With four criminal cases and five indictments, former President Donald Trump is facing legal battles involving four judges, two district attorneys, and one special counsel across two different states and the Justice Department.
An indictment out of Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday night became Trump's fifth since March. He is charged with 13 counts, including felony racketeering and numerous conspiracy charges, in a 41-count indictment that includes 18 others. Judge Scott McAfee has been assigned to the case.
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Three other judges, one special counsel, and one district attorney are preparing to hear or plead their case against the former president as early as next year.
Here are all of the players in Donald Trump's legal cases.
Case 1: Manhattan - Alvin Bragg and Juan Merchan
Trump was indicted in March on 34 felony counts of violating New York law by falsifying business records to facilitate hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the 2016 campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team made history as the first to bring an indictment against a former president. Bragg, a Democrat, has been linked to liberal donor George Soros, a fact that Trump repeatedly uses in an attempt to discredit the district attorney's investigation.
Bragg's case is one that many Republicans have said is a political stunt or a targeted attack of Trump, compared to the Justice Department cases with special counsels that deal with more recent and nationally high-profile events.
Trump has called Bragg several nicknames, including "animal" and a "degenerate psychopath" in numerous Truth Social posts. Bragg has been relatively silent on the case since the indictment was brought down.
New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan will preside over Trump’s business fraud indictment. Merchan has experience presiding over criminal cases against Trump's company, the Trump Organization, after overseeing a tax fraud trial last year.
Trump requested that Merchan recuse himself from the case, arguing that the judge could not be impartial due to the previous Trump Organization trial and the possibility that Merchan's daughter's ad company (which works with Democrats) could financially benefit from the case. Merchan rejected the recusal request on Monday, setting up a hostile environment heading into the case's trial.
A trial date is set for March 25, 2024.
Case 2: DOJ, classified documents investigation - Jack Smith and Aileen Cannon
In June, a grand jury in Florida indicted Trump on 37 counts, including violating the Espionage Act, for his handling of hundreds of classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago. Later, special counsel Jack Smith released a superseding indictment, adding three new charges, to bring Trump to a total of 40.
This indictment has brought the most heat from Republicans due to the nature of the FBI raid at Trump's Florida home, as well as the slow but steady stream of information from FBI whistleblowers and documents detailing the steps leading up to and during the raid.
Trump has called Smith "deranged," accusing him of election interference and prosecutorial misconduct. Similar to Bragg, Smith has remained silent on the case except when issuing the indictments.
However, the former president may have received an unexpected edge in the case after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon was assigned to oversee the case. Cannon was appointed by Trump in 2020 and has a history of issuing rulings that are favorable to the former president, particularly when she approved his request for a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI.
The trial date is set for May 20, 2024, a compromise by Cannon after considering requests from prosecutors, who wanted to speed up the trial to December, and Trump's attorneys, who wanted the case delayed due to the 2024 election.
Case 3: DOJ, Jan. 6 investigation - Jack Smith and Tanya Chutkan
Smith is also investigating Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that resulted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. That indictment came down on Aug. 1 in Washington, D.C.
Republicans have been quick to criticize the appointment of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of Barack Obama in 2014. She is known for issuing harsher sentences for those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 riots.
Trump frequently blasts Chutkan and the Jan. 6 case on social media, calling her "highly partisan" and "very biased and unfair." He has cited her comments made in a 2022 sentencing hearing where she condemned Jan. 6 rioters for "blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day."
Chutkan has already acted on Trump's inflammatory remarks, earning her more unpopularity with Trump's supporters. She placed a protective order on the case limiting what evidence can be publicly disclosed by the former president, particularly after he posted that he would be "coming after" those who "go after" him.
A trial date has not been scheduled, but Smith proposed that jury selection be in December and the trial start in early January 2024. However, Trump's legal counsel will likely file objections to that timeline sometime this week.
Case 4: Georgia - Fani Willis and Scott McAfee
Fani Willis became the latest district attorney to release criminal charges against Trump, setting herself up for a whirlwind of backlash from the former president and his allies — many of whom were also named in the indictment.
Willis is the first black woman to lead the Fulton County district attorney's office, entering the position with over two decades of service. She has led more than 100 jury trials and has a conviction rate close to 90% since she became the county's chief prosecutor.
Now, she is the recent subject of Trump's mudslinging. He has blasted Willis as an "out of control and very corrupt" district attorney who is aiming to "get Trump," as well as "Biden's newest lackey." Trump's campaign released a lengthy statement following the Georgia indictment, calling her a "radical Democrat" and a "rabid partisan."
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Judge Scott McAfee will oversee Trump's case in Georgia. He was appointed to the court by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) this year after serving as inspector general in the Georgia Office of the State Inspector General.
Willis requested that all those indicted surrender themselves to court by Aug. 25 and said Monday night that she is seeking a trial "within the next six months," but McAfee will ultimately determine the trial date.