Notable legal clouds that continue to hang over Donald Trump in 2023
By Dan Berman
It’s been nearly eight years since he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower and more than two years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection, but the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump has never been more intense.
In New York, a hush money payment to an adult film star has resulted in his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in the scheme — the first time in American history that a current or former president faces criminal charges.
In Atlanta, a select grand jury has investigated the efforts by Trump and allies to overturn his election loss in Georgia in 2020.
In Washington, a Justice Department special counsel is looking at the 2020 election aftermath and the removal of presidential documents to Florida.
Trump and his company deny any wrongdoing or criminality in all matters, state and federal, and he has aggressively maintained his innocence.
Here’s an updated list of notable investigations, lawsuits and controversies:
Hush-money payments: Trump pleads not guilty to criminal charges
Trump has been charged in Manhattan criminal court with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to his role in a hush money payment scheme involving adult film actress Stormy Daniels late in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The former president surrendered and was placed under arrest April 4, before he was arraigned in a historic and unprecedented court appearance, at which he pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors, led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, accuse Trump of falsifying business records with the intent to conceal illegal conduct connected to his 2016 presidential campaign.
The indictment has sent shockwaves across the country, pushing the American political system — which has never seen one of its ex-leaders confronted with criminal charges, let alone while running again for president — into uncharted waters.
The $130,000 payment was paid by former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to Daniels to remain quiet about an alleged affair between Daniels and Trump years earlier.
Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels and says the probe by Bragg, a Democrat, is politically motivated.
The next in-person hearing date for Trump’s case is currently set for December this year.
Mar-a-Lago documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material?
Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
The Justice Department investigation continues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office. A federal grand jury has interviewed potential witnesses regarding how Trump handled the documents.
RELATED: The big numbers from the Mar-a-Lago search
The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, including some classified records.
Any unauthorized retention or destruction of White House documents could violate a criminal law that prohibits the removal or destruction of official government records, legal experts told CNN.
2020 election and January 6: US Justice Department
Smith’s purview also includes the period after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden and leading up to the insurrection at the US Capitol.
As part of its investigation, the special counsel’s office has sought testimony from a number of key White House insiders, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Aspects of the Justice Department’s probe include the use of so-called fake electors from states that Trump falsely claimed he had won, such as Georgia and Arizona.
Trump has been fighting to keep former advisers from testifying about certain conversations, citing executive and attorney-client privileges to keep information confidential or slow down criminal investigators.
2020 election: Efforts to overturn Georgia results
Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis oversaw a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Willis, a Democrat, is considering bringing conspiracy and racketeering charges, CNN’s Don Lemon reported Monday.
The probe was launched in 2021 following Trump’s call that January with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he pushed the Republican to “find” votes to overturn the election results.
The grand jury issued a report — which remains mostly under seal — that found there was no widespread voter fraud in the state and also suggested perjury charges be considered against some people who testified.
Overall, the grand jury recommended charges against more than a dozen people, the foreperson said in interviews last month.
2020 election and January 6: House select committee
The House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack uncovered dramatic evidence of Trump’s actions before and on January 6, especially efforts to use the levers of government to overturn the election.
It issued an 845-page report — based on 1,000-plus interviews and documents collected, including emails, texts and phone records — that alleges Trump “oversaw” the legally dubious effort to put forward fake slates of electors in seven states he lost. Evidence shows, the report said, that Trump actively worked to “transmit false Electoral College ballots to Congress and the National Archives.”
In a symbolic move, the committee referred Trump to the Justice Department on at least four criminal charges before it concluded at the end of 2022, ahead of Republicans taking control of the House.
Trump Organization: Convicted of criminal tax fraud
Trump’s namesake business, the Trump Organization, was convicted in December by a New York jury of tax fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records in what prosecutors allege was a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation provided to employees.
Manhattan prosecutors told a jury the case is about “greed and cheating,” laying out an alleged 15-year scheme within the Trump Organization to pay high-level executives in perks like luxury cars and apartments without paying taxes on them.
Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to his role in the tax scheme and was sentenced to five months at Rikers Island. He will be released this summer.
Trump Organization: NY attorney general investigation
New York Attorney General Letitia James, after a lengthy investigation, sued Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization in September, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former president used to enrich himself.
James alleged the fraud touched all aspects of the Trump business, including its properties and golf courses. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization deceived lenders, insurers and tax authorities by inflating the value of his properties using misleading appraisals.
James is seeking $250 million in allegedly ill-gotten funds.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated based on the electoral ambitions of James, a Democrat.
A trial is set for October 2023.
E. Jean Carroll: Defamation suit over Trump’s denial of rape claims
Former magazine writer E. Jean Carroll alleged Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defamed her when he denied the rape, said she was not his “type” and alleged she had made the claim to boost sales of her book.
