them, whether it was related to Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents or as part of the special counsel’s investigation. He has been indicted in two federal criminal cases, including charges of being involved.
In the documents related to the Mr. Trump case, there are 37 criminal counts he faces, including making false statements, possessing classified information, concealing information related to national defense, and withholding related information.
In A.pril 2016., Mr. Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts in Manhattan relating to his role in a hush-money scheme described by prosecutors as a potential cover-up for a potential sex scandal, clearing his path to the presidency.
Jack Smith, the special counsel in charge of the documents case, is currently investigating Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss in the 2020 elections and his involvement in the incidents that resulted in the Capitol being stormed on Jan. 6, 2021.
In that particular state, a Georgia prosecutor is nearing the completion of an investigation into Mr. Trump’s endeavors to overturn the election outcomes.
This is where the significant investigations concerning the previous president stand.
Manhattan Criminal Case
During the campaign, Mr. Trump’s role in the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn star, who was poised to go public with her story of a sexual encounter with him, brought the case over to L. A.lvin Bragg, the district attorney of Manhattan.
Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, was once reimbursed by President Trump for $130,000, as he testified under oath.
While it is not inherently criminal to pay hush money, Mr. Trump is accused by Mr. Bragg of falsifying records related to the reimbursement and payments to Mr. Cohen, who is expected to serve as the prosecution’s key witness.
The National Enquirer finalized a $150,000 settlement with Ms. McDougal, a previous Playboy model who had attempted to vend her narrative of a romantic involvement with Mr. Trump throughout the campaign. Prosecutors additionally referenced the testimony of another individual, Karen McDougal, in legal documents.
A.ccording to prosecutors, the tabloid concealed it in collaboration with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen instead of making her story public. (Mr. Trump has refuted allegations of affairs with both Ms. Daniels and Ms. McDougal.)
A.lthough it ultimately determined that the National Enquirer paid $30,000 for the rights to his story, his assertion was proven to be untrue. The court documents also make mention of a previous Trump Tower doorman who alleged that Mr. Trump had fathered a child outside of marriage.
In March, when the campaign will be in full gear, the lawsuit is set to be tried once more and Mr. Trump is vying for the presidency.
Before his indictment, Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Bragg, a Democrat and a Black individual, as a “racist” who is politically motivated and carrying out a “witch hunt” in his reminiscent statements made in the days before the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
A.fter his arraignment, Mr. Trump delivered a meandering rally-style speech at Mar-a-Lago, during which he lashed out at Judge Merchan M. Juan, who is overseeing the case, as well as Mr. Bragg and his wife, calling them “Trump-hating.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers recently sought to move the case out of state court, signaling that he was unlikely to move the case to either a federal judge or another New York Supreme Court judge. The request was made in June before Justice Merchan’s courtroom.
Mr. Vance’s prosecutors were examining Trump’s business strategies, such as whether he had deceitfully exaggerated the worth of his properties in order to obtain advantageous loans and other monetary perks. They had commenced the presentation of evidence to a prior grand jury under the previous district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., In the district attorney’s office. Initially, Mr. Bragg’s inquiry into Mr. Trump seemed to have reached an impasse. The prosecutors working for Mr. Vance were also looking into the payments made to keep information confidential.
The investigation was headed by the two senior prosecutors who stepped down due to Mr. Bragg’s choice to forgo the grand-jury presentation, as he grew apprehensive about the validity of that case during the initial weeks of his tenure in the previous year.
However, during the previous summer, the prosecutors of Mr. Bragg revisited the hush-money case, aiming to revitalize the investigation.
The first visible sign of progress came in January when Mr. Cohen met with prosecutors at the Lower Manhattan district attorney’s office for the first time in nearly a year, returning for additional interviews and testifying before the grand jury.
The grand jury also heard testimony from employees of the Trump Organization. Two senior officials from Mr. Trump’s 2016. campaign, Conway Kellyanne and Hope Hicks, testified, as well as former lawyer Ms. Daniels’s former broker, who helped broker the hush-money deal, and two former executives from the National Enquirer, as well as Mr. Cohen. This testimony was heard by the grand jury impaneled by Mr. Bragg in January.
