For my entire lifetime and yours it has been a common refrain that we are a Constitutional Republic and we are therefore a country of laws. We may not agree with the laws and at any given moment any given law may be violated. Eventually, depending on the significance of the violation, the law will be enforced. People with lots of money and influence in our system generally have an advantage when that enforcement effort starts. We are seeing that play out now. Events that occurred three, four or more years ago are just in the process of being pursued or resolved in our legal system.
Donald trump has the distinction of accomplishing several firsts related to our justice system. He’s the first former president to be indicted for a crime and the first to be convicted of a felony. It’s important to note that the felonies charged were committed before and during his presidency. They are related to the felonies his former attorney, Michael Cohen, was sent to prison for several years ago. Trump was a sitting president at the time and though he was listed as “individual 1” in the Cohen indictment he was not named as an unindicted coconspirator.
After much deliberation Mr. Trump was indicted and brought to trial. A jury of individuals selected by both sides heard the evidence and arguments of the prosecution and the defense and compared what they believe happened with the law as they understood it. They decided he was guilty of the 34 crimes charged.
The decision to charge him with the crimes was made by Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney of New York County. It was the result of an investigation begun by his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. in 2018. It took six years but, according to Mr. Bragg, the result proved that the justice system works. More information about this case is available in another document on this site.
Mr. Trump has a very dedicated base of followers and he has protested the events described with many claims of his own. It would be easier to accept the notion that his conviction was an appropriate outcome if we fully understood the nature of the man convicted. We have a long list of events and court proceedings that indicate he has been seen making choices and taking actions that has put him in legal peril in the past. Here are a few of the most recent.
The People of the State of New York against Donald J. Trump, Defendant
On February 16, 2024 Trump, his company and executives including sons Eric and Donald were found guilty of falsifying financial documents used to make deals and secure loans. The fine was $355 million with the added requirement to pay interest in the amount of $112 thousand per day until appeals are resolved. Judge Arthur Engoron described the issues as follows. “the fraud found here leap off the page and shock the conscience”. He described Trump and his sons attitude about the fraud as “bordering on pathological”.
The trial was held in state court and New York Attorney General Letitia James told reporters after the verdict that “justice has been served”. She added it proves “we all must play by the same rules—even former presidents.”
The investigation was begun following the accusations made before Congress by his former lawyer. He alleged that Trump “inflated [the organization’s] 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.” The evidence indicated his statement was correct. A persistent complaint from Trump is that he did not have a jury trial in this matter. However, Trump is “firm in his belief” that “based on the jury pool” he cannot get a fair trial by jury in New York according to one of his many lawyers. They made no effort to do so.
State of New York vs Donald J. Trump, Trump Children and Trump Foundation
The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a tax-exempt 501©3 corporation. Trump solicited donations to the fund in a number of different ways even after he quit donating in 2008. An investigation into the foundation started in 2016. In 2018, stating that the foundation was engaged in “a shocking pattern of illegality” in the way it used its funds, the New York State Attorney general filed a civil suit against Donald Trump and three of his children including Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. The foundation was shut down under court supervision starting in December of 2018 and funds were distributed to other charities. In 2019 Trump admitted to using foundation funds for his business and political purposes. He was required to pay a fine of $2 million as restitution in addition to reimbursing some fund operation expenses. Trump was also required to repay the amounts spent on personal sports paraphernalia and $10,000 paid for a large portrait of himself. The funds on hand plus the $2 million in damages were distributed equally to eight charities. Restrictions were also placed on what function members of the Trump family can have with charitable organizations.
People v. Trump Corporation
In July of 2021 The Trump Corporation, the Trump Payroll Corporation and Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization were all charged with a scheme to defraud in the first degree, conspiracy in the fourth degree, four counts of criminal tax fraud and four counts of falsifying business records. Allen Weisselberg was also charged with grand larceny and offering a false instrument for filing. He was alleged to have received about $1.7 million in undeclared indirect compensation in the form of free rent and utilities, car leases and school tuition for his grandchildren. Internal spreadsheets kept track of the “fringe benefits” but did not report them as income. Even though the state offered evidence that Donald Trump knew of the scheme he was not charged with any law violations. The organization was found guilty on all 17 counts on December 6, 2022 and ordered to pay the maximum fine of $1.6 million. Allen Weisselberg received a 5 month prison sentence.
