Donald Trump has been in an ongoing civil fraud case led by Letitia James since last year and has now posted a $175m bond. This was an agreed amount after an appeal bringing it down from $454m
By posting the bond Trump has now prevented James from being able to seize any of his assets including Trump tower, his Florida estate and resort and Golf course reported by The Times.
This civil fraud case is not the only legal trouble Trump has found himself in in the lead up to the Elections planned for late 2024.
Charges against Trump
Trump has 4 legal cases which include 91 charges altogether.
Case one
The first case involves hush money paid to an adult film actress before the 2016 elections. The actress reports the money was paid to her to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump.
The $130,000 was documented as legal fees in Trump’s business records and this is just one of the 34 counts of fraud under campaign finance laws that Trump is being investigated for.
The trial for this case is now scheduled for April 15 and this will be the first criminal trial of a US President.
The first trial has taken place where Trump was tried for falsification of records to sway the results in the 2016 election. He is accused of paying Stormy Daniels $130,000 to cover up an affair and then illegally reimbursing his lawyer, Michael Cohen for the money and recording it as legal fees in his records.
The jury consisted of seven men and five women.
Trump's lawyer, Blanche argued that there is no crime for influencing for an election stating, "it’s called democracy”. The defence argument consisted of Trump being unaware of the Hush money as his former personal counsel, Michael Cohen was left to handle it and Trump only had to sign it.
David Pecker, the former publisher for National Enquirer was called as a witness by the Prosecutor as they argued a strategic partnership between Cohen and Pecker. They created a plan to keep damaging information out of the public eye prior to the 2016 election.
The prosecutor also brought in quotes from the set of Access Hollywood tapes where Trump was clearly making vulgar comments about sexually assaulting women, the tape came out just a month before the election. This was pinned down to being 'locker room talk' however, when Daniels made her claim this became a panic for the campaign and paying her hush money was the only way to maintain appearances for Trump in 2016.
We wait for the verdict to come.
Updated 22/4/24
Case two
The BBC reports that In 2020 it was found that Trump had been allegedly pressuring officials and spreading false information in order to delay the certification of Biden’s victory in the election.
This has led to 4 cases of conspiracy to defraud the US as well as conspiracy against the rights of citizens.
Case three
A leaked phone call allegedly found Trump requesting the top election official in Georgia state to find more votes in favour of Trump.
Trump and 18 others were found to be conspiring to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
This found Trump with a racketeering charge which could result in a 20 year prison sentence, Trump has pleaded not guilty and has described the charge as politically motivated.
Case four
When Trump left office he was found to be mishandling classified documents as he travelled to his new residence with documents from the White House.
He is also being investigated for obstructing the FBI when they were trying to retrieve them.
This falls under the Espionage Act which could result in a sentence of 10 years in prison. As well as a 20 year sentence due to withholding or concealing documents.
Trumps lawyers are trying to delay the trial until after the November Election.
Trump has continually pleaded not guilty to all cases.