In the late 2022, A.llen H. Weisselberg, the long-standing chief financial officer of the company, admitted his guilt at the Rikers Island jail complex and served his sentence after a jury found the business guilty of numerous serious crimes associated with a prolonged tax fraud plan. The Trump Organization was successfully convicted by Mr. Bragg’s prosecution team.
A.s part of the inquiry, the Westchester County district attorney’s office subpoenaed records from the Trump National Golf Club Westchester course in 2021. In New York, Mr. Trump faced a second criminal investigation concerning financial transactions at a golf course owned by the Trump Organization in Westchester County.
No charges were filed against Mr. Trump or his company, as announced by Mimi E. Rocah, the district attorney, when she declared the conclusion of the investigation in June 2023.
New York State Civil Inquiry
James accused Mr. Trump of fraudulently overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars, deceiving insurers and lenders, according to a lawsuit filed in September by Letitia James, the A.ttorney General of New York.
Once again in New York, a company operated by Mr. Trump’s elder sons, Donald Jr. A.nd Eric, is attempting to prevent the Trump family, which includes Ms. James. Following the discovery that the attorney general had failed to meet a legal deadline to file charges against Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s older daughter, she was initially included in the lawsuit but was later removed from it in June.
In her lawsuit, the attorney general claims that the corporation inflated the worth of its possessions, leading Ms. James to effectively advocate for the selection of an impartial overseer to monitor the Trump Organization’s utilization of its yearly financial reports.
In the autumn, the probability of him encountering a trial in the issue grew when a New York judge refused to dismiss the attorney general’s lawsuit against Mr. Trump in January.
If successful in court, a judge may impose significant monetary fines on Mr. Trump and limit his business activities in New York. To expedite the process of receiving financial compensation, she may choose to engage in settlement talks. It is not possible for her to press criminal charges since Ms. James’s inquiry is of a civil nature.
Ms. James’s detectives recently interrogated Mr. Trump under a sworn statement. A. court case is planned for October.
Classified Documents Inquiry
Mr. Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Department of Justice to oversee inquiries into the former president Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents, faced obstacles in his efforts to recover them.
Based on official records, Mr. Trump consistently opposed the attempts made by the federal government, which included a subpoena, to recover classified and sensitive information that he still had in his control for over a year.
In A.ugust, the FBI executed a court-approved search warrant on Mar-a-Lago, the club and residence of Palm Beach, Fla., Where they discovered and classified 100 bearing documents.
The 38-count, 49-page indictment stated that Mr. Trump held detailed documents on potential vulnerabilities of other countries and included programs involving sensitive nuclear matters.
A.ccording to prosecutors, at Mar-a-Lago, he exhibited a stack of boxes in a restroom to individuals who lacked security authorizations and stored them in a disorganized fashion on occasion.
The indictment contained evidence that vividly depicted Mr. Trump’s readiness to conceal the information from investigators.
Extract it carefully, particularly if there are any significantly negative contents, and bring them along to your hotel room. “Why not?” Suggested Mr. Trump, as described by one of his attorneys. The account further detailed that during the government’s attempt to recover the documents, the indictment highlighted how, at a certain moment, the evidence posed a significant challenge for the ex-president.
Mr. Trump was charged with 37 criminal counts, covering seven different federal law violations, in conjunction with or alongside one of his personal aides, Nauta Walt, who was also named in the indictment.
He entered a plea of not guilty during his arraignment on June 13.
Georgia Criminal Inquiry
Georgia prosecutors recently indicated that they would announce indictments in the first half of A.ugust regarding the investigation of Mr. Trump and some of his allies. This investigation is focused on their attempts to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.
Mr. Trump had numerous interactions with officials in Georgia after the election, including a call in which he urged Brad Raffensperger, the state’s secretary, to find the number of votes needed for President Biden to overcome.
Legal professionals suggest that Mr. Trump and others may face a significant possibility of being prosecuted for breaking several Georgia laws, such as the state’s racketeering statute.
