The former US president faces 40 charges alone in a classified documents case, and more in other investigations, including his alleged interference in the 2020 election — as first reported in The Times.
Donald Trump became the first US president or former president to be indicted after being charged with 34 felonies in March and a further 37 in July.
Under the US legal system, a person is indicted when it is believed that there is sufficient evidence to charge them. This follows a lengthy process in which a special prosecutor works with a grand jury to determine what the charges should be, before they are “unsealed” and made public.
Trump, 77, faces two lawsuits and has trials scheduled in three criminal cases, with his involvement in one more still to be determined.
The January 6 riot, Washington
What is Trump accused of?
A mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, in an apparent attempt to prevent the 2020 election result being verified. Trump lost the election, which took place in the previous November, to President Biden.
Jack Smith, the special counsel asked by the Department of Justice to investigate the case, said that Trump planned to, “defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.
“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fuelled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
What has happened so far?
Trump has been charged and summoned to appear before Judge Tanya Sue Chutkan, an Obama appointee who joined the federal bench in 2014. He is almost certain to plead not guilty.
What happens next?
Smith says he wants a speedy process, but Trump is likely to want to stretch the proceedings out as long as possible. He will argue that he cannot prepare a defence while campaigning to be president, and while he is embroiled in other legal proceedings.
Ultimately it is up to the judge to decide when the trial takes place, after taking representations from both sides.
What are the charges?
A federal grand jury in Washington has now charged Trump with four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct congress’s certification of Biden’s electoral victory, obstruction and conspiracy against the right to vote.
Trump indictment
What does this mean for Trump?
On one hand it is a blow for the former president. It is another expensive legal case he is forced to contend with as he seeks to win the Republican nomination for next year’s presidential election, and, assuming he prevails in that contest, the general election against President Biden.
His behaviour will come under the spotlight, and will be cast in the worst possible light by prosecutors hoping to secure a conviction. His actions will be scrutinised and his fitness for office will be questioned. If convicted, he faces the prospect of several years in prison.
The former president will attempt to turn the proceedings to his advantage, however, When a House of Representatives select committee investigated what happened on January 6, he attacked the committee, the members of it and witnesses who appeared to give evidence.
Once the case was passed to the justice department and to Jack Smith to investigate, Trump remained on the offensive, attempting to undermine Smith’s credibility and claiming the probe was part of a conspiracy to prevent him winning back the White House.
He has played on supporters’ instinctive suspicion of Washington and of the federal government, and has soared in the polls as he has characterised the probe as a deep-state attempt to stymie the will of ordinary Americans.
Classified documents, Florida
What is Trump accused of?
Taking classified documents when he left the White House in January 2021. He is also accused of obstruction of justice and making false statements.
What has happened so far?
The Department of Justice launched an investigation in early 2022. In June he was indicted on 37 charges. On July 27, three more charges were added.
Trump had claimed, via a lawyer, that he had handed over all classified documents, but an FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August last year resulted in the publication of photos of boxes of documents in the house, including around the bath. In total, 102 documents marked classified were seized.
What happens next?
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial is scheduled for next May in Florida. His aide Walt Nauta has also been charged with six offences. If convicted he would face a potential jail sentence, but analysts are divided on whether Trump would actually be imprisoned.
What are the charges?
Trump faces 32 counts of wilful retention of national defence information under the Espionage Act, and eight further charges: six of obstruction and two of making false statements.
Hush money, New York
What is Trump accused of?
Trump was investigated over an alleged $130,000 payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels who claimed she had sex with him. He is accused of falsifying business records in relation to the payment made by his attorney Michael Cohen.
What has happened so far?
In March Trump was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan, with prosecutors laying down 34 charges.
Has Trump responded?
Trump became the first US president in 234 years — the first president, George Washington, took office in 1789 — to be indicted when he appeared at a New York courthouse and pleaded not guilty. He denies having slept with Daniels and has called the indictment “political persecution”.
What are the charges?
Falsifying business records is usually a misdemeanour-level offence, but Trump has been charged with 34 felonies. Prosecutors have not yet stated exactly why the higher-level offence has been alleged.
Election interference, Georgia
What is Trump accused of?
Prosecutors allege that Trump and others acted illegally to try to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
What has happened so far?
The race in Georgia went to two recounts to confirm President Biden’s victory, but Trump and his allies are alleged to have spread lies about voter fraud.
A criminal investigation was opened in February 2021 after details surfaced about an hour-long phone call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on January 2, 2021, in which Trump urged him to find 12,000 votes.
Trump was charged in August with 13 crimes including racketeering and a host of election crimes, using laws typically used to bring down mobsters. Eighteen co-defendants were indicted, including Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, one of his White House chiefs of staff.
What happens next?
Trump and his co-defendants have until noon on August 25 to hand themselves to the authorities in Fulton county. Fani Willis, the district attorney, would like to go to trial within six months and it could be televised — the first in history for a former US president.
What are the charges?
Trump was charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations (Rico) Act, as well as six conspiracy counts over alleged efforts to commit forgery, impersonatie a public official and submit false statements and documents. He is aaccused of lying in statements and filing fake documents, as well as soliciting public officials to break their oaths.
Trump’s civil cases
In addition to the four criminal cases, Trump also faces two civil cases in New York. The first involves the decision by a New York jury in May that Trump sexually abused the journalist E Jean Carroll and then defamed her by branding her a liar.
The jury in Manhattan rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her in a department store in 1996. However she was awarded $5 million for assault and defamation. A spokesman for Trump said he would appeal against the verdict. He will not have to pay while the appeal is in progress.
A federal judge has also given Carroll leave to pursue a related $10 million defamation case against Trump.
The Trump Organisation, the group of business entities owned by Trump, is also being examined by Letitia James, the New York attorney-general. The civil investigation is looking into whether his family company committed various acts of fraud over multiple decades.
In a lawsuit last September James accused Trump of fraudulently overvaluing his assets by billions of dollars.
The civil investigation cannot result in criminal charges, but it could lead to the Trump family being barred from operating a business in the state of New York.
A trial is scheduled for October. If James prevails, a judge could impose harsh financial penalties on Trump.