In March 2023, Donald J. Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. Over the next months, his indictments mounted across four different cities, ranging from allegations of attempting to overturn election results to mishandling classified documents. 

According to AP News, the allegations emerged in May 2021 after some documents from the former presidency were found to be missing, leading the National Archives to make repeated requests to Trump to turn over any presidential records he may have taken from the White House. The first charge alleges Trump of hiring lawyers to hide records demanded by investigators, and displaying a Pentagon “plan of attack” and classified map. In June 2022, the FBI and Justice Department investigators visited his Mar-a-Lago estate to recover the classified documents. Further charges accuse Trump of seeking to delete surveillance footage to throw this investigation into disarray and of revealing a classified document to visitors in New Jersey. The former president faces more than 40 felony charges regarding classified documents, one of which could lead to 20 years in prison. The initial trial date, set by Florida district Judge Aileen Cannon, was May 20, but has been pushed back several times. 

The second cluster of charges revolve around the former president’s attempts to interfere with the 2020 election. Following a violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters, prosecutors allege that Trump attempted to benefit from the violence by using it as a reason to postpone the counting of votes. Citing several unindicted collaborators, including lawyers, prosecutors recount the former president’s alleged futile attempts to undo election results and repeated claims of winning the election – despite the legitimate results saying otherwise. These accusations fall under charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States government. In response, the Trump campaign criticized why it took the prosecutors two and a half years to bring these allegations. The former president has pleaded not guilty. 

In Georgia, Trump, alongside his former attorney Rudy Giuliani and 18 others, faces charges for violating the state’s anti-racketeering law. The indictment includes accusations of appeasing Georgia’s Republican Secretary to “find” votes supporting Trump and encouraging lawmakers to appoint new Electoral College electors in favor of Trump regardless of the will of voters. Defendants and lawyers Sydney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have already pledpled guilty. Trump’s trial date has not yet been decided. 

In New York, Trump faces indictments from state charges for hush money payments made to silence allegations of extramarital affairs during his 2016 presidential campaign. The charges include 34 felony counts, including checks made by Trump to reimburse lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen paid actress Stormy Daniels to prevent the disclosure of her alleged affair with Trump. These payments were recorded in company documents, but labeled as fees for reserving the services of a corporate lawyer (known as a legal retainer) whom prosecutors say did not exist. Additionally, the charges allege that the former president’s net worth was fraudulently inflated by billions of dollars. Trump has pled not guilty. 

Currently, the debate lies around whether presidential immunity from civil liability applies to criminal prosecution. Trump’s lawyers have continuously argued that it does – particularly, that he cannot be prosecuted for the classified documents case because it was an official act carried out when he was the president. 

As the former president eagerly fights for another term at the White House, the decision on these cases holds immense importance.

Article by Sophie Anjum