A. special grand jury was impaneled in Fulton County last May, where 75 witnesses testified behind closed doors over a series of months. The final report, which includes important elements and recommendations, suggests that those who have charges remaining should be indicted.
She expressed, “It’s not brain surgery.” She stated, “You won’t be surprised.” In that list of names, Mr. Trump was mentioned, and she insinuated strongly during an interview with The New York Times in February that recommendations for indictments were made against over twelve individuals, as stated by the forewoman, Emily Kohrs.
Mr. Trump has criticized the proceedings in Georgia, and his attorneys have described them as a “circus-like spectacle.” In March, his legal team submitted a motion aiming to prevent the use of any evidence or testimony obtained from the special grand jury’s investigation. The motion also requests for the disqualification of Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney and a member of the Democratic party, from participating in the case.
In response, Ms. Willis stated that the legal team of Trump did not meet the “stringent” standards for having a disqualified prosecutor, as scholars believe that the work of prosecutors in derailing the investigative process, backed by a number of evidences, has little chance for motion.
Recently, in a letter to local officials, she indicated that during the first three weeks of A.ugust, while working remotely, most of her staff would not be present at the downtown A.tlanta courthouse. She also mentioned that she would bring them before a regular grand jury and ultimately seek their decision on the charges.
Jan. 6 Inquiries
A.fter his loss in the November 2020 election, Mr. Trump and his supporters had involvement in his attempts to maintain control, which the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6th dedicated a year and a half to scrutinizing.
In December, a committee issued an exhaustive report-page 845, disclosing the events that led to the attack on the Capitol and revealing that Mr. Trump and his associates had devised a multipart plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The panel additionally charged Mr. Trump with provoking rebellion and participating in a plot to deceive the United States, along with various other federal offenses. They referred him and a few of his associates to the Justice Department for potential legal action.
The referrals were largely symbolic, but they sent a powerful signal to a bipartisan committee in Congress, indicating that the crimes committed by the former president were believed to be significant.
Mr. Smith’s office has been conducting its own investigation into attempts by nearly 1,000 people who took part in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. These individuals are also facing charges filed by federal prosecutors in Washington, who have been working on the case for months. Their goal was to overturn the election, which was also targeted by Mr. Trump.
Following the election, legal authorities have additionally pursued details regarding Mr. Trump’s primary fundraising venture. Notably, the special counsel’s office has placed emphasis on a strategy to fabricate counterfeit groups of pro-Trump electors in pivotal swing states that were won by Mr. Biden. The special counsel’s office has concentrated its investigation on a diverse range of tactics employed by Mr. Trump and his supporters in an attempt to prevent their loss.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows have been compelled to give testimony in front of a grand jury, due to rulings made by judges in Washington regarding its investigation. The special counsel’s office has recently achieved significant victories in legal disputes.
A.ccording to two individuals who have been briefed on the matter, there is a possibility that individuals who have been involved in the firing of the official in charge of cybersecurity at the agency responsible for judging the 2020 A.merican election, may have recently been subpoenaed by members of the White House staff from the Trump administration. Prosecutors will continue to pursue a variety of angles in order to uncover any potential evidence that may arise from the federal investigation, although it remains uncertain what charges, if any, may result from it.
Mr. Smith’s team has been asking witnesses about the events surrounding the firing of Christopher Krebs, the top cybersecurity official of Trump’s administration, who was Mr. Krebs, the official assessment of the election security’s odds at with Mr. Trump’s baseless assertions that it was “fraud a”.
Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush, Jonah E. Bromwich, Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Michael Gold, Michael Rothfeld, Ed Shanahan, Richard Fausset, and A.shley Wong collaborated on the journalism.
Ben Protess is an investigative reporter covering various criminal investigations and federal law enforcement activities involving former President Trump and his associates. Learn more about Ben Protess.
Danny Hakim is an investigative journalist. He has served as the European economics correspondent and bureau chief in A.lbany and Detroit. He has also been a lead reporter on the Pulitzer Prize-winning team in 2009, specializing in breaking news. To learn more about Danny Hakim, please continue reading.
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