Updated November 4, 2023 at 8:51 AM ET
One by one, the legal challenges facing former President Trump have stacked up in recent months.
There are criminal cases, civil cases, federal cases, state cases.
It's a lot to keep track of.
On the criminal front, Trump became the first former president to be criminally indicted. He's now facing four such indictments.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has brought two of the criminal prosecutions against Trump — one for Trump's alleged mishandling of government documents after he left the White House; the other for allegedly conspiring to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The other two criminal cases against are at the state level. In Georgia, a grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others for their efforts to interfere with the state's 2020 election results. In New York, meanwhile, Trump faces charges stemming from hush money payments made to an adult film star.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in each of the criminal cases he's been charged and arraigned for so far. He's also repeatedly accused prosecutors of targeting him for political reasons.
The former president is also embroiled in civil lawsuits out of New York.
Here's where the various proceedings and investigations stand:
Criminal cases
The federal Jan. 6 case
Number of charges: 4
Expected trial date: March 4, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
A 45-page indictment lays out the case that Trump and those around him committed crimes as the former president scrambled to try to hold onto power after losing the 2020 election. It comes after the Justice Department's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, one of the most sprawling and complex investigations in U.S. history.
Trump has publicly refused to acknowledge the results since election night, when he took the stage at his campaign headquarters and claimed that the election was being stolen through fraud. In the weeks following the election, Trump's campaign pursued dozens of lawsuits in states where Trump lost. Courts repeatedly rejected the Trump team's election fraud claims, but he continues to claim even now that he was the rightful winner.
Leading up to Jan. 6, Trump and his allies pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the 2020 election results, and urged his supporters to "fight like hell" to stop Congress from certifying the result.
Meanwhile, Trump advisers were also pursuing a fake elector scheme, pushing Republican officials in states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia to put forward an alternate slate of electors even though Biden had won there.
Trump spoke with his supporters during a rally in the hours leading up to the mob taking over the U.S. Capitol. In his speech, he told the thousands present "we must stop the steal."
Six unnamed co-conspirators are also included in the indictment — though attorney John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani have self-identified themselves as among those listed in the court documents.
The Mar-a-Lago classified documents case
Number of charges: 40
Expected trial date: May 20, 2024, in Florida
Trump has pleaded not guilty to allegedly storing dozens of top-secret government documents at his Florida resort and then refusing to hand them over to the FBI and the National Archives.
Federal prosecutors allege Trump had a direct hand in packing classified documents when he left the White House in 2021, that he then bragged about having these secret materials and pushed his own attorney to mislead federal law enforcement about what kind of documents he had in his resort.
Prosecutors told Judge Aileen Cannon they want Trump's trial to begin on Dec. 11. But on July 21, Cannon issued an order pushing the trial start date to May 20, 2024 — at the tail end of the Republican presidential primary process.
Trump's legal team will likely continue working to get the trial pushed back until after the 2024 presidential election.
Two other individuals have been charged in the case.
One is Trump aide Walt Nauta, a Navy veteran and former White House valet to Trump. He pleaded not guilty in early July to charges that he conspired with the former president to withhold classified documents.
The other is Carlos de Oliveira, who was Trump's property manager at Mar-a-Lago. He was charged in a superseding indictment with four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements and destruction of evidence. Prosecutors say de Oliveira conspired with Trump to destroy security footage to obstruct the investigation.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Georgia 2020 election interference case
Number of charges: 13
Expected trial date: To be determined.
In August, a grand jury impaneled by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis returned an indictment against Trump and 18 of his allies for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
The criminal investigation in Fulton County, Ga., which is home to Atlanta, was started by Willis after the publication of a phone call in January 2021. In it, Trump is heard pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough ballots in support of Trump to flip the state to him.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and still baselessly maintains there was large-scale voter fraud in Georgia during the 2020 presidential election.
The indictment features 41 charges and 19 total defendants. Of those, Trump is facing 13 criminal counts including soliciting a public official to violate their oath.
Willis used the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act — a statute normally used for mob bosses and gangs — arguing the collective effort to meddle in the election was part of a criminal enterprise.
Court documents list a series of acts allegedly made by Trump and his co-defendants in their efforts to change election results — including harassing an election worker and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to appoint new electors favorable to Trump. This fall, four defendants have pleaded guilty to lesser charges, getting probation in exchange for the promise to testify: lawyersJenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman.
The Stormy Daniels hush money case
Number of charges: 34
Expected trial date: March 25, 2024, in New York
With this case, Trump became the first former president in United States history to be criminally indicted. The grand jury voted to indict Trump in March on 34 felony counts of business record falsification.
Allegations in this case go back to before Trump was elected president. They are tied to hush money payments made before the 2016 elections to the adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, has said that she and Trump had an affairin 2006. Following the launch of Trump's campaign in 2016, Daniels offered to sell her story to gossip magazines. In October, National Enquirer executives friendly to Trump flagged this to Trump's then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Cohen agreed to pay $130,000 to Daniels to keep her silent. Her attorney received this money less than two weeks before the election. Cohen was later reimbursed $420,000 after Trump was elected president — which Trump has admitted to doing to pay off Daniels. Trump has long maintained he never had an affair with Daniels.
According to court records, executives with the Trump Organization categorized the reimbursements as a "retainer" for "legal services."
One of Trump's attorneys called the decision to prosecute the former president as "political persecution." Trump himself has called District Attorney Alvin Bragg a racist for pursuing this case.
Trump is also still fighting civil lawsuits
New York AG Letitia James' suit against Trump for alleged fraud
Trial date: Oct. 2, 2023 in New York
After a three-year investigation, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization's executive team and three of his eldest children, last September.
The trial accuses the former president and his children Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump of knowingly committing fraud by submitting statements of financial condition that inflated the value of their properties and other assets.
In September, not long before the start of the trial, the judge in the case ordered that Trump, his eldest sons and his business associates had committed fraud. As part of his decision, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the business licenses of the defendants to be canceled in New York — making it potentially difficult for them to continue working in the state. Though Judge Engoron ruled on some of the major elements of James' suit against Trump and his associates, there remain six other claims to be argued at trial.
James is seeking around $250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump, his kids and members of his executive team from operating businesses in the state of New York. Trump's eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, testified in early November and the former president is expected to take the witness stand on Nov. 6.
E. Jean Carroll case
Expected trial date: Jan. 15, 2024, in New York
In 2019, writer E. Jean Carroll first publicly came forward saying Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s when Trump was known as just a businessman. Trump responded then (and since), denying the accusation and saying that the writer had ulterior motives.
Carroll sued Trump — twice (in 2019 and later in 2022) — in large part for his alleged defamation.
The columnist filed the second lawsuit against Trump (this time for both defamation and rape) after the state of New York lifted the statute of limitations for survivors of sexual assault to file civil claims.
In May, a federal jury found Trump liable for battery and defamation in this second lawsuit. The jury in this case said he did sexually abuse the writer and defamed her when he denied her allegation.
Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages.
This week, a federal judge in New York rejected Trump's motion for a new trial.
Trump's legal team filed a counterclaim against Carroll in late June for defamation. In that suit, he claims Carroll defamed him during her appearance on CNN after the jury verdict. In that interview, she was asked about the verdict finding Trump sexually abused her, but that he didn't rape her. Carroll responded, "Oh, yes he did."
Carroll's first lawsuit filed in 2019, referred to as Carroll I in the court, was filed for Trump's early alleged defamatory statements. Following her victory in May, Carroll and her lawyers asked a court to expand the scope of the Carroll I case against Trump, seeking at least an additional $10 million in damages. That trial date is expected next year.
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