TIMELINE - U.S. Supreme Court due to rule on Trump's immunity bid in blockbuster case

Record ID: 1827230

  • Title: TIMELINE - U.S. Supreme Court due to rule on Trump's immunity bid in blockbuster case
  • Date: 28th April 2024
  • Summary: Donald Trump on Tuesday (August 1, 2023) was hit with criminal charges for a third time in four months - this time arising from efforts to overturn his 2020 U.S. election defeat - as he campaigns to regain the presidency next year. The four-count indictment alleges Trump conspired to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election. U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution of former President Donald Trump in a federal case alleging he mishandled classified documents. U.S. prosecutors unsealed a 37-count indictment against Trump on June 9 accusing the former president of risking some of the country's most sensitive security secrets after leaving the White House in 2021. Trump mishandled classified documents that included information about the secretive U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack, the federal indictment said. WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (FILE - AUGUST 1, 2023) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPECIAL COUNSEL, JACK SMITH SAYING: "Today, an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding."
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2024 16:03
  • Keywords: Alvin Bragg Donald Trump Jack Smith Michael Cohen Presidential race Stormy Daniels Trump White House cash payment civil charges criminal charges
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA01C555016042024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday (May 30) when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
    Donald Trump faces an array of legal troubles in criminal and civil cases while he seeks to regain the presidency as the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election. Trump denies wrongdoing in all of the cases.
    Trump faces 88 criminal charges in four cases - two in federal courts and two in state courts. Here is a look at those and other major legal cases facing the former U.S. president.
    TRIAL OVER HUSH MONEY TO PORN STAR
    Closing arguments are expected on Tuesday (May 28) in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial in New York, wrapping up what is likely to be the only case against the former U.S. president to reach a jury before the November election.
    Trump was charged with falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with him in 2006. It is the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president and could be the only one Trump faces before the election.
    The case stems from a $130,000 payment Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, made to Daniels. Trump won the 2016 election, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, has accused Trump of trying to conceal a violation of election laws by recording the payment as monthly legal fees in his real estate company's books.
    Trump pleaded not guilty on April 4, 2023, to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels but acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he says was a personal expense intended to spare himself and his family embarrassment. Trump has called Cohen a "serial liar." Cohen's credibility is expected to be a key issue at trial.
    A conviction would not bar Trump from running for office or regaining the presidency.
    SPECIAL COUNSEL'S ELECTION SUBVERSION CHARGES
    The U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, 2024 heard arguments on Trump's claim that he has immunity from prosecution on federal charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
    The case originally had been scheduled to go to trial on March 4, but it is now on hold. The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments on the schedule it set for the case reduces the chances that a trial could wrap up before the election.
    Trump appealed after lower courts rejected his request to be shielded from four election-related criminal charges on the grounds that he was serving as president when he took the actions that led to the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
    On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol - assaulting police and breaking into the building - after the then-president gave a speech telling them to march there and "fight like hell" to prevent the election from being "stolen." The rampage came on the day Congress had met to certify Biden's victory. Prosecutors said Trump exploited the attack, spurning advice that he quickly send a message directing the rioters to leave.
    Trump and others also organized fraudulent slates of electors in seven states, all of which he lost, to be certified as official by Congress in a bid to thwart certification of Biden's victory, the indictment said.
    Trump pleaded not guilty on Aug. 3, 2023, to a four-count indictment, which presented examples of Trump's false claims of widespread voting fraud and noted that close advisers, including senior intelligence officials, told him the election results were legitimate.
    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in February rejected the contention made by Trump's lawyers that former presidents cannot face criminal charges for conduct related to their official responsibilities.
    The D.C. Circuit concluded that any executive immunity that may have shielded Trump from criminal charges while he served as president "no longer protects him against this prosecution."
    NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CIVIL LAWSUIT
    Donald Trump must pay $354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders, a New York judge ruled on Friday (February 16, 2024), handing the former U.S. president another legal setback in a civil case that imperils his real estate empire.
    Justice Arthur Engoron also banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.
    Trump won a bid a month later (March 25) to pause his $454 million civil fraud judgment if he posts a smaller $175 million bond within 10 days, in a victory for the former U.S. president that blocks New York state authorities from taking steps to seize his assets.
    The decision by a mid-level state appeals court eases an acute cash crunch for Trump, who has said he would be forced to sell assets at "fire sale prices" to post bond in the case.
    It delays enforcement of a judgment in a case that found he overstated his wealth to dupe investors and lender.
    New York Attorney General Letitia James's office, which is handling the civil case, said Trump is "still facing accountability for his staggering fraud."
    The law suit was filed on Sept. 21, 2022, by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat. The lawsuit accused Trump and his family real estate business, the Trump Organization, of lying from 2011 to 2021 about his net worth and the value of his properties to obtain better terms from lenders and insurers. These properties included his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan.
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