Trump denies all claims brought against him by Carroll.
Trump and the Justice Department said he was a federal employee and that his statements denying Carroll’s allegations were made in response to reporters’ questions while he was at the White House. They argue that the Justice Department should be substituted as the defendant, which, because the government cannot be sued for defamation, would end the lawsuit.
A Washington, DC, appeals court is reviewing if Trump was acting within the scope of his employment when he made the allegedly defamatory statements.
Carroll also sued Trump last year for battery and defamation.
The trial over Carroll’s initial lawsuit has been delayed due to the ongoing legal battle, while the trial in the second case is set to begin in late April.
January 6: Lawsuits by police officers
Several members of the US Capitol Police and Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police are suing Trump, saying his words and actions incited the 2021 riot.
The various cases accuse Trump of directing assault and battery; aiding and abetting assault and battery; and violating Washington laws that prohibit incitement of riots and disorderly conduct.
Trump and his top advisers have not been charged with any crimes. The former president and others who have been sued have argued they are not responsible for the actions of the people who stormed the Capitol.
A federal appeals court is considering Trump’s attempt to throw out the cases.
Personal retaliation: Peter Strzok lawsuit
Former top FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, who was fired by the FBI in 2018 after the revelation of anti-Trump texts he had exchanged with a top lawyer at the bureau, Lisa Page, has sued the Justice Department alleging he was terminated improperly.
Strzok and Page were constant targets of verbal attacks by Trump and his allies as part of the larger ire Trump expressed toward the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation. Trump repeatedly and publicly called for Strzok’s ouster until he was fired in August 2018.
A federal judge ruled last month that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray can be deposed for two hours each as part of the lawsuit.
Trump lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, Democrats, ex-FBI officials is dismissed
A federal judge in September dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, several ex-FBI officials and more than two dozen other people and entities that he claims conspired to undermine his 2016 campaign by trying to vilify him with fabricated information tying him to Russia.
“What (Trump’s lawsuit) lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances,” US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks wrote.
Trump is appealing the decision, but Middlebrooks also ruled that the former president and his attorneys are liable for nearly $1 million in sanctions for bringing the case in the first place.
“No reasonable lawyer would have filed it,” Middlebrooks wrote. “Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”
Michael Cohen: Claims of retaliation against Trump and Barr — Trump victory
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen sued Trump, former Attorney General William Barr and others, alleging they put him back in jail to prevent him from promoting his upcoming book while under home confinement.
Cohen was serving the remainder of his sentence for lying to Congress and campaign violations at home, due to Covid-19 concerns, when he started an anti-Trump social media campaign in summer 2020. Cohen said he was sent back to prison in retaliation and spent 16 days in solitary.
A federal judge threw out the lawsuit in November. District Judge Lewis Liman said he was empathetic to Cohen’s position but that Supreme Court precedent bars him from allowing the case to move forward.
Mary Trump: Accusations of deception regarding inheritance — Trump victory
In 2020, Mary Trump sued her uncle, Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired judge, and the executor of her late uncle Robert Trump’s estate, alleging that “they designed and carried out a complex scheme to siphon funds away from her interests, conceal their grift, and deceive her about the true value of what she had inherited.”
In November 2022, a New York state judge threw out the lawsuit, saying Mary Trump’s claims are barred by an earlier settlement she reached over 20 years ago. Mary Trump has appealed.
Trump-filed lawsuits: Bob Woodward
Trump sued journalist Bob Woodward in January 2023 for alleged copyright violations, claiming Woodward had released audio from their interviews without Trump’s consent.
Woodward and publisher Simon & Schuster said Trump’s case is without merit.
Woodward conducted several interviews with Trump for “Rage,” published in September 2020. Woodward later released “The Trump Tapes,” an audiobook featuring eight hours of raw interviews with Trump interspersed with the author’s commentary.
Trump-filed lawsuits: The New York Times, Mary Trump and CNN
The former president in 2021 sued his niece and The New York Times in New York state court over the disclosure of his tax information.
Trump’s lawsuit — which is seeking “damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be no less than One Hundred Million Dollars” — alleges that Mary Trump’s disclosure of the tax information to the Times amounted to an illegal breach of contract, among other claims, because the disclosure allegedly violated the 2001 settlement agreement among the Trump family.
The Times is fighting the lawsuit.
“The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform the public through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest,” the Times said in a statement. “This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
Donald Trump also sued CNN in a southern Florida federal court last fall, accusing the network of a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” that “escalated in recent months.”
CNN has asked the judge for the case to be “dismissed with prejudice.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
The-CNN-Wire
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