The Cases Against Trump: What to Know About the Various Investigations Surrounding the 45th U.S. President

Since leaving office in January 2021, Donald Trump remains a highly influential figure in Republican politics. But the twice-impeached former president's post-White House prestige has been overshadowed by intensifying investigations on various fronts, including into his political conduct and business affairs.

So far, four of those investigations have led to indictments — the first one making him the only U.S. president to face criminal charges, and the next two further distinguishing him as the only president to face federal charges.

Trump, his family and supporters have repeatedly and insistently denied wrongdoing in the various criminal, congressional and civil inquiries.

Here's a summary of the most prominent investigations — and the indictments that stemmed from them.

Hush-Money Payments

In April 2023, Trump faced a Manhattan judge and pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts involving alleged hush money payments to two women, believed to be (though not named by prosecutors) adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal.

According to prosecutors, Trump orchestrated a hush money scheme that lasted from August 2015 — just two months after he formally announced his run for the presidency — to December 2017, after he took office.

The scheme, they allege, saw Trump ask his attorney to pay off those who were trying to sell negative stories about him, such as women with whom he'd had affairs.

In allegedly paying off the women, prosecutors argue, Trump "violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York."

As the indictment describes, Trump requested that "Lawyer A" (widely assumed to be Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen) covertly pay "$130,000 to an adult film actress shortly before the election to prevent her from publicizing a sexual encounter with [Trump]."

Cohen has already admitted to making that payment and, as the indictment notes, spent time in prison for it. But the indictment says the scheme goes further than that, with Trump allegedly paying his lawyer back under the guise of a legal retainer. (According to the indictment, there was no retainer, and Trump was instead falsifying business records "to disguise his and others' criminal conduct.")

The indictment details another, similar, arrangement, in which Trump allegedly worked with higher-ups at the National Enquirer to silence another woman (rumored to be McDougal).

Trump, his attorney, and the tabloid then came to an agreement, the indictment claims, to pay the woman $150,000 (which the former president allegedly agreed to reimburse) for her silence. Conversations about that scheme, the indictment details, were captured on audio recordings, in which Trump can allegedly be heard saying, "So what do we got to pay for this? One fifty?" before suggesting she be paid by cash.

The indictment in this investigation made Trump the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.

Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago

In June, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House. Days later, the former president was arraigned at a courthouse in Miami, where he faced a judge and pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Trump was initially accused of 37 criminal offenses in the case: 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information (a violation of the Espionage Act); one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of withholding a document or record; one count of corruptly concealing a document or record; one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation; one count of scheme to conceal; and one count of false statements and representations.

In a superseding indictment released in July, Trump was charged with three additional counts — one more count of willful retention of national defense information, and two more obstruction counts. He has not yet entered a plea to those three.

Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential and vice-presidential records are the property of the federal government, with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) responsible for the "custody, control and preservation" of those materials once an administration ends.

But as prosecutors laid out, Trump isn't being charged for taking the documents from the White House initially — but for what he did after federal investigators issued a subpoena for access to those documents.

The initial indictment came after FBI agents executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla., in August 2023, searching for classified documents that went missing following his tenure in office.

Among the materials retrieved by the agents during that search were 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked "top secret" that are only meant to be viewed at secure government facilities, according to a property receipt that was unsealed with the search warrant.

Trump has claimed on social media that any documents in his possession had been declassified though, according to the indictment, prosecutors have reviewed recordings of Trump bragging about classified documents and admitting that he didn't declassify them.

As laid out in the indictment, investigators also have access to notes from at least one of Trump's own attorneys, who claimed the former president worked to hide classified documents from his own legal team, and from the FBI.

The indictment further alleges that former President Trump showed “a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance,” a plan of attack prepared for him by the Department of Defense. 

From the indictment: “Trump stated, ‘Look what I found, this was [a Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show . . . it’s interesting.” Trump went on to tell the individuals that the plan was, “like, highly confidential” and added: “as president I could have declassified it … Now I can’t, but this is still a secret.”

Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol

In August, Trump was indicted on four criminal counts by a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and other efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Per the indictment, Trump was charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

The indictment alleges that Trump, after losing the 2020 presidential election, "was determined to remain in power." The indictment also lists several unnamed co-conspirators, including four attorneys, a Justice Department official, and a political consultant who "helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification" of votes.

"So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won," it reads.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the investigation "the most wide-ranging investigation in [the department's] history."

The indictment is separate from a House committee's investigation of the Capitol attack, which was based on countless hours of testimony from a legion of former Trump officials as well as other evidence. That investigation ended in December 2022, following a series of televised public hearings throughout the summer.

The House committee's hearings, which began airing publicly in June 2022, each featured new revelations about the events leading up to the attacks and how Trump and his allies responded.

Among the most notable allegations are that Trump at one point attempted to force his Secret Service agents to drive him to the Capitol building himself as his supporters were descending on the building.

Trump's second impeachment was directly related to the horrific attack on a symbol of American democracy. Trump's own running mate, Vice President Mike Pence, narrowly escaped the mob as some marauders chanted for him to be hanged.

Georgia Election Interference

In August, Trump was indicted in a fourth criminal investigation, shortly after Georgia prosecutors presented evidence to a grand jury regarding the former president's efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results.

Through a majority vote, the 23-member jury revealed that they were ultimately convinced by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' case against Trump and his allies, signing off on her office's proposed criminal charges after reviewing evidence and hearing testimony. The result was a 41-count, 98-page indictment covering 19 defendants.

