自2023年3月以来，唐纳德·特朗普曾在四起刑事案件中六次被大陪审团起诉，一次被陪审团定罪，拍摄了一张面部照片，被两个民事陪审团命令支付数百万美元的赔偿金，并被曼哈顿法官认定负有民事欺诈责任。
但随着特朗普在本月大选获胜后接近重返白宫，他的刑事和民事法律问题开始淡化为他快速进行的总统过渡的背景。
特朗普否认有不当行为，并在每起刑事案件中辩称无罪，并否认民事案件中的所有不当行为。他重返总统宝座可能会导致他的四个刑事案件被驳回或搁置至少四年。
这是他每个重大案件的情况。
特朗普因伪造商业记录的刑事指控在纽约被起诉一年多后，他被被陪审团定罪今年5月，34项重罪指控涉及封口费向成人电影女演员斯托米·丹尼尔斯支付款项，以提高特朗普在2016年总统大选中的选举前景。
特朗普原定于7月被判刑，但他的律师寻求根据最高法院关于总统豁免权的新裁决驳回此案，认为定罪依赖的证据应该是禁区。该案件的法官胡安·马尔尚尚未就高等法院豁免决定的影响做出裁决。
特朗普赢得大选后，他的律师再次要求驳回该案，理由是在任总统应该免于起诉。检察官驳回了这一说法，认为特朗普已经因完全私人的行为被定罪-但他们表示愿意将特朗普的判决推迟到他2029年离任。
Merchan法官已经尚未权衡驳回此案的动议。特朗普的判决仍定于11月26日，尽管不太可能按计划进行。
在特别顾问杰克·史密斯接管对特朗普涉嫌干预选举的调查八个月后，华盛顿特区的大陪审团被起诉的特朗普2023年8月，他受到刑事指控，非法试图推翻2020年大选的结果，以继续掌权-但由于特朗普的律师基于总统豁免权提出上诉，该案被搁置。
最高法院最终在7月裁定，特朗普应该受益于在任期间采取的任何官方行为的豁免权推定，并将此案发回美国地区法官Tanya Chutkan，以确定这些指控是否包含官方行为。
检察官随后修改了对特朗普的指控——删除了与官方行为有关的任何指控，包括特朗普对司法部的使用——并让大陪审团在8月份对前总统提出了新的起诉。
特朗普再次当选，因为Chutkan法官正在评估总统豁免权将涵盖起诉书的哪些部分。史密斯随后暂停了该案，以“评估这一前所未有的情况，并确定与司法部政策一致的适当前进方向。”
由于司法部的长期政策禁止起诉在任总统，预计史密斯将在未来几个月内结束对特朗普的诉讼。他面临着一个12月2日截止日期告诉法庭他的下一步行动。
预计史密斯还将向司法部长梅里克·加兰发布他的调查结果的最终报告，他将面临是否公开这些材料的决定。
在特别顾问杰克·史密斯提起的另一个案件中，佛罗里达州的联邦大陪审团被起诉的特朗普2023年6月，他的助手沃尔特·诺塔(Walt Nauta)被指控在离开白宫后保留机密文件，并采取措施阻挠政府取回这些文件的努力。
2023年7月，大陪审团驳回了对特朗普和诺塔以及Mar-a-Lago房地产经理卡洛斯·德·奥利维拉(Carlos De Oliveira)的替代起诉书。
特朗普提名担任法官的艾琳·坎农(Aileen Cannon)对该案进行了近一年的监督，他接受了辩护律师提出的新的法律论点，并推迟了主要裁决，阻止了该案进入审判阶段。她最终在7月份驳回了该案件，因为她发现史密斯被不恰当地任命为他的角色。
史密斯将坎农的裁决上诉到第11巡回上诉法院，认为法律先例和历史证实了司法部长任命特别律师的能力。但在特朗普连任后，他要求法院暂停上诉，以评估DOJ禁止在任总统被起诉的政策导致的“前所未有的情况”。
情况是现在暂停直到12月2日，史密斯评估了他结束此案的选择，包括是否可能只对特朗普的共同被告进行起诉。
8月，特朗普和18名共同被告在受到刑事指控在一项全面的敲诈勒索指控中，特朗普涉嫌试图推翻佐治亚州2020年的选举结果，包括特朗普在输给乔·拜登(Joe Biden)后要求佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬斯佩格(John Kerry)“找到”获胜所需的选票。
该案中的四名被告接受了认罪协议，而其余的一些被告则试图让提起该案的地区检察官范尼·威利斯(Fani Willis)因她与一名检察官同事的关系而被取消资格。
富尔顿县法官斯科特·麦卡菲(Scott McAfee)拒绝在检察官辞职的情况下取消威利斯的资格，但随着特朗普和他的共同被告对这一决定提出上诉，该案已经暂停。上诉的口头辩论最初定于12月5日，但本周意外取消，没有任何解释。
与此同时，法官迈克菲也削弱了起诉书，撤销了特朗普最初被指控的13项罪名中的5项。
据专家称，如果该案件回到审判法庭，特朗普的律师可能会提出总统豁免权辩护，试图驳回该案。当被问及特朗普当选会产生什么影响时，辩护律师史蒂夫·萨多(Steve Sadow)去年表示，该案可能要等到特朗普离任后。
富尔顿县地方检察官办公室此前拒绝就此案的未来发表评论。
纽约民事欺诈案
在去年漫长的民事审判后，纽约法官发现特朗普、他的成年儿子以及他们的商业伙伴民事责任犯了十年的商业欺诈罪。
加上利息，特朗普和他的共同被告欠下近4.89亿美元，并面临禁止在纽约经营公司的禁令。他们安排了一笔1.75亿美元的债券，以川普查尔斯·施瓦布账户中的现金作为担保。
纽约一家上诉法院似乎接受了特朗普挑战9月份裁决的一些论点，一名法官称这一处罚“令人不安”。对特朗普上诉的裁决预计将在未来几个月内做出，特朗普可能会进一步向纽约最高法院上诉。
E.让·卡罗尔民事案件
特朗普欠作家e·让·卡罗尔将近9000万美元在他输给前Elle杂志专栏作家两次民事诉讼后。
2023年，一个陪审团裁定卡罗尔获得500万美元的损害赔偿，当时它发现特朗普应对20世纪90年代在曼哈顿一家百货公司的更衣室对她进行性虐待负责，后来又在社交媒体上诽谤她。