Matter of People of the State of N.Y. by Eric T. Schneiderman v Trump Entrepreneur Initiative
An organization advertising itself as Trump University was incorporated by Donald Trump and others in 2004. It did not provide any college credit, grade its participants or grant any degrees. The New York State Department of Education notified them they could not advertise themselves as a University. They continued to do so. A lawsuit was filed in state court in 2013 alleging that the organization defrauded its customers. Two class action suits were filed in federal court as well. The State of New York suit claimed that the organization was not in any way a university and that it defrauded 5,000 unknowing individuals of up to $40 million. The Attorney General described the case as a “straight up fraud case”. It was advertised to be teaching the students the secrets of Donald Trump’s real estate success. Video advertisements show Mr. Trump saying “These are all people handpicked by me”. The president of the organization admitted Trump had nothing to do with hiring the instructors or creating the curriculum. Independently, The consumer protection division of the state of Texas sought to recover $2.6 million to repay customers and another $2.8 million in penalties and fees. The suit was discontinued but the organization agreed to cease operation in Texas. In November of 2016 Trump agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle all three lawsuits. $21 million was used to repay defrauded customers in the class action and $3 million was used to repay New York customers not in the class. $1 million was assessed by the state of New York for running an unlicensed university.
E. Jean Carroll, Plaintiff, v. Donald J. Trump, Defendant
On May 9, 2023, regarding E. Jean Carroll’s claims of defamation and sexual assault, an anonymous jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but he was found not liable for rape according to New York state definition. Presiding Judge Lewis A. Kaplan later stated that the jury had ruled that Trump had committed rape according to the common definition of the word. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages. On January 26, 2024, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages in a second defamation lawsuit.
In 2019 Ms. Carroll publicly claimed the Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted her a number of years earlier. Mr. Trump responded by saying the claim was completely false among other statements. Ms. Carroll subsequently sued Mr. Trump for defamation. That case never went to trial. In November of 2022 The New York Adult Survivors Act went into effect. It provided a temporary period of time when the statute of limitation on sexual assault was waved. As a result, Ms. Carroll filed a second lawsuit for defamation and to recover damages for sexual assault. . Ms. Carroll testified for most of 3 days including cross examination. Mr. Trump did not take the stand and offered no defense except efforts to discredit Ms. Carroll and her witnesses. They consisted of “outcry” witnesses Ms. Carroll told of the event shortly after it allegedly happened. There were also two witnesses that claimed to be survivors of Mr. Trumps sexual advances. The jury also heard recorded statements Mr. Trump made concerning his own sexual prowess.
United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira
On June 8, 2023 the office of the Smith special counsel investigation filed an indictment including 37 felony counts against the former President. Another indictment on July 27 added 3 felony charges. Some of the charges were filed under the Espionage Act while others were filed for making false statements and engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The Presidential Records Act states that presidential documents must be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) by the end of the presidents term. Four months after his term ended the NARA became aware that documents were missing and began efforts to have them returned. Repeated communication resulted in 15 boxes being retrieved. The boxes were found to contain classified documents and that caused a referral to the Justice Department in February of 2022.
The FBI launched an investigation in March 2022. A grand jury issued a subpoena for any remaining documents in Trump’s possession. The former President, through his attorney, claimed to have returned all documents by June 2022. Evidence was found that some boxes had been intentionally hidden rather than returned. Trump had failed to comply with the subpoena so the FBI began a search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8. That search found 300 classified documents covered under the Espionage Act and over 12,000 other documents that should have been returned to NARA.
Special counsel Jack Smith was appointed to continue the investigation in November of 2022. The ongoing investigation claims evidence has been found that significant effort had been made to keep the documents including moving them to different locations, erasing video tape of the move and lying about those and other events under oath. The case was randomly assigned to Trump appointee Aileen Cannon and has been indefinitely postponed.
