Former President Donald Trump continues to be the target of multiple state and federal investigations that relate to his private businesses and his political career, even after his historic indictment over the mishandling of classified documents.
On Thursday, Trump became the first former U.S. president to face federal criminal charges, marking a stunning descent from overseeing the federal government to facing a charge under the Espionage Act. He is also facing charges of obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy, and making false statements stemming from his handling of classified documents that were brought to his Mar-a-Lago resort after he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020.
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Trump has remained defiant and has repeatedly claimed his innocence. He is expected in a Miami courthouse on Tuesday.
So far, there are three separate criminal investigations into Trump: one in Georgia, the other in New York, and the third led by the Department of Justice in Miami.
Here are some of the inquiries looking into the former president and current leading 2024 Republican candidate.
Georgia (Criminal)
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis signaled in May that her office was getting closer to indicting Trump and his allies over alleged attempts to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election. Multiple media outlets have reported that Willis's office could bring charges against the 45th president in August.
Willis, a Democrat, is investigating allegations that Trump tried to convince Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, to claim Georgians voted for Trump as their true victor and not Biden. In a 2021 recorded telephone call, Trump suggested that Raffensperger, the state's top election official, "find" 11,780 votes, one more vote than the 11,779 votes by which Biden beat Trump. In that same phone call, Trump also allegedly threatened Raffensperger, telling him he was taking "a big risk" by not overturning the state's election results and said Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the former general counsel for the secretary of state, could face unspecified criminal charges if they did not do as Trump demanded.
A special purpose grand jury was impaneled on May 2022 and spent the next eight months looking into the claims. About 75 witnesses testified, including Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and onetime Trump attorney, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and former GOP Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
The special purpose grand jury penned a report, which has not been made public, on who they thought should be indicted. Some of the state laws believed to have been broken include racketeering, conspiracy, making false statements, and criminal solicitation to commit election fraud.
Willis recently narrowed down the timeline of when she may announce charges between Aug. 8-18, 2023.
New York (Criminal)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office announced 34 felony counts against Trump in April over hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and other business irregularities related to a "catch-and-kill" scheme to suppress negative news stories about him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about an affair she had with the New York real estate tycoon. Trump vehemently denied the allegations of an affair but admitted to reimbursing after he was sworn into office. Bragg has accused Trump of falsifying records related to the payments and reimbursement of Cohen, who is widely expected to testify against his former boss.
"The defendant, Donald J. Trump, falsified New York business records in order to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and other violations of election laws," Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy said.
Prosecutors also flagged an account from Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, who tried to sell a story about her affair with Trump to the National Enquirer for $150,000 only to have it killed as a favor to Trump and Cohen.
Cohen pleaded guilty to his part in the scheme and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Trump pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan courthouse. After returning to his Florida estate, the bombastic ex-president delivered a prime-time address to supporters where he blasted the prosecutor and the judge overseeing the case.
The judge has set a March 2024 trial date. The charges carry a maximum 136-year prison sentence, though it is unlikely Trump would be punished so severely. If found guilty, he almost certainly would appeal the conviction.
New York (Civil)
New York Attorney General Letitia James slapped Trump and three of his adult children, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, with a lawsuit in September accusing them of lying to lenders and insurers by fraudulently overvaluing their assets by billions of dollars.
The investigation began after Cohen testified to Congress in 2019 that Trump and his employees had routinely lied about the company's net worth to look more favorable to investors. James claimed that inflating Trump's personal and business net worth was a pattern not only with lenders but also with the IRS. Her civil suit details the way Trump's annual financial statements inflated the worth of some of his best-known properties, including Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, his private golf club and home in Florida.
In 2021, Trump sued to stop James from investigating further, claiming her inquiry was politically motivated. A federal judge, however, dismissed Trump's lawsuit.
The former president was questioned under oath in April 2023 as part of the discovery phase.
The lawsuit against him seeks $250 million in damages, the amount James claimed the Trump family reaped through its deceptions.
The trial is expected to take place in October.
Jan. 6
The bipartisan Jan. 6 committee referred the former president to the Justice Department to face criminal charges, claiming Trump assisted with the insurrection at the Capitol as part of a last-ditch effort to hold on to the presidency despite losing the 2020 election.
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The committee's referrals, made in December, were the first time in U.S. history that Congress recommended charges against a former president and came 18 months after the House panel dove into the claims. The recommendations were largely symbolic, though Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, is also looking at Trump's attempts to meddle in the election as well as his role in the Capitol attack.
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against nearly 1,000 people who took part in the Jan. 6 riot.