Former President Trump's legal troubles
World
Former President Trump's legal troubles
(Reuters) - Former US President Donald Trump faces numerous legal troubles as he seeks the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election. Trump, 77, denies any wrongdoing.
Here is a look at his major legal cases.
MANIPULATING PROPERTY VALUES
Trump, his two adult sons and his business, the Trump Organization, are currently on trial in a New York civil fraud suit that will determine what penalties they will have to pay for manipulating property values to win better financing terms.
Justice Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his business repeatedly committed fraud over a decade and moved to strip them of companies that control crown jewels of his real estate empire, including Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street in Manhattan. That order is on hold pending appeal.
New York state Attorney General Letitia James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric running businesses in New York, and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
The trial, which has been underway since Oct. 2, has featured defiant and rambling testimony by Trump, in which he acknowledged that his property valuations were not always accurate.
INTERFERING WITH GEORGIA'S 2020 ELECTION
Trump is a defendant in a sweeping case in Georgia that charges him and 18 other defendants with a wide-ranging effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in that battleground state.
The defendants were charged under a broadly written racketeering statute that originally targeted the mafia and carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Four of the defendants, including three lawyers who advised Trump in the election's aftermath, have pleaded guilty. Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty, as have several former top advisers like Mark Meadows and Rudolph Giuliani.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case, has proposed a trial date of March 4, 2025, though that is likely to change.
PLOTTING TO OVERTURN 2020 ELECTION
Trump also has pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
That case, brought by U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, charges him with conspiring to deprive voters of their right to a fair election and defraud the United States by preventing Congress from certifying Biden's victory.
Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in an unsuccessful effort to prevent lawmakers from making Trump's defeat official.
Prosecutors say Trump exploited the attack, refusing advice that he send a message directing rioters to leave. They also say he and his allies advanced claims of voting fraud that they knew to be untrue.
The trial is scheduled to take place in Washington on March 4, 2024.
MISHANDLING CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
Trump on June 13 pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami to charges also brought by Smith that he unlawfully kept classified national security documents after leaving office in January 2021 and misled officials who sought to recover them.
Smith accuses Trump of risking national secrets by taking thousands of sensitive papers with him when he left the White House and storing them in a haphazard manner at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his New Jersey golf club.
Those records included information about the U.S. nuclear program and potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the indictment said.
Trump faces charges that include violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes unauthorized possession of national defense information, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Trump's aide Walt Nauta and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, are also charged with attempting to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago after a grand jury subpoenaed the videos. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The trial is scheduled for May 20, 2024.
COVERING UP 'HUSH MONEY' PAYMENT
Trump on April 4 pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted him over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Trump of trying to conceal a violation of election laws.
Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels but acknowledged having reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment.
Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other crimes in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in prison.
A trial is scheduled for March 25, 2024.
ABUSE AND DEFAMATION CIVIL LAWSUITS
A jury in federal court in Manhattan on May 9 found Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and then defaming her by lying about it in 2022. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump is appealing.
Carroll is seeking at least $10 million more in a separate defamation lawsuit over a similar denial by Trump in 2019. She amended that complaint after Trump criticized the $5 million verdict.
Trump has denied meeting Carroll and accused her of making up her story to sell her memoir.
A trial is scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.
