Going into the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump stood accused of 91 felony counts across criminal cases in New York, Florida, Washington DC and Georgia. In May, he became the first former president ever to be convicted of a crime.
But now that he has won re-election to a second term, the president-elect is unlikely to be sent to prison or see other trials move forward. That likelihood has been slim since 1 July, when the US supreme court ruled that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution. His sentencing in connection with his New York conviction was delayed, and the presiding judge in Florida dismissed the case alleging he illegally retained classified documents.
Special counsel Jack Smith dropped the federal election interference case on 25 November. Prosecutors also abandoned the classified documents case in an appeals court filing.
Trump had already been hit with more than a half-billion dollars in penalties from a pair of New York civil trials. Trump has twice been found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E Jean Carroll by juries, awarding her a combined $88m in damages. In his New York civil fraud trial, a judge decided that Trump and the Trump Organization had lied about the value of their assets to secure better loan terms and fined him more than $350m plus interest, which has accrued to an additional $100m and counting.
Classified documents case in Florida
Status: Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case on 15 July, siding with Trump and ruling that the special counsel who brought the prosecution had been improperly appointed. On 25 November, prosecutors abandoned the case in an appeal court filing.
Key figures:
Charges: 40 counts, including willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Summary: In the weeks before he left the White House in January 2021, Trump and his aides allegedly packed up hundreds of classified documents with his personal belongings and transported those documents to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Federal officials repeatedly tried to recover the classified materials, but prosecutors say Trump intentionally withheld dozens of documents from investigators and misled them as they attempted to locate the missing files.
Hush-money case in New York
Status: Trump was convicted of 34 felonies on 30 May, but his sentencing has been delayed..
Key figures:
Charges: 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
Summary: The case involves a hush-money scheme during the 2016 presidential election. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to the adult film star Stormy Daniels to quash her story about having an extramarital affair with the former president. Trump has denied the affair took place. Prosecutors accused the former president of illegally reimbursing Cohen for the hush-money payment by falsely classifying the transaction, executed by the Trump Organization, as legal expenses. This was the first of Trump’s criminal cases to go to trial.
January 6 case in Washington
Status: Special counsel Jack Smith dismissed the case against Trump on 25 November, citing longstanding rules that sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. The withdrawal had been expected and shows how Trump used politics to beat the legal system. Trump had pleaded not guilty in the case.
Key figures:
Charges: Four counts: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights in his relentless pursuit to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election and remain in office.
Summary: On 6 January 2021, a group of Trump’s supporters staged a violent attack on the US Capitol in an effort to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. A bipartisan Senate report later concluded that seven people died in connection to the insurrection. The House impeached Trump for inciting the insurrection, but the former president was acquitted by the Senate. He now faces criminal charges for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss – including his actions leading up to and during the attack.
2020 election meddling case in Georgia
Status: Pending trial.
Key figures:
Charges: 13 counts against Trump including racketeering, forgery, perjury, filing false documents, false statements and others.
Summary: As part of his frantic efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump infamously instructed the Georgia secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to rob Joe Biden of his win in the battleground state. The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, had been investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia for more than two years before charging Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants with attempting to illegally overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
E Jean Carroll lawsuits in New York
Status: Trump found liable for defamation in two separate civil lawsuits and ordered to pay more than $88m in combined penalties.
Key figures:
Charges: Defamation and sexual abuse.
Summary: The case centered on Trump’s response to allegations by writer E Jean Carroll that he sexually assaulted her at a department store in 1996. Trump denied the allegations while repeatedly attacking Carroll’s character. He was ordered to pay $5m in fines after losing his first case, but continued to attack Carroll, which led to a second trial in which the judge ruled he’d intentionally defamed her again and ordered him to pay an additional $83m.
Trump Organization civil fraud case
Status: Trump and co-defendants found liable and ordered to pay more than $450m including interest. Trump is appealing.
Key figures:
Charges: Financial fraud.
Summary: In February 2019, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that the then president had repeatedly lied on financial forms about the value of his assets to procure better tax and loan terms. “It was my experience that Mr Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes,” Cohen told the House oversight committee.
His testimony triggered a civil inquiry, led by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, into the Trump Organization’s business practices. That led to a civil trial against Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization. They lost the case and were ordered in February 2024 to pay more than $350m in penalties plus interest, a combined sum that had grown to more than $450m by the time of the ruling. Trump is appealing the ruling.
