The hush money case in New York that has led to criminal charges against Donald Trump is just one of several investigations that could pose legal problems for the former president.
Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Trump, confirmed Thursday that he had been briefed that the former president had been charged with payments made during the 2016 campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. The specific charges were not immediately released.
Trump faces a number of other investigations as he fights for another term in 2024, including a criminal probe into top-secret documents found at his Florida home, an investigation in Washington into his efforts, the results of the presidential election 2020, and an investigation in Georgia to look into whether he and his allies illegally interfered in the 2020 state election.
Trump, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing and says he is being targeted by Democrats trying to stop him from retaking the White House.
Here’s a look at the ongoing investigations in different states and locations:
MAR-A-LAGO
Of all the investigations Trump is facing, a Justice Department investigation into the storage of top-secret government documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lagocould pose the most significant legal threat when investigators said in court filings last year that they were investigating potential violations of multiple crime statutes.
As part of that investigation, agents and prosecutors have spent months questioning several people close to Trump, including an employee who was seen on surveillance video moving boxes of documents around the property while they investigated whether Trump or his proxies tried to block the secret documents probe.
Federal officials obtained a search warrant to search his home last year, convincing a Florida judge that there was probable cause for criminal activity there, including willful withholding of national defense information — a statute that carries a penalty in its own right of up to 10 years imprisonment.
A Washington grand jury has heard evidence in the inquest. prosecutor’s office in the past year limited immunity granted to a close Trump ally to back up his testimony and have been able to do so more recently compel testimony from a Trump attorney is said to have authored a document showing that a diligent search for secret records had been carried out.
Attorney General Merrick Garland named in November JackSmitha veteran war crimes prosecutor who previously headed the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Division to serve as special counsel on the Mar-a-Lago investigation and key aspects of a separate investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
ELECTION 2020 AND CAPITOL UPRISING
Smith has also led a team investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election, which Trump falsely claimed was stolen.
Federal prosecutors have been particularly focused on a plan by Trump allies to release a list of fake presidential voters in key battleground states who falsely declared that Trump, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election. They’ve issued subpoenas for a number of state leaders in the Republican Party.
Federal prosecutors have brought several Trump administration officials before this grand jury for questioning, including former Trump White House adviser and a top adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. A federal judge recently ruled that Pence would have to testify before the grand jury, though his team was still deciding Thursday whether to appeal.
In a sign of expanding investigations, election officials in several states whose findings Trump has contested have received subpoenas requesting prior communications with or involving Trump and his campaign officials.
A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has recommended that the Justice Department file criminal charges against Trump and his associates, who helped him launch a wide-ranging pressure campaign to try to win his 2020 election loss cancel.
GEORGIA
After his 2020 election defeat, Trump called Georgia’s Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger and urged him to do so “Find 11,780 votes” — just enough to overtake Biden and reverse Trump’s narrow loss in the state.
That call was on January 2nd Part of a month-long effort by a special grand jury in Atlanta examines whether crimes were committed in the pressure campaign to reverse Trump’s defeat.
Among those questioned by the special grand jury were Rudy Giuliani, the former New York Mayor and Trump attorney; Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham by South Carolina and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
The prosecutor advised Giuliani and Georgia Republicans who acted as fake voters that they risk being impeached. The fake voters signed a certificate claiming Trump won the election and declared themselves the state’s voters, even though Biden had won the state and Democratic voters had already been certified.
Trump and his allies have denied wrongdoing, and he has repeatedly called his call to Raffensperger “perfect.”
It’s up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, to decide whether to convene a regular grand jury and file criminal charges in the case. The foreman of the special grand jury that investigated the case at Willis’s request stated publicly in February that the panel had recommended multiple charges.
NEW YORK
New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump and the Trump Organizationwho claimed they had misled banks and tax authorities about the value of assets, including golf courses and skyscrapers, in order to obtain credit and tax benefits.
This lawsuit could result in civil penalties against the company if James, a Democrat, prevails. She is demanding a $250 million fine and a business ban for Trump in New York. Manhattan prosecutors investigated the same alleged behavior but did not pursue criminal charges.
A civil trial in state court is scheduled for October.
In a separate civil trial in federal court in New York, Trump was charged with raping a former magazine columnist in a dressing room in the mid-1990s. This case is scheduled to go before the court on April 25.
Trump has repeatedly insisted He never met columnist E. Jean Carroll at the store and has denied her allegations of rape, saying, “Physically, she’s not my type.” During a testimony in October, he misidentified a decades-old photo of her as one of his ex-wives.
Source : news.yahoo.com