Trump Faces A Slew Of Civil & Potential Criminal Court Cases

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Fred Wertheimer’s Weekly Note | March 16 , 2023

Former President Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 presidential election and in the process did enormous damage to our democracy and the integrity of our elections. It increasingly looks like Trump might just finally be held accountable for his attacks on our democracy, his abuses of office, and his assault on our constitutional values and the rule of law.

In the process, Trump may become one of the busiest people in America as he navigates myriad civil and potential criminal court cases and his 2024 presidential campaign.

Here is the potential lineup facing him.

Trump, along with the Trump Organization and three of his children, is being sued by New York State Attorney General Letitia James in a civil case seeking $250 million for “persistent and repeated business fraud,” and a prohibition on Trump and his organization from doing business in New York.

He is being sued in New York by E. Jean Carroll for allegedly raping her in the mid-1990s and for defamation based on Trump’s claim that she lied about it.

In Washington, DC, police officers and Members of Congress are suing Trump for the physical and psychological injuries they suffered as a result of the January 6 mob attack on the Capitol.

Even his own niece, Mary Trump, sued Trump and other family members for defrauding her out of millions in an inheritance dispute. The lawsuit was dismissed last November, but she has appealed.

And, then there are the potential criminal cases.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to soon bring a criminal case against Trump for “hush money” payments that were made to Stormy Daniels. Bragg is also reportedly exploring additional criminal charges on issues similar to those in the New York Attorney General’s civil case.

In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is reportedly planning to bring a criminal case in May against Trump and his co-conspirators for attempting to overturn the 2020 Georgia presidential election result, including the fake presidential electors scam that Trump supporters attempted to pull off.

They would seem to have Trump cold on the evidence, given his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pressured him to “find” 11,780 more votes with no basis for doing this other than to change the results of the election and turn Trump into the winner.

In Washington, DC Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is looking at a potential criminal indictment of Trump for improperly taking classified and top-secret information to his club residence at  Mar-a-Lago and engaging in obstruction of justice in refusing to return the documents to the government.

And, in the biggest case of all, Special Counsel Smith is also pursuing a potential criminal indictment against Trump and his collaborators for attempting to steal the 2020 presidential election from President Biden.

Trump’s efforts to steal the election ranged from attempting to substitute fake presidential electors for the real ones, attempting to subvert and misuse the Justice Department to overturn the election in battleground states, and Trump’s lead role in the insurrectionist mob attack on the Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the presidential election.

If these assorted criminal cases are filed, some believe it will turn Trump into a martyr with his base, feeding their anger. Others feel that Trump’s favorability has already weakened among Republicans and criminal charges will lead some Trump supporters to finally abandon him.

Trump has been litigious throughout his career, using delays, countersuits, and other legal tactics as part of his avoiding accountability for his misdeeds and abuses.

It may be that his days of avoiding accountability are coming to an end.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.