Former president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is now the first president in the history of the United States to have his mug shot taken after being criminally indicted. Since March of 2023, he has been indicted in four cases: business fraud charges in New York, classified document charges in Florida, a state indictment for election interference in Georgia, and a federal indictment for election interference within the 2020 election. Despite his legal battles, former President Trump has continued to run for the presidency.
On March 30, 2023, Mr. Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree (Quinn, Kates). Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former attorney, made a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult-video star Stormy Daniels on behalf of Mr. Trump in order to keep her quiet about a sex scandal involving Mr. Trump. Eleven counts involve the checks, eleven counts are associated with the monthly invoices Mr. Cohen submitted, and twelve counts concern the entries in the general ledger for Mr. Trump’s trust. Currently, the trial date for this case is set for March 25, 2024.
In his classified documents case in Florida, Mr. Trump was charged with 37 criminal counts and indicted on June 8, 2023, which included unlawful retention of national security secrets and obstruction of efforts by the government to retrieve the files. Three more charges were later added, and Mr. Trump’s indictment for these were returned on July 27, 2023. The current trial is likely set to be in May 2024.
During the election of 2020, Joe Biden only led Mr. Trump by 0.23% or 11,779 votes in Georgia. This narrow margin gave President Biden the sixteen electoral votes of the state of Georgia. Although these votes were insignificant for the overall outcome of this election as Trump could not have won with only 246 electoral votes, he and his eighteen accomplices were convicted of tampering with the voting system to tip the votes in his favor. Mr. Trump was convicted by the state of Georgia, and his trial is set to be on October 23rd.
For the same reason, on August 1st of 2023, former President Trump was convicted by the Grand Jury in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing official proceeding, conspiring to do so, and conspiracy against rights, which is conspiring to hurt or threaten someone. His federal trial will be on October 23rd as well.
However, despite his crimes against the country, Mr. Trump is still eligible to run for President. Though he has been indicted in four cases, he has not been convicted on any of them yet. His court showings have been affecting his ability to further his campaign, with him holding only 42 campaign events as opposed to Republican candidates Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, each having hosted more than one hundred events. With court dates scattered throughout the crucial time before the 2024 election, Mr. Trump will be fighting his legal battles as well as running his campaign for President, which may hinder his capability of pouring all of his monetary resources into running. This may affect capability to fund his campaign. Overall, his goal to run for President remains attainable, and further information on his court cases will be uncovered as his court dates pass.
Citations
Quinn, Melissa and Graham Kates. “Trump’s 4 Indictments in Detail: A Quick-Look Guide to Charges, Trial Dates and Key Players for Each Case.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 5 Sept. 2023, www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-indictments-details-guide-charges-trial-dates-people-case/.
O’Kruk, Amy, and Curt Merril. “Tracking Donald Trump’s Indictments.” CNN, Cable News Network, 31 Aug. 2023, www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/07/politics/trump-indictments-criminal-cases/.
O’Brien, Rebecca Davis. “Where the Criminal and Civil Investigations into Donald Trump Stand.” The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2022, www.nytimes.com/article/trump-investigations-civil-criminal.html.