While Donald Trump doesn't mind superlatives when it comes to him, he'd probably prefer that one bypass him: He's the first former US president to be indicted for alleged crimes during his tenure. In addition, he has to face several civil lawsuits.
Politically, at least among Republicans, none of this has hurt him - he is well ahead of others in the race for the presidential candidacy in the polls. On the other hand, Trump's court appearances in the 2024 election will be a constant focus of the media, which could hurt him among undecided voters.
So, what is 77-year-old Donald Trump accused of?
The case of the porn star "Stormi Daniels"
Since 2016, since he first ran for President of the United States, he and his team have been following the Stormy Daniels case. The former porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had a brief relationship with Trump in 2006. He denies it.
Just before the election, Trump's lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid $130.000 into Stephanie Clifford's account, presumably to keep her from speaking publicly about Trump. The lawyer was later reimbursed for that amount by the Trump family company. After an initial denial, Trump admitted that the payment had been made. Paying money for these purposes is not illegal in itself in New York.
But, according to the New York prosecutor's office, Trump falsified business documents 34 times to conceal the payments. He also violated election campaign financing laws. The indictment was filed this spring, and the trial is scheduled to begin in May 2024.
Lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018. During the trial, among other things, he pleaded guilty to illegal financing of the election campaign. Cohen, however, who has an important role in the trial against Trump, has a problem with credibility: admitting that he lied to the public and the US Congress shows an opportunistic attitude towards the truth, that is, that he does not shy away from lies. Therefore, the important question is whether the jury in New York will believe him.
The case of author E. Jean Carroll
The accusations of author E. Jean Carroll date back even further. In 2019, she accused him of raping her in a department store in 1996. In May 2023, a jury rejected that claim, but found him guilty of sexual assault and defamation, and the author was awarded five million dollars in damages.
Trump then sued Carroll for defamation, but lost that process in early August. And then Carol filed another lawsuit against Trump, because he insulted her on CNN after the first verdict. That process (for defamation) is scheduled to begin in mid-January 2024.
The case of hairdressing the balance sheet in the state of New York
Trump always exaggerates his successes and understates his failures. Apparently, he and his children, Donald Junior, Erik and Ivanka, did business that way.
New York State Attorney Letitia James in September 2022 indicted them for violating various New York State laws, including accounting fraud, document forgery, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit such acts.
The fraud consists in the fact that the defendants presented their finances as larger or smaller, all depending on the need, in order to get loans more easily, pay lower interest rates or pay less taxes.
In her indictment, James alleges 200 false or misleading property valuations over a ten-year period for which she seeks fines totaling $250 million. She also wants the Trump family to be permanently banned from doing business in New York state. In June, the appeals court dismissed the charges against Ivanka Trump as out of date. The start of the trial of the Trump father and sons is scheduled for October 2023.
Documents of confidential content
In January 2021, at the time he left the White House, Trump also took boxes of classified documents with him and placed them in various places at his mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The boxes were allegedly in the ballroom, bathroom and shower, among other things. Allegedly, among those documents are those related to the national defense and nuclear capabilities of another country. Some documents are classified with the highest level of confidentiality. And the additional accusation reads: Trump showed the documents to other people.
According to special investigator Jack Smith, Trump violated a whole series of laws, so the indictment has 40 counts. This includes the fact that Trump has hampered the investigation by instructing employees to destroy possible evidence. Trump is not the only defendant, two employees will also be on the dock with him. The start of the trial is scheduled for May 2024.
Conspiracy against the USA and the election law
The second indictment against Trump in federal court – in addition to the previous case of confidential documents – refers to the events surrounding the recognition of the results of the presidential elections held in November 2020, which culminated on January 6, 2021 in the violent entry of a crowd of citizens into the Capitol, the US Parliament.
Trump's attempts to deny the victory of Joseph Biden, to declare himself the winner of the election and prevent the confirmation, i.e. the legalization of the election result, are assessed as "conspiracy" on a total of four counts: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to prevent the official confirmation of Biden's election victory on January 6, 2021 .and conspiracy against the electoral law.
The 45-page indictment paints a picture of a conspiracy in the White House. For weeks, there have been attempts to put pressure on MPs and others who were officially involved in organizing the elections. There was also thought of creating fake lists of Trump voters that could overturn the results of the election in Congress. Despite knowing how things stood, Trump spread false claims about the election and instrumentalized people in the Justice Department to do the same.
If the jury finds him guilty, even on one count of the indictment, Trump could be behind bars for many years.
Trump believes that this process is politically motivated and, according to observers, he is playing time. If he is re-elected president before the verdict is handed down, he could force the Justice Department to drop the charges. He might even be able to pardon himself, since it's federal law. Trump is already attacking judges and the jurisdiction of the court and is demanding changes. However, observers believe that there is little chance that they will succeed in this.
Georgia: pressure on minister to find votes
No less explosive, if not more dangerous for Trump, is the indictment in the federal state of Georgia, also for conspiracy to change the results of the 2020 election. On January 2, 2021, in a now legendary phone call, Trump forced Minister Brad Raffensperger to somehow find him another 11.780 votes. That's how many votes Trump needed to win in Georgia. A recording of the conversation was later published by the Washington Post.
Rafensperger, somewhat like the minister of the interior, was responsible for overseeing the vote. Before the investigative committee of the House of Representatives on the attack on the Capitol, he described how much pressure was exerted on him by the Trump team in those days. Similar statements were made by many who helped hold the election, and who were accused by Trump's team of manipulating the election. In addition to Trump, 18 other people have been charged with conspiracy and making false statements about the election results, including Trump's former lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Trump is charged in Georgia, among other things, on the basis of a law aimed at organized crime cases, including mob trials. If convicted, the minimum sentence is five and the maximum is 20 years in prison.
If he returns to the White House in the meantime, Trump will not be able to intervene in the process by appointing a new prosecutor. Self-pardon is also out of the question: if it's possible at all, it only applies to federal courts, not to an individual state like Georgia.
State Attorney Fanny Willis said she would demand that the trial begin within the next six months. Unlike other trials, the Georgia trial is expected to be televised.
There will be bitter battles in and out of courtrooms
In recent weeks, judges have repeatedly warned Trump not to put pressure on witnesses and attack the courts. But that doesn't go well with Trump's temperament. After the first hearing on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, Trump wrote on his online platform "Truth Social": "If you persecute me, I will persecute you."
Special Investigator Smith sees it as a threat to justice and has sought an order barring Trump from disclosing sensitive information about the process. Trump's lawyers call it a "silencing decree." However, one judge is said to have warned Trump that witness intimidation or obstruction of justice is a crime.
Regardless of how all these processes end up, it is almost certain that the battles inside and outside the courtrooms will be bitter.
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