Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he exits the courtroom for a break during his civil fraud trial at New York Supreme Court.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Trump and his businesses are tangled in an array of state and federal investigations and lawsuits.
In 2024 so far, he's suffered more than half a billion dollars in court penalties.
In March, he will have his first criminal trial over the Stormy Daniels scandal.
The lawsuits and prosecutions involving Donald Trump are piling up.
The ex-president — who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — is indicted in four separate prosecutions, the first former Oval Office occupant to ever be charged. He faces 91 criminal counts overall.
2024 has already gone very badly for Trump. So far, a judge issued a $355 million judgment — growing with about $112,000 per day in interest — after finding him, his company, and family members liable for lying about his property valuations. In January, a jury found Trump liable for more than $83 million for defaming E. Jean Carroll. Last year, a different jury found him liable for sexually abusing her in a separate civil trial.
And then there are the bills for his lawyers. As he runs for president, Trump is using two of his PACs to pay the lawyers representing him, co-defendants, and witnesses in the cases. A Business Insider analysis found that he spent over $52 million of PAC donor money on legal fees. The vast majority of those funds were on lawyers representing him in cases that had nothing to do with his presidential run.
Keep up to date on the latest of Trump's legal travails with Business Insider's guide to the ever-evolving Trump docket.
Indictments against Trump
Fani Willis raises her eyebrows
Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis investigated Trump's interference in the 2020 election.AP Photo/Ben Gray, File
The Georgia RICO case
The parties: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Trump, and his Republican associates
The indictment brings charges over campaigns from Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and other top Trump allies to pressure state officials to overturn the election results. It also brings charges against state Republican officials who acted as false electors and submitted fake documents to Congress.
What's next: The case is the most complicated one pending against Trump and will likely be the last to go to trial.
With 19 defendants overall — many of them lawyers — there are numerous legal issues to sort out. (Three of those lawyers, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Kenneth Chesebro, have pleaded guilty, making things a little easier.) In recent weeks, hearings and filings over whether Willis had an improper relationship with a prosecutor she hired have created more setbacks.
Trump has been investigated for his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.Jon Cherry/Getty Images
The Justice Department's investigation into 2020 election interference
The parties: Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith brought an indictment against Trump in Washington, DC federal court. The case is being overseen by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, who has overseen numerous criminal trials of January 6 rioters.
The issues: The indictment alleges Trump and a group of yet-unindicted co-conspirators conspired to stop Congress from doing its duty to certify now-President Joe Biden's electoral victory in the 2020 election and rob Americans of their lawful votes.
Like Willis's indictment, the case includes the false elector scheme. In addition to Georgia, the indictment includes activity in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and other states where Trump lost and tried to overturn the results.
What's next: The Supreme Court is weighing whether Trump is immune from prosecution in the case, a legal battle that has effectively frozen proceedings. Depending on how quickly the high court wraps up its work, we could still see a trial as soon as late summer.
People walking outside Mar-a-Lago in March 2017Darren Samuelsohn
The Justice Department's investigation into classified documents
The parties: Smith brought an indictment against Trump and his aide Waltine Nauta in a Florida federal court in June. He later slapped Trump with a superseding indictment that added Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira as a co-defendant. They've all pleaded not guilty in the case.
The issues: Early in 2022, Trump turned over 15 boxes of documents — including some marked as classified and "top secret" — to the National Archives. But federal investigators scrutinizing the former president's handling of records reportedly grew suspicious that Trump or people close to him still retained some key records. The FBI seized about a dozen boxes of additional documents during a raid of Mar-a-Lago last summer.
The Mar-a-Lago case and a separate January 6 investigation are both being overseen by special prosecutor Jack Smith. Smith's team has been collecting evidence that would help support a case that Trump knowingly retained the records sought by the government, and obstructed efforts to return them.
According to the indictment — which brings 37 criminal counts against Trump — Trump violated the Espionage Act 31 times by illegally holding on to sensitive national-security documents, conspiring to obstruct justice, lying to law enforcement, and violating three different statutes related to withholding and concealing government records.
Nauta and De Oliviera, often at Trump's direction, helped hide documents, the indictment says. Nauta also lied to law enforcement about his actions, according to prosecutors.
What's next: US District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who previously made rulings sympathetic to him, is presiding over the case. She set a trial for May, but because the case involves complicated legal issues related to classified documents and presidential powers, it may be delayed until after the 2024 election.
Former President Donald Trump, left. adult film star Stormy Daniels, center. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right.Alex Brandon/AP, left. Markus Schreiber/AP, center. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP, right.
The Manhattan DA's indictment over the hush-money settlement to Stormy Daniels
The parties: District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg and Donald Trump.
The issues: Bragg's office investigated whether Trump violated campaign finance laws in connection to hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. A grand jury voted to bring criminal charges against Trump in the case.
Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer and personal lawyer, is a key witness. He has testified under oath that he made the payments to Daniels at Trump's direction, and pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations in connection with the payments in 2018.
What's next: The judge scheduled a trial to begin on March 25, brushing back numerous attempts to delay it. It will be the first of the former president's four criminal cases to go to trial.
Trump with his former CFO Allen Weisselberg at Trump Tower.Evan Vucci/AP
The Issues: A four-woman, eight-man, mostly working-class jury held Trump's real estate and golf resort business criminally liable for a 2005-2018 tax-dodge scheme admittedly run by the company's two top financial executives.
The two, former CFO Allen Weisselberg and top payroll executive Jeffrey McConney, helped themselves and a half-dozen other company execs cheat on their income taxes by paying them in part with pricey perks and benefits — including free use of luxury cars and apartments — that were never reported to tax authorities.
What's next: Potential repercussions include a heightened hesitancy among banks to lend to a company with felony status and an energized Trump probe in the Manhattan district attorney's office. Government corruption watchdogs also have renewed reason to urge the federal government to cease doing business with the former president.
Civil lawsuits against Trump
The front page of the lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James accusing former President Donald Trump, his family and his business of a decade of padding his net worth to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in bank loans and tax breaks.Jon Elswick/AP
The NY AG's civil case against the Trump family and Trump Organization
She alleged Trump, his two eldest sons Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump, and several executives had inflated the values of the Trump Organization's properties by billions of dollars in financial filings used to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in bank loans. She also alleged he low-balled his properties' worth for tax breaks. Trump has derided the AG's efforts as a politically motivated witch hunt.
What's next: After a three-month trial that featured testimony from Donald Trump himself, as well as his three eldest children and a parade of Trump Organization executives and accountants, and a lot of court filings, the trial court judge issued a final order in February.
The decision includes $355 million in penalties — which has already grown past $460 million due to daily interest — and an array of other sanctions that hamper future business deals.
Trump is appealing the verdict, but the sum he owes will continue to grow until he pays up.
Trump speaking to supporters ahead of the Capitol riot.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
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