The News
Donald Trump, who announced his third presidential bid earlier this year, has been indicted in New York over the Stormy Daniels hush money case. He continues to be under a host of criminal and civil investigations related to his time in the White House, as well as his business dealings.
Here’s a running list of those investigations and their status:
Jan. 6 Capitol riot
- The Jan. 6 House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack initially issued a subpoena for Trump to testify, but he sued to block it. On Dec. 29, the committee withdrew the subpoena citing the investigation’s ”imminent end.”
- The Department of Justice is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack and appointed a seasoned war crimes prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the case.
- In recent developments, a D.C. federal appeals court ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump attorney Evan Corcoran must testify before a grand jury looking into the Jan. 6 probe.
Mar-a-Lago secret documents
- The Justice Department is investigating if Trump violated federal law by failing to surrender top secret documents to the National Archives, instead keeping them at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.
- This probe is also now being led by special counsel Jack Smith.
- A so-called special master was appointed at Trump’s request to review the documents that federal agents seized from Mar-a-Lago and determine which should be kept from DOJ’s investigators.
- On Dec. 1, a federal appeals court halted the review, saying the former president could not “block government investigations” after a search warrant had been executed. A judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit on Dec. 8.
Georgia election interference
- State prosecutors in Atlanta are investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia after it was reported that Trump asked Georgia’s attorney general to “find” more than 10,000 votes needed to secure his victory.
- Trump’s closest allies have attempted to fight off subpoenas to testify in the special grand jury in Atlanta.
- His former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was ordered by South Carolina’s Supreme Court to testify in the criminal investigation, while Sen. Lindsey Graham has already testified before the grand jury.
- A grand jury has recommended charges against multiple people in the probe, but the individuals remain unidentified.
- In March, Trump filed a motion to quash the grand jury report and to bar any evidence from being used to prosecute people named in the report.
Trump Organization
Manhattan
- District attorney Alvin Bragg is spearheading a long-running criminal probe into Trump and his family business practices.
- The focus of the investigation includes whether Trump falsely inflated the value of his properties to obtain financial benefits.
- Bragg had also been investigating hush money payments Trump made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Trump was indicted in the case on March 30.
- Bragg’s broader inquiry led to criminal tax fraud charges against two Trump Organization companies. Both were found guilty by a Manhattan jury on Dec. 6. (Trump was not charged in this case, but prosecutors frequently mentioned his name during the trial.)
- The company was fined $1.6 million on Jan. 13 -- the maximum possible penalty under New York law -- for years-long fraud, evasion of taxes, and falsifying business records.
New York State
- New York attorney general Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump and three of his adult children in September after a yearslong investigation into whether they committed fraud by overvaluing the Trump Organization’s property assets.
Westchester County
- District attorney Miriam E. Rocah is specifically investigating whether Trump misled officials about the value of his golf course in the New York suburb to reduce taxes.
Tax Returns
- The House’s Ways and Means Committee has been investigating Trump’s financial dealings since 2018, with the goal of obtaining his tax returns ever since he refused to publicly release them during the 2016 election.
- On Nov. 22, the Supreme Court cleared the way for House Democrats to access the documents.
Trump Media
- Trump Media — the former president’s company that owns Truth Social — is under investigation for its intention to merge with blank check company Digital World, a blank check company.
- The merger would have provided Truth Social with $1.3 in capital, but blank check companies cannot have a deal lined up before they go public.
- Prosecutors then reportedly found Trump Media had accepted $8 million in loans from a Russian entity with reported ties to the Kremlin, a Guardian investigation revealed.
- Digital World’s CEO did not tell Trump Media the origin of the loans, and Trump Media officials were suspicious about the loan, but they were not returned because of financial strains, a former employee told prosecutors.
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