Former President Donald Trump still faces a slew of legal woes even after the federal Florida case accusing him of hoarding confidential documents was tossed Monday in a surprise ruling.
Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the entire indictment against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee involving him allegedly hoarding troves of confidential documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House — and then trying to cover it up afterward.
Cannon ruled that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment to the case was unconstitutional because Smith was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland and not chosen by Congress. The funds for Trump’s prosecution in the case also weren’t approved by Congress as they should have been, the judge said.
But the 78-year-old embattled ex-prez still faces a bunch of other legal troubles, including trials in two other criminal cases, a conviction in his criminal “hush money” case and legal judgments amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Here’s a look at all the legal woes Trump has been — and is still — embroiled in:
Former President Donald Trump is facing charges in connection to the Capitol riot. APProbes over the 2020 election and Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Trump was indicted Aug. 1, 2023, on four federal felony counts in Washington, DC, for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which culminated in a mob of his supporters breaching the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Smith is also prosecuting this case, which charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the US government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges, but the case has been on hold while his lawyers seek to get the case overturned on the grounds Trump should benefit from presidential immunity.
In fact, earlier this month, the US Supreme Court issued a bombshell ruling that Trump does enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution for “official acts” but it’s not immediately clear what constitutes “official acts” in the DC case.
The feds in the election case are especially focused on a scheme by Trump allies to put forth a slate of fake presidential electors in key battleground states who falsely declared that Trump won rather than Biden.
Several former Trump administration officials were brought before a grand jury in Washington for questioning, including former Vice President Mike Pence.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, suspended an earlier trial date while the appeal played out. The case has not yet been rescheduled.
Trump’s side will likely point to Judge Cannon’s ruling to argue that the DC case should also be tossed, since Smith is prosecuting that one as well.
Georgia election-tampering charges
Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Trump and 18 of his allies and supporters Aug. 14, 2023, for his alleged attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election in the Peach State.
Those targeted allies and supporters include former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Willis — whose personal relationship with her top prosecutor Nathan Wade has derailed the trial — mounted 13 counts against the former president, including racketeering violations, conspiracy, false statements and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.
Every defendant was charged under the state’s equivalent of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law that traditionally is used to bring charges against Organized Crime.
The probe was triggered by the revelation of a phone call Trump made to Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, urging him to “find 11,780 votes” — just enough to overtake Joe Biden and overturn Trump’s narrow loss in Georgia.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and described his phone call to Raffensperger as “perfect.”
A trial had initially been scheduled for this summer, until Trump and other defendants sought to get Willis booted from the case on misconduct grounds for her admitted affair with Wade.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could stay on the case as long as Wade stepped down, which he did that same day.
Still, Trump is appealing that ruling as he continues his crusade to have Willis disqualified from prosecuting him. The trial has been suspended until that decision comes down.
Hush-money scheme
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence about a sexual encounter she claimed to have had with Trump in 2006. Cohen — who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other crimes and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 — testified as the star prosecution witness at trial.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Trump sought to cover up the payment to Daniels, which they claimed was a campaign expenditure and exceeded federal campaign contribution limits.
Sentencing won’t happen until at least Sept. 18, if at all, as he asked the trial judge to toss the case on presidential immunity grounds – and may be helped along by the recent Supreme Court ruling.
New York attorney general’s tax-fraud suit
New York Attorney General Letitia James won a massive $455 million civil judgment against Trump in February after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled he was liable for business fraud.
James accused the Trump camp of “staggering” fraud, in which it allegedly fraudulently inflated company assets to try to get better loan and insurance terms and to gain tax benefits.
The AG, a Democrat, said her office found more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations between 2011 and 2021.
She also alleged Trump inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to illegally save dough.
Engoron issued a two-year New York business ban against Trump and his two eldest sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. in addition to the other penalties.
Trump is appealing that ruling.
Defamation case over E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegations
Trump was found liable in two civil lawsuits for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s, and he has been ordered to pay a combined total of $88 million to her.
Still, the jury rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room.
Trump was ordered to pay $5 million to Carroll in one of the cases in May 2023.
In the second case, another jury ordered him to pay $83 million in January for repeatedly defaming Carroll by calling her a liar and claiming he’d never met her.
Trump has filed notices of appeals in both cases and still maintains his innocence.
The writer first sued Trump when he told a reporter at the White House in 2019 that he didn’t know Carroll, that “she’s not my type” and that she lied about the alleged assault to boost sales of her memoir.
Carroll filed a second lawsuit after Trump posted on social media in October 2022 that her sexual assault claim was a “hoax,” “lie,” “con job” and “complete scam.”
Mar-a-Lago classified docs
Trump was the first former president to be slapped with a federal indictment — in this case, accusing him of keeping top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and trying to hide them from investigators when they demanded them back.
The 45th president was facing 37 felony counts — including 31 related to the willful retention of national defense information, according to the indictment unsealed on June 9, 2023. The other charges included conspiracy to commit obstruction and false statements.
Trump was accused of taking about 11,000 documents — some containing sensitive national security secrets — when he left the White House in January 2021 and hoarding them in a haphazard manner at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate.
He then allegedly sought to obstruct government efforts to recover the documents, including by directing personal aide Walt Nauta — who was also charged — to move boxes to conceal them.
The documents that Trump stored — including in a bathroom, ballroom, bedroom and shower — were ultimately seized from Mar-a-Lago by the feds during an Aug. 8, 2022, raid.
Trump has baselessly claimed that all of the cases against him are part of a Democratic scheme — led by President Biden — to keep him out of office.
Monday’s ruling destroyed this case by saying Smith had no right to bring charges and try to prosecute Trump.
The Department of Justice could still seek to appeal the judge’sruling, meaning the legal fight is not officially over for Trump yet.
