With all the legal cases brought against the former American president, it becomes difficult to navigate. This Thursday, August 24, Donald Trump is due to appear in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the alleged unlawful attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 election, in this key state won by Joe Biden. the 74-year-old former president of the United States is being prosecuted along with 18 other people under an organized crime law.
This case adds to the other litigation of the Republican candidate, who is already indicted in three other criminal cases: the so-called Stormy Daniels case, where he is accused of accounting fraud in a payment during his 2016 presidential campaign; the concealment of confidential documents case; and that of the Capitol riots. On the eve of the 2024 US presidential elections, Le Figaro takes stock of all his charges, what he risks, or on the contrary, what he could get out of them.
Donald Trump must therefore travel to Atlanta this Thursday to appear as part of an attempt to manipulate the election in 2020, during the presidential elections won by Joe Biden. The criminal investigation was opened on February 10, 2021 to find out if the former president had tried to put pressure on Republican Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of Georgia. Indeed, a few weeks earlier, the Washington Post had made public a recording where we could hear the American president asking the Secretary of State of Georgia to modify the results of the presidential election in his favor.
Donald Trump was indicted by a Georgia state court on August 14, along with 18 other people. He is the target of 13 counts, including attempted electoral fraud and pressure on employees. “The defendants engaged in an organized criminal enterprise to reverse the Georgia election result,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said. She announced that she wanted a trial “within six months”. But that’s up to the judge to decide.
An investigation was opened in 2018 by the New York justice system into a payment of $130,000 made to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 presidential election, for her to conceal an alleged extramarital relationship with Donald Trump. The sum, recorded in “legal fees”, had not been declared on the campaign accounts, which potentially corresponds to campaign fraud.
In this case, the former president is accused of having “orchestrated” a series of payments to cover up three embarrassing affairs with the 2016 election, according to the indictment.
Donald Trump was then indicted in March 2023 for accounting falsifications aimed at buying the silence of the actress. The ex-president appeared on April 4 in New York and pleaded not guilty. A trial is due to take place in March 2024.
Donald Trump was charged on June 13 with unlawfully keeping classified documents at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, after he left the White House in 2021 and conspiring to thwart government efforts to retrieve them. .
It all started when the National Archives found that Donald Trump had not made several documents official. After receiving 15 boxes containing nearly 200 classified documents, the agency asked the US Department of Justice to open an investigation. Donald Trump’s lawyers then returned 38 documents and the FBI raided his villa in Mar-a-Lago on August 8. On the spot, they discovered about thirty other boxes, containing nearly 11,000 documents.
According to the indictment, the documents “include information on the defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries”, “on American nuclear programs” and “on potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack on the United States and its allies. In this case, Donald Trump is targeted by 37 counts, some of which are punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison. Three new counts were then added for attempted erasure of CCTV. Again, the former president pleaded not guilty. The trial date has been set for May 20, 2024. But the trial could be delayed.
Read our full article: White House Archives: Donald Trump Indicted for Receiving Documents
On January 6, 2021, the capitol was invaded. Donald Trump is accused of inciting sedition. He is charged with four counts: conspiracy against the United States “by fraud, dishonesty, and deceit”; conspiracy to obstruct official process, namely the counting and certification of the election by Congress on January 6, 2021″; obstruction of due process; and conspiracy to undermine the right of voters to have their votes counted. He was charged on August 1 and a trial date is set for Monday August 28.
Difficult to know exactly what risks the former president. In the Stormy Daniel case, the maximum sentence is 4 years in prison. For the attempted manipulation of the presidential election in Georgia, the prosecutor mentioned a law in force in the state on organized crime, used in particular against gangs and providing for sentences of five to twenty years in prison. Finally, in the case of concealment of confidential documents and that of the call for sedition in the context of the capitol riot, these are new cases.
Donald Trump can run and be elected, even in the back of a cell. But the court cases could impact his electoral base. According to Lauric Henneton, interviewed last June, everything will depend on the trial schedule. The researcher mentions three scenarios: If a lawsuit falls during the Republican primaries, “the impact would not be enormous”. If a lawsuit falls during the second part of the presidential campaign, between the Republican convention and the November election, it would become a little more sensitive. “We are in the configuration of Hillary Clinton and the affair of the emails: according to her, it would have cost her the presidency.” Finally, if the trial begins after 2024, it may turn out to try a sitting president.
To go further, find our interview with Lauric Henneton on the scenarios for the 2024 campaign
“He will not go behind bars, because the final judgment will not take place before the elections”, estimates Lauric Henneton during an interview published Tuesday in the columns of Figaro. According to the specialist in American history and civilization, the delays of justice, the potential lack of unanimity of the jury to decide and the possible procedural defects could lead to his non-conviction. “And if he is cleared, he can triumph by repeating: “I told you, they have nothing against me! I am innocent!”. Finally, if a trial results in a conviction, which is then upheld on appeal, “he could be imprisoned.’
