Where Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases stand

A New York Grand Jury is expected to finish deliberating on a case that could lead to the indictment of the US president.

Former president Donald Trump has said he hopes to be arrested in the case, which involved $ 130,000 payment US ex-lawyer Michael Cohen made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels said the payment was to buy them silence about their relationship with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied the relationship, and initially refused to pay Cohen back until the stance became untenable when former lawyer Rudy Giuliani revealed it. Trump’s television interview made the payment.

Cohen was jailed in a federal case over the affair, but in an interesting twist, Trump faces possible indictment at the state level.

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Trump could become the first US president to be impeached. Richard Nixon was pardoned in 1974 shortly after his resignation, by his successor Gerald Ford, when in 2000 the departure of the president Bill Clinton was struck by prosecutors involving fines and admissions that he gave false testimony under oath about his relationship with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky in order to avoid prosecution.

If Trump is indicted, the court will not be around for long, assuming that the legal team’s efforts to have the charges dismissed will not be successful. As an example, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was charged with defrauding donors in a New York state case last September. Bannon’s trial is not scheduled to begin until November.

As such, there will likely be further developments in criminal and civil probes involving Trump, which could impact his efforts to secure the Republican nomination for a third consecutive presidency.

Here’s an update on the status of the main case:

Twin federal probes

Special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department in late 2022, is overseeing at least two investigations involving Trump.

The efforts of Trump and his allies to admit electoral fraud without evidence and cancel the results of the 2020 election, an event that affected the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, refer to the investigation that preceded the appointment of Smith.

Vice president Mike Pence, who is angry with Trump for not unilaterally declaring him the winner of the 2020 election in the congressional process, has confirmed that he has been summoned in the case and challenged some aspects of the subpoena. Pence said he was prepared to take the challenge all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, but would ultimately abide by the court’s decision.

The Justice Department under Smith’s supervision is also investigating whether Trump or anyone in his orbit obstructed efforts by federal agencies to recover classified documents, which included classified material, from the Florida property.

A judge has ruled that prosecutors can bring back Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran for further questioning before a grand jury in the case, the Associated Press reported last week.

Corcoran last year made a statement to the Justice Department in response to a subpoena alleging a “diligent search” for classified documents had been conducted at Mar-a-Lago. A few months later, FBI agents searched the house with a warrant and found approximately 100 additional documents with classified markings.

Georgia’s election meddling

A special grand jury in Georgia heard from 75 witnesses last year about the efforts of Trump and his allies to cancel the victory of Joe Biden in the state in the 2020 election. to charge.

Jurors heard a January 2021 public call in which the former president pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough Trump votes to overturn Biden’s victory. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that five jurors who spoke to the newspaper said they also heard a separate, previously unreported tape in which Trump allegedly pressured top state legislators.

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The ball is now in Willis’ court on whether to convene a more traditional grand jury that could indict Trump or some of his allies. Two months ago, Willis said a decision on the process was “imminent.”

One thing to watch out for: The Republican-led state Legislature is considering measures to give it more authority to recall locally elected district attorneys for “willful wrongdoing.” When the district attorney has been removed in the same way in Florida and California, critics of the rule can not help notice the timing of the bill, believing that it can politicize or can torpedo the Trump-related probe before it is completed.

Trump Organization Allegations

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the Trump Organization and several principals last September over an alleged decade-long scheme to falsify Trump’s asset valuations and net worth, in order to get favorable terms from lenders and insurers.

The trial is “written in stone” for October 2, the judge in the case said this week, after a failed bid by Trump’s team to delay the proceedings.

Defendants including Trump, Donald Jr.’s children, Eric and Ivanka, and the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, recently received short prison terms in separate cases stemming from the company’s practices.

Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney overseeing the money case, Alvin Bragg, said the book was not yet closed on the criminal case to the same Trump Organization allegations.

Defamation case related to rape allegations

E. Jean Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump in federal and state court for disparaging comments about her after she publicly accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s.

The federal case is still caught up in appeals, but on April 25 the state trial will begin.

Trump sat for a combative deposition related to Carroll’s accusations in October.

Kaplan has ruled that Carroll’s team can call as witnesses Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, two other women who have accused Trump of sexual assault. Also, the judge said the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood recording in which Trump bragged in public terms to conduct sexual assault can be brought into evidence.