第二年，一个单独的陪审团判给卡罗尔额外的8330万美元，因为特朗普在担任总统期间发表了诽谤性言论。
特朗普用现金获得了较小的判决，并在第二次判决中使用了弗吉尼亚州联邦保险公司总额为91，630，000美元的债券。他对这两起案件都提出了上诉。
9月，一家联邦上诉法院似乎对特朗普推动新的民事审判持怀疑态度，暗示推翻陪审团2023年的裁决“非常困难”。
卡罗尔的律师罗伯塔·卡普兰(Roberta Kaplan)在本月选举结束后的一份声明中说，“特朗普当选总统并没有改变两个独立陪审团认定的事实，即他对卡罗尔进行了性侵犯和诽谤，也没有改变他为这一行为承担责任的适用法律原则。”
Trump's trials: Prosecutors wind down federal cases as state cases could be placed on hold
Since March of 2023,Donald Trumphas been indicted by grand juries on six occasions in four criminal cases, was convicted by a jury once, took one mug shot, was ordered to pay millions in damages by two civil juries, and was found liable for civil fraud by a Manhattan judge.
But as Trump nears his return to the White House following his election victory this month, his criminal and civil legal issues are beginning to fade into the background of his rapidly moving presidential transition.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in each criminal case, and denies all wrongdoing in the civil cases. His return to the presidency is likely to result in his four criminal cases being dismissed or placed on hold for at least four years.
Here is the status of each of his major cases.
More than a year after he was indicted in New York on criminal charges of falsifying business records, Trump wasconvicted by a juryin May on 34 felony counts related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost Trump's electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced in July, but his lawyers sought to have the case dismissed based on the Supreme Court's new ruling on presidential immunity, arguing that the conviction relied on evidence that should be off-limits. The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has not yet issued a ruling on the impact of the high court's immunity decision.
After Trump won the election, his lawyers again pushed to have the case dismissed by arguing that sitting presidents should be immune from prosecution. Prosecutors have rebuffed that claim, arguing that Trump has already been convicted for entirely private conduct -- but they signaled a willingness to delay Trump's sentencing until he leaves office in 2029.
Judge Merchan hasnot yet weighed inon either motion to dismiss the case. Trump's sentencing is still scheduled for Nov. 26, though it is unlikely to proceed as planned.
