News | World
Donald Trump has got his best lawyers on the case once more as he fights to prevent the seizure of his assets in a business fraud case. The
Republican presidential nominee is facing a race against time to pay a $464m (£365m) penalty for inflating his net worth. Trump’s property empire is at risk in the legal battle with
New York authorities primed to hone in on his properties if he does not come up with the money. There have been mixed reports about the extent of his capital and his son, Eric Trump , has criticised the figure, telling
Fox News that “no-one has ever seen a bond this size”. Other assets, such as buildings, houses, cars and even his aircraft, are up for grabs as well, although experts think that his bank accounts will be the first to be seized. It remains to be seen whether Trump can pull off a great escape in this case but it is far from his only legal battle in what is a busy time for his counsel. This is a civil fraud case , however, and not one of the four criminal cases that he is facing. Here are all the criminal cases that Donald Trump is in line for. Donald Trump became the first former president to be criminally indicted when state prosecutors charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records. The case centres around allegations Trump authorised ‘hush money’ payments to bury allegations of an affair with porn star
Stormy Daniels during the 2016
election campaign. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges , and Trump’s legal teams are currently involved in pre-trial litigation, including a bid by Trump to have the case heard in federal court. Normally, falsifying business records in New York is a misdemeanour, but prosecutors have brought felony charges, which happens when it is alleged the defendant falsified the records with the intent of furthering a separate underlying crime. A trial was scheduled for March 25 but prosecutors are seeking a 30-day delay to allow time for new evidence to be reviewed and it appears to be in the long grass. The worst-case scenario for Trump would be a four-year
prison sentence for each charge, although it seems more likely he would be granted probation. Trump has been charged with four crimes relating to his attempts to derail the transfer of power in the 2020 election. These are conspiracy to defraud the
United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The trial has been postponed indefinitely to allow time for an appeal from Trump to play out and there is also a legal battleground over whether a former president can be prosecuted. The case will go before the
Supreme Court where justices in April will decide whether Trump can be prosecuted. But the following hearings will not likely be heard before the election in November. If Trump wins the presidency, he could then pardon himself. A worst-case scenario for him would be a 20-year prison sentence but this is a case without precedent in the US. Trump faces 37 separate charges in a classified documents case. He is accused of more than 30 violations of the Espionage Act, over claims he stored dozens of classified documents at his
Florida resort of Mar–a-Lago, and refused to return them to the
FBI. Prosecutors allege that, on at least two occasions, Trump showed sensitive documents to others who weren’t supposed to view them – among them an apparent top-secret plan of
MILITARY attack. Both Trump and his long-time aide, Walt Nauta, are accused of conspiring to obstruct justice by blocking investigators. The date for a trial has been put back and back, with prosecutors wanting it to take place in July but it seems like it might be one to be heard after November’s election. Prison would again be the worst-case scenario for Trump but the logistics of putting a former president behind bars mean that it is unlikely to happen. Finally, Trump has been charged with conspiracy to commit forgery in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. On January 2, 2021, Trump called Georgia’s
Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, and urged him to “find” 11,780 votes for Trump in an explosive phone call. This would have overturned the narrow victory for
Joe Biden in the state, as Biden won the state with fewer than 12,000 votes. The slew of charges against him in Georgia include racketeering, conspiracy to commit forgery, false statements, and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. For this one, prosecutors want to begin a case in August but a date has not been set – and, like the other cases, a loss for Trump could potentially result in prison time. MORE ABOUT Have your say...