A complete list of Donald Trump’s legal problems: the former President’s troubles with the law continue
Trump has to deal with four legal cases, including a combined 91 felony charges that could derail his presidential bid.
A New York judge has found Trump and his sons liable for fraud. New York Attorney General Letitia James has been investigating the details into whether Trumps businesses have misrepresented the value of their properties to evade taxes.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump repeatedly misrepresented his wealth by artificially inflating the value of financial dealings. This included:
- Overvaluing his Mar-a-Lago by 2,300% in one financial statement
- Overvaluing his penthouse at Trump Tower in New York by claiming that it was three times its actual size
The judge canceled business certifications including the Trump Organization
“Today, a judge ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in years of financial fraud,” Letitia James said in a statement Tuesday night. “We look forward to presenting the rest of our case at trial.”
Trump is also facing a total of 91 felony charges across four criminal cases in both state and federal jurisdictions. The cases against the former president are for illegal financial transactions, illegally withholding classified documents, his involvement in the violent assault on the US Capitol and attempting to illegally overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Staggering” Trump family fraud
The affadavit for the Mar-a-Lago raid revealed that Trump is also under investigation in another probe into financial impropriety.
In September 2022, former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 criminal tax fraud charges. Weisselberg admitted to being involved in a series of schemes that allowed top Trump executives to avoid paying taxes. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said Trump’s eponymous firm is directly implicated in “a wide range of criminal activity.”
January 6 committee
The US committee in charge of the January 6 riot investigation issed legal summons for Donald Trump on October 13, 2022. Every person on the nine-member panel voted in favour of issuing the subpoena.
Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice-chairwoman and one of only two Republicans on the committee, said, “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion. And every American is entitled to those answers.”
The subpeona will be issued in the coming days with a deadline for compliance or punishment will be issued.
Mar-a-Lago files
An 8 August raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home found a number of classified files that the government claims should no longer be in the former president’s possession. He has maintained that he is being unfairly persecuted, despite federal agents finding hundreds of classified documents during the raid.
White House documents are covered by some very specific codes of practice to ensure that classified materials are properly stored and recorded. Trump has previously been flagged for violating the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which makes clear that White House documents must be preserved.
Alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election
Finally Trump is being investigated by prosecutors into alleged attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. The investigation was opened after Trump told Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official, to “recalculate” the election result in a telephone call. The call was originally published by The Washington Post.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” Trump says in the transcript, “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated,” before reciting a “rumour” he had heard about election fraud.
“Find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”