Eight months after special counsel Jack Smith assumed control over the investigation into Trump's alleged election interference, a Washington, D.C., grand juryindicted Trumpin August 2023 on criminal charges that he unlawfully sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power -- but the case was sidelined as Trump's lawyers appealed based on presidential immunity.
The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in July that Trump should benefit from the presumption of immunity for any official acts undertaken while in office, and returned the case to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine if the allegations contain official acts.
Prosecutors then revised their case against Trump -- removing any allegations related to official acts, including Trump's use of the Justice Department -- and had a grand jury issue a new indictment against the former president in August.
Trump was reelected as Judge Chutkan was in the process of evaluating which parts of the indictment would be covered by presidential immunity. Smith then paused the case to "assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy."
Smith is expected to wind down his case against Trump over the coming months due to the longstanding Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president. He faces aDec. 2 deadlineto advise the court of his next steps.
Smith is also expected to issue a final report of his findings to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who will face the decision of whether to publicly release the materials.
In the other case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, a federal grand jury in Floridaindicted Trumpand his aide Walt Nauta in June 2023 on criminal charges of retaining classified documents after leaving the White House and taking steps to thwart the government's efforts to get them back.
In July 2023, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Trump and Nauta, as well as Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira.
Overseeing the case for nearly a year, Judge Aileen Cannon -- who Trump nominated to the bench -- took up novel legal arguments posed by defense lawyers and delayed major rulings, preventing the case from reaching a trial. She ultimately dismissed the case in July over her finding that Smith was improperly appointed to his role.
Smith appealed Cannon's ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that legal precedent and history confirm the attorney general's ability to appoint special counsels. But after Trump's reelection, he asked the court to pause the appeal last week to evaluate the "unprecedented circumstances" as a result of the DOJ policy prohibiting sitting president from being prosecuted.
The case isnow on pauseuntil Dec. 2 while Smith evaluates his options to wind down the case, including whether to possibly proceed with the case only against Trump's co-defendants.
In August, Trump and 18 co-defendants werecriminally chargedin a sweeping racketeering indictment related to their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, including Trump's asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes needed to win after losing to Joe Biden.
Four of the defendants in the case took plea deals, while some of the remaining defendants launched an effort to have District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the case, disqualified over her relationship with a fellow prosecutor.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis if the prosecutor resigned, but the case has been paused as Trump and his co-defendants appeal the decision. An oral argument for the appeal was initially scheduled for Dec. 5 but was unexpectedly canceled this week without explanation.
In the meantime, Judge McAfee has also chipped away at the indictment, tossing five of the 13 counts with which Trump was originally charged.
If the case ever returns to the trial court, Trump's lawyers could mount a presidential immunity defense to try to have the case dismissed, according to experts. When asked what the impact of a Trump election victory would be, defense attorney Steve Sadow suggested last year that the case would likely have to wait until Trump leaves office.
The Fulton County district attorney's office has previously declined to comment about the future of the case.
New York civil fraud case
After a lengthy civil trial last year, a New York Judge found Trump, his adult sons, and their business associatescivilly liablefor committing a decade of business fraud.
With interest, Trump and his co-defendants owe nearly $489 million and face prohibitions against running a company in New York. They arranged a $175 million bond secured with cash held in Trump's Charles Schwab account.
A New York appeals court appeared receptive to some of Trump's arguments challenging the ruling in September, with one judge characterizing the penalty as "troubling." A ruling on Trump's appeal is expected sometime over the coming months, and Trump could further appeal the decision to New York's highest court.
E. Jean Carroll civil cases
Trump owes the writer E. Jean Carrollnearly $90 millionafter he lost two civil trials to the former Elle magazine columnist.
In 2023, a jury awarding Carroll $5 million in damages when it found Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s then later defaming her on social media.
The following year, a separate jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million for defamatory statements Trump made while president.
Trump secured the smaller judgment with cash, and used a bond from Virginia-based Federal Insurance Company totaling $91,630,000 for the second judgment. He has appealed both cases.
In September, a federal appeals court appeared skeptical of Trump's push for a new civil trial, suggesting it would be "very hard" to overturn the jury's 2023 verdict.
"Mr. Trump's election to the presidency does nothing to change either the fact, as determined by two separate juries, that he sexually assaulted and defamed Ms. Carroll, or the applicable legal principles under which he was held liable for that conduct," Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement this month after the election.
