Former US President Donald Trump faces a series of lawsuits and investigations, but it is the case of alleged payments to a pornographic actress that could lead to an unprecedented accusation in the country’s history.
Just over a year and a half before the 2024 presidential election, for which he will run, Trump faces massive action in quantity and substance, such as civil lawsuits stemming from his pre-presidential business dealings and allegations related to sexual violations, attempts to annul the result of the 2020 elections or illegally keep confidential documents.
However, it is the payment of bribes to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels that leaves the country in suspense, with Donald Trump predicting he will be arrested this Tuesday in the wake of that case.
A formal indictment by Trump, who wants to return to the White House in 2024, would mark an unprecedented moment in US history, the first criminal prosecution of a former US president.
Here is a list of the most important investigations surrounding Donald Trump:
In 2016, pornographic actress and director Stormy Daniels contacted various media outlets to sell the report that she had an affair in 2006 with Donald Trump, who was already married to former first lady Melania Trump at the time.
Trump’s team became aware of the offer, and attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to stop going public with the case.
However, when Trump reimbursed Cohen, that payment was recorded as “attorney fees,” with prosecutors claiming it amounted to falsifying business records, which is a crime in New York.
There is also talk of a possible violation of election law, as the attempt to hide a payment from Trump to the actress was based on hiding the affair with Daniels from voters.
Over the weekend, Donald Trump put the country on hold by predicting he will be arrested this Tuesday by the New York Attorney General in the wake of that case.
Trump stated on his social network that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicate that “the leader-designate and former president of the United States will be arrested next Tuesday.”
Faced with this announcement, Trump urged his followers to demonstrate.
A committee set up in the House of Representatives was investigating Donald Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, attack by his supporters at the US Capitol headquarters, when election authorities confirmed the victory of his presidential opponent Joe Biden.
During prime-time televised hearings, this panel provided “overwhelming evidence” that Trump “personally orchestrated a plan” to undo his 2020 presidential defeat, including by spreading false allegations of widespread election fraud, “in an effort to” Justice Department and lobbying state officials, members of Congress and your own Vice President to try and change the results.
In addition, the commission ruled that Trump “failed to fulfill his duty” as head of state during the attack.
This committee, majority Democratic, called for him to testify, but the Republican filed a lawsuit to escape subpoena. Members must therefore submit their final report by the end of the year, without having heard the tycoon.
In that document, the Commission may recommend opening a case against Donald Trump.
Newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith will also investigate the former president’s role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
But the final word will rest with US Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose office has already charged more than 870 participants in the attack on the Capitol.
When leaving the White House, Donald Trump took entire boxes of documents with him. However, a 1978 law requires every US president to send all his emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives.
In January, Trump returned 15 boxes. After an investigation, federal police estimated that the tycoon likely kept other files at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
In this regard, on August 8, FBI agents conducted an extensive search of Trump’s mansion, based on a “preservation of confidential documents” and “obstruction of a federal investigation” warrant, and seized about thirty boxes.
An intense legal battle then began to determine the nature of the seized documents, some of which were marked “top secret”, “secret” or “confidential”.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith will also have to investigate this case.
In New York State Judge Letitia James, an elected Democrat, filed a civil suit against Donald Trump, his children and his business group, the Trump Organization.
James accuses them of deliberately manipulating valuations of the group’s assets – including golf clubs, luxury hotels and other properties – to get better bank loans or lower their taxes.
The New York Attorney General is seeking $250 million (240.3 million euros) in damages on behalf of the state, in addition to an operating ban for the former president and his family.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is investigating the criminal component of this case in parallel. Several members of the Trump Organization were charged and a trial began in late October. However, it does not directly concern the former president.
A Georgia state attorney has been investigating since 2021 “attempts to influence election operations” in this southern state, which was won by a narrow margin in 2020 by Joe Biden.
In a phone call, the recording of which was made public, Donald Trump asked a senior local official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” nearly 12,000 ballots in his name.
Fani Willis, the District Attorney of Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, appointed a grand jury to determine whether there was enough evidence to indict the real estate mogul. Willis has already managed to collect important testimony, especially from his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
In line with the most recent allegations against Tump is the sexual offense allegedly committed nearly 30 years ago against journalist and author E. Jean Carroll, presented Thursday.
Invoking the New York Adult Survivors Act, which took effect this week, the author calls for the former president to be tried by a jury for the crime of injuries related to “rape and forcible touching,” and demands that Trump compensate her for the damage, with an undetermined fine.
Carroll, 78, had already filed a libel suit against Trump after he denied the rape charge, accusing her of making “false accusations” and derogatory comments about her appearance.
In her account on the Twitter social network, the author explained that this new lawsuit could “spoil Thanksgiving Day (which was celebrated in the US on Thursday) for the former president,” but claims it could be relevant “for any woman who has grabbed, groped, harassed, pinched, pushed, assaulted, discredited or dragged through the mud by a powerful man”.
Source: DN
