Former US President Donald Trump’s long list of legal battles: Defamation, fraud, finances…
Trump has been subpoenaed to appear on the January 6 committee adding to a long list of legal battles the former president is facing.
The list of Trump’s legal challenges are growing. At present it seems that nearly every week there are new allegations, new investigations, and new prosecutions of members of the former president’s inner circle. It seems only a matter of time before the net closes and Trump himself is directly implicated in one of a large amount of proceedings.
The question for many people will be whether the amount of legal troubles Trump faces are too big to overcome in his bid to be reelected in 2024. Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, in Washington, who has accurately predicted every presidential election since 1984, told The Guardian, “He’s got too many burdens, too much baggage to be able to run again even presuming he escapes jail, he escapes bankruptcy. I’m not sure he’s going to escape jail.”
Although Trump has faced down numerous legal challenegs in the past this article will focus upon those he is dealing with now. Don’t worry, the list is still pretty long.
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.
“Staggering” Trump family fraud
Just over three weeks ago the affadavit for the Mar-a-Lago raid was unveiled. It revealed that Trump is also under investigation in two probes 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.”
There is also an ongoing investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James. SHe wants to find the details into whether Trumps businesses have misrepresented the value of their properties to evade taxes. Trump was questioned by state officials and reportedly invoked the Fifth Amendment 440 times in a single day.
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.”