Former President Donald Trump has been indicted four times since March, continuously making history as the first former president to face such legal challenges. Trump faces three federal cases as well as a state case, all of them criminal. These cases have the possibility to make Trump the first former president to be incarcerated, and regardless of the outcome promise to impact the 2024 presidential election.
“It is incredibly relieving to see Donald Trump face the consequences of his actions, but it’s bittersweet because it doesn’t really feel like he’s losing in any way”, University student Griffin Lalli says.
The first criminal case to be brought against former President Trump charges him with 34 counts of falsifying business records, allegedly done to disguise the payment of hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump threatened his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump surrendered in a Lower Manhattan courthouse in April 2023 and pleaded not guilty on all counts. Trump is next due in court on Jan. 4, 2024.
Trump also faces a federal indictment in Florida, where he was charged in June with 40 felony counts of mishandling classified documents, obstruction of justice and making false statements. The charges stem from allegations that Trump stored sensitive documents in unsecured areas of his resort home at Mar-a-Lago and ignored subpoenas to return them, and that he showed classified documents to people without adequate security clearance. Furthermore, Trump was charged with leading a conspiracy to disguise his retention of classified documents, which allegedly included instructing aides to destroy video evidence. Trump and his two aides charged in the case all pleaded not guilty. The judge overseeing this case set a trial date of May 20, 2024.
In August 2023, Trump was charged in a federal case concerning his actions and false claims employed in an attempt to subvert the 2020 Presidential Election results. The four-count indictment lays out dozens of allegations that Trump attempted to convince voters and government officials that the election was rigged and that the legitimate election results should be overturned, keeping him in office. The former president was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy against the rights of Americans. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial for this case is set to begin on March 4, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Trump is accused of taking similar actions in Georgia. In August, Trump and 18 others were charged with conspiring to overturn the state’s election results, which prosecutors claim violated the state’s laws against racketeering. The 41-count indictment accuses Trump and his alleged co-conspirators of perjury, false statements and writings, influencing witnesses and election fraud, among other offenses.
18 of the 19 defendants pleaded not guilty while the remaining defendant pleaded guilty last month. In late August, a mugshot was taken of Trump when he surrendered at the courthouse, the first ever such instance involving a former president. Two of the defendants will go on trial later this month, but no trial date has been set yet for the other defendants, which include Trump.
Trump also faces several civil lawsuits. In May, he was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s and was ordered to pay $5 million. He has also been found liable in two different civil suits for defaming Carroll, with damages yet to be decided. Earlier this month, a New York judge ruled that Trump committed fraud in relation to his business by inflating his assets; that civil trial is still ongoing.
“This is just another example of Donald Trump thinking he’s above the law and facing the reality that there are consequences to his actions”, Political Science sophomore Lyric Thomas says.
While some are eager to see Donald Trump convicted and jailed in relation to these cases, the former president continues to draw support, raising over $7 million immediately after his mugshot became public. Trump claims that the cases represent a politically motivated attack against him. It remains to be seen whether his ongoing legal woes will affect primary and general election voters’ willingness to potentially reelect him.