Trump faces 13 felony counts: racketeering (violation of the Georgia RICO Act); three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer; conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer; two counts conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree; two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings; conspiracy to commit filing false documents; filing false documents; and two counts of false statements and writings.

If convicted of violating the Georgia RICO Act — classified a step above felony, as a "serious felony" — Trump would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years.

Eighteen allies were also charged, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Bob Cheeley, Ray Smith III and Kenneth Chesebro; former assistant U.S. attorney general Jeffrey Clark; former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer; and current Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still.

Additional defendants include a GOP strategist, local elections officials, an Atlanta bail bondsman, a publicist, an Illinois pastor and a onetime congressional candidate.

The investigation hinges on Trump and his allies' behavior following his loss of the popular vote in Georgia by 11,779 votes during the 2020 presidential race, including a phone call the former president placed on Jan. 2, 2021, to Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger to demand he "find 11,780 votes" to change the outcome.

In February 2021, Willis launched the criminal investigation into the failed efforts to overturn the results that gave now-President Biden her state's 16 electoral votes.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.

Part of the investigation focused on the now-debunked State Farm Video, which some Trump allies, including Giuliani, falsely claimed showed widespread fraud.

That video — which was also cited by Trump — purports to show election workers bringing suitcases of false ballots for Biden into the State Farm Arena, and then running them through the machines multiple times. But state investigators who reviewed the tapes said there was nothing nefarious going on and that the election officials were undertaking "normal ballot processing."

"I've lost my name, I've lost my reputation, I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people, starting with 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, deciding to scapegoat me and my daughter, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen," one of those workers, Ruby Freeman, testified.

The Georgia investigation also focused on the so-called "fake electors" plot, with prosecutors arguing that Trump and his allies created and submitted fraudulent certificates asserting that Trump had won the electoral college vote in Georgia — despite that Biden won the state. They further argue that Trump filed a false document when he signed a court filing alleging widespread voter fraud in Georgia — a claim they say he knew was false.

The Trump Organization's Finances

In September 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she was suing former President Trump, three of his adult children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump — and senior executives at the Trump Organization for fraud.

The lawsuit alleges that the former president — with the help of his children and the executives mentioned in the filing — falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars in an effort to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms and to obtain other economic and tax benefits.

James' office said in a press release that "from 2011-2021, Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization knowingly and intentionally created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on his annual Statements of Financial Condition to defraud financial institutions."

The Trumps have argued that James' investigation is politically motivated, which she has repeatedly denied.

In a press conference, James said she seeks to make Trump pay $250 million in fines, ban the family from operating any New York businesses in the future, and ban the former president and the Trump Organization from buying commercial real estate in New York for five years.

James is also, she said, making a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The family fought earlier attempts to get them to testify in the case, previously asking a judge to quash what they called an "unprecedented and unconstitutional" bid for their testimony after being subpoenaed in December.

The court ultimately directed Donald, Donald Jr. and Ivanka to appear for testimony — a decision it reaffirmed after an appeal.

Trump's middle son Eric, who serves as an executive vice president at Trump Organization, was subpoenaed early on and testified in 2020. According to reports, both he and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg asserted their Fifth Amendment right when questioned.

In the criminal case, Weisselberg pleaded guilty Aug. 18, 2022, to tax fraud charges as part of a deal with prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office that are investigating a scheme allegedly orchestrated "by the most senior executives" of the company.

Trump decried the case against his company's former CFO as part of a strategy to target him.

In exchange for pleading guilty to all 15 felony charges, Weisselberg will be sentenced to 5 months in jail and 5 years probation. According to reports, he would have faced up to 15 years in prison were it not for the plea deal.

Battery and Defamation Suit Brought by E. Jean Carroll

In May 2023, Trump was deemed liable for sexually abusing and defaming former Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, based on a jury's findings in her highly publicized civil trial that sought damages for harm done.

The case against the former president — which moved through a Manhattan federal court — stemmed from rape and defamation allegations made by Carroll, who sued the former president under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which creates a one-year lookback window for survivors of sexual abuse to file claims otherwise barred by the statute of limitations.

The unanimous verdict required fewer than three hours of deliberations to reach, and marks the first time Trump — who has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women — has been held legally responsible for sexual misconduct.

The jury ultimately concluded that Carroll was not raped, but sexually abused: the second-highest offense that they could choose. Because it was a civil trial, their verdict did not determine guilt and will not lead to criminal charges. The jury did, however, have the power to order that Trump pay Carroll $2 million for sexual abuse and $3 million for defamation. (The judge later allowed her amend the suit to seek $10 million from Trump after he continued publicly speaking out about her following the verdict.)

Carroll's initial suit — filed in the U.S. Southern District of New York — alleged that Trump forced her "up against a dressing room wall, pinned her in place with his shoulder, and raped her" in the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue some 27 years ago.

The complaint further alleged that Carroll "remained silent for over two decades" for fear of being buried in "threats and lawsuits" and damage to her reputation and livelihood.

Trump has adamantly denied Carroll's claims, saying in a statement posted to social media following the verdict: "I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS" and calling the case "A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME." (The two have been photographed together, though Trump has said that was an incidental moment.)

In. June, Trump filed suit against Carroll, arguing in a lawsuit that, despite the verdict, she continued to claim the former president raped her and "made these statements knowing each of them were false or with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity."