Donald Trump may have escaped an impeachment conviction a second time, but the former president still faces several civil and criminal prosecutions and investigations that question his conduct before and during his term.
Here are the pending cases against Trump.
The US Capitol Riot
The most recent lawsuit filed against him on February 18 stems from his alleged role in the deadly riot at the United States Capitol on January 6.
Deputy Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Chairman of the House’s Internal Security Committee, filed a federal civil action alleging that Trump and his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, along with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, two groups of far right, conspired to incite the crowd that invaded the Capitol building while lawmakers counted the votes of the Electoral College, according to court documents.
The February 16 lawsuit says the defendants tried to stop Thompson from fulfilling his duty to approve the counting of votes cast by the Electoral College after the presidential election.
The riot was part of an ongoing effort by Trump and his co-defendants to undermine the election results and prevent President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from being certified by Congress, the suit says.
Thompson wants to create the record that Trump violated the law, the legislator told MSNBC, and also set a standard for future political disputes.
“If you disagree in America about the outcome of an election, you don’t revolt. You do nothing but see that individual in the next election, ”said Thompson. “If the Trump administration’s engagement philosophy [like] what happened on January 6 becomes the default, so [in] with every election you disagree with, you simply go to the Capitol and destroy it. “
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Trump spokesman Jason Miller pointed out that Trump was acquitted in the Senate on charges of inciting the riot, Hill reported.
“President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the January 6 rally at Ellipse,” the statement said.
It remains to be seen whether Trump will face criminal charges in connection with the riot. Although he was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial on February 13, House Democrats spent days tying Trump’s comments to a rally before the Capitol riot and his false allegations of stealing elections from violence on January 6 .
In a Jan. 11 interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, DC Attorney General Karl Racine condemned Giuliani and Trump’s comments at a “Stop the Steal” rally before the riot. Giuliani called for “trial by combat” at the rally and Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” to save the country.
“They really encouraged these people and angered them,” said Racine.
Asked whether Trump, Giuliani and others could be prosecuted in connection with the riot, Racine said his office is investigating the possibility of prosecuting an incitement to violence charge, which according to the DC Code falls under the misdemeanor offense. disorderly conduct and can lead to 90 days in prison. Racine added that he is not specifically targeting Trump.
Voting process
Thompson’s civil case against Trump cites a reconstruction-era law passed by Congress in 1871 to combat terrorist organizations, specifically the Ku Klux Klan, a group that murdered and harassed black Americans in the south.
The law, known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, “was intended to protect against conspiracies, through violence and intimidation, which were intended to prevent members of Congress from fulfilling their official functions,” the suit said. “The defendants conspired to prevent, by force, intimidation and threats, [Thompson], as a Member of Congress, to exercise its official functions of approving the counting of votes cast by members of the Electoral College after the presidential election held in November 2020. ”
The KKK law was also cited in a complaint against Trump, his campaign and the Republican National Committee after the presidential election. The lawsuit was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund on behalf of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and three Detroit residents about Trump’s apparent efforts to influence local officials in Wayne County, Mich., And state lawmakers to postpone vote certification or interfere with the electoral process.
“The Ku Klux Klan Act prohibits people from conspiring to deny ‘directly or indirectly, any person or class of people equal protection of the law’,” says the complaint, “or ‘to prevent by force, intimidation or threat, any citizen who has the legal right to vote, giving his support or defense in a legal manner, towards or in favor of the election of any person legally qualified as a voter for President or Vice President. ‘”
Georgia
Trump is under criminal investigation in Atlanta over a January 2 call during which he pressured Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to nullify Biden’s victory in the state, according to a recording that leaked from the call that was first reported by the Washington Post.
During the call, Trump insisted that he won the state and told Raffensperger that he just “wants to find 11,780 votes,” according to the Post’s conversation transcript. Biden beat Georgia by 11,779 votes.
The appeal came amid several violent attempts by Trump and his allies to cast doubt on the election results in key states won by Biden and to try to be declared the winner, despite not getting enough votes at the Electoral College. Georgia’s top Republican officials, including Raffensperger, quickly fell into Trump’s favor when they indicated they would not agree with his attempts to undermine the results.
Prosecutors are now investigating whether the call violated state law, according to the New York Times.
In a February 10 letter to Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said his office opened an investigation “into attempts to influence Georgia’s 2020 general election administration”.
The letter adds: “This investigation includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law that prohibits solicitation of electoral fraud, submission of false statements to state and local government agencies, conspiracy, extortion, violation of oath and any involvement in violence or threats related to the electoral administration. “
The letter did not mention Trump, but the Democratic prosecutor acknowledged in an interview with Rachel Maddow of MSNBC that the investigation includes, but is not limited to, Trump’s connection with Raffensperger.
Allegations of sexual misconduct
Former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll sued Trump in New York State for defamation in 2019 after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room in the 1990s. Trump responded by calling Carroll a liar in an interview to Hill.
The last major event in the case occurred in September, when the Justice Department sought to replace Trump’s lawyers to defend him in the lawsuit, according to federal court documents. The agency argued that Trump was acting as president when he allegedly made the comments defamatory by Carroll, so he should be allowed to use government lawyers for his defense.
A judge denied the department’s request in October, court records show. The agency then appealed on the Second Circuit, according to a notice filed on 25 November. It is unclear how the Biden Department of Justice will proceed with this pending request.
Carroll is among more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Another woman, Summer Zervos, claimed that Trump groped her and tried to kiss her in 2007, the Associated Press reported. She sued Trump for defamation in the state court after he denied the charges, according to the AP.
Trump finance
Adding to Trump’s legal problems are two separate investigations by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance on alleged financial improprieties related to Trump’s corporate dealings, Yahoo Finance reported.
James is investigating the Trump Organization’s financial activities, according to the attorney general’s office, and whether Trump inflated the value of his assets in his financial statements to get better terms for loans and insurance coverage. This investigation can lead to civil charges.
Vance’s investigation, which is criminal, is investigating whether Trump committed financial crimes through the Trump Organization, the New York Times reported. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Manhattan prosecutors are looking at hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loans that Trump made on various properties in the city.
Vance’s team recently hired Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor and prominent defense attorney, the Times reported on Thursday. A spokesman for Vance told CNN that Pomerantz was sworn in this month.
Family drama
Trump’s niece Mary, who wrote a revealing book about the former president in July, sued Trump and his brothers in September, claiming that they stole her from the money she said she should have inherited, CNN reported.
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