In addition to the indictment of Donald Trump by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in a scheme to silence the adult film star, here is a list of notable ongoing investigations, lawsuits and controversies hanging over the former president.
Mar-a-Lago Papers: Was Trump Wrong With Classified Materials?
Special Counsel Jack Smith is overseeing Justice Department criminal investigations into the holding of national defense information at Trump’s resort and the January 6, 2021 uprising. The Justice Department is continuing its investigation into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally processed when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office.
Elections 2020 and January 6: US Department of Justice.
Smith’s remit also includes the period after Trump’s 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden and leading up to the U.S. Capitol uprising.
Aspects of the Justice Department investigation include the use of so-called fake voters from states where Trump falsely claimed to have won, such as Georgia and Arizona. Trump has fought to keep former advisers from testifying about certain conversations, citing executive and attorney-client privileges to keep information confidential or to slow down criminal investigators.
Elections 2020: attempts to cancel the results of elections in Georgia
Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fanny Willis oversaw a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to reverse the Biden victory in Georgia. She is considering filing conspiracy and racketeering charges, CNN’s Don Lemon reported.
Elections 2020 and January 6: House Select Committee
Prior to imprisonment in late 2022, a House select committee turned Trump over to the Justice Department on at least four criminal charges. He investigated the attack on the US Capitol and found strong evidence of Trump’s actions before and on January 6, especially attempts to use government leverage to cancel the election. He also published an 845 page report.
Trump Organization: convicted of criminal tax fraud
In December, a New York jury convicted the Trump organization of tax fraud, grand larceny, and falsification of business records in what prosecutors allege was a 15-year scheme to defraud the tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on employee benefits. Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to his role in the tax scheme and was sentenced to five months in prison on Rikers Island. He will be released this summer.
The Trump Organization: New York Attorney General’s Investigation
New York Attorney General Letitia James, after a lengthy investigation, sued Trump, his three adult children, and the Trump Organization in September, alleging they were involved in a massive fraud that lasted more than a decade, which the former president used to enrich himself. James is seeking $250 million in alleged ill-gotten gains. Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and called the investigation politically motivated, based on the campaign ambitions of Democrat James. The trial is scheduled for October 2023.
E. Jean Carroll: libel suit over Trump’s denial of rape claims
Former journalist E. Jean Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and slandered her when he denied the rape, said she was not his type, and claimed she made a statement to boost the sales of her book. Trump denies all claims made against him by Carroll.
January 6: Lawsuits by police officers
Several members of the US Capitol Police and the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police have sued Trump, saying his words and actions sparked the 2021 riots. Various cases accuse Trump of directing the assault and beating; aiding and abetting assault and battery; and violating Washington’s laws prohibiting incitement to riot and disorderly conduct.
Personal revenge: Peter Strzok’s lawsuit
Former senior FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, who was fired by the FBI in 2018 after exposing anti-Trump texts he exchanged with the bureau’s lead lawyer Lisa Page, is suing the Justice Department, alleging he was improperly fired.
Strzok and Page have been the targets of repeated verbal attacks from Trump and his allies as part of the broader anger Trump has expressed to the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation. Trump repeatedly and publicly called for Strzok to be fired until he was fired in August 2018. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray could be removed by two hours each as part of the trial.
Trump lawsuits: Bob Woodward
Trump sued journalist Bob Woodward in January 2023 for alleged copyright infringement, stating that Woodward released an audio recording of their interview without Trump’s consent. Woodward and publisher Simon & Schuster said Trump’s case was baseless.
Trump’s lawsuits: The New York Times, Mary Trump and CNN
The former president sued his niece and The New York Times in New York state court in 2021 for leaking his tax information.
Trump’s lawsuit, which seeks “damages to be determined in court but believed to be at least $100 million,” alleges that Mary Trump’s disclosure of tax information to The Times amounts to a wrongful breach of contract. among other claims, because the disclosure allegedly violated a 2001 settlement agreement between the Trump family. The Times is fighting the lawsuit.
Donald Trump also sued CNN last fall in federal court in South Florida, accusing the network of a “dissuasion campaign in the form of smears and smears” that “has escalated in recent months.” CNN asked the judge to close the case with prejudice.