The former president defends himself before a crowd of supporters at Mar-a-Lago, saying he didn't commit a crime

Apart from Donald Trump's indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over his alleged role in a scheme to silence an adult film star, here is a list of notable ongoing investigations, lawsuits and controversies hanging over the former president.

Mar-a-Lago documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material?

Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection. The DOJ investigation continues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office.

2020 election and January 6: US Justice Department

Smith’s purview also includes the period after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden and leading up to the insurrection at the US Capitol.

Aspects of the Justice Department’s probe include the use of so-called fake electors from states that Trump falsely claimed he had won, such as Georgia and Arizona. Trump has been fighting to keep former advisers from testifying about certain conversations, citing executive and attorney-client privileges to keep information confidential or slow down criminal investigators.

2020 election: Efforts to overturn Georgia results

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis oversaw a special grand jury investigating what Trump or his allies may have done in their efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia. She is considering bringing conspiracy and racketeering charges, CNN’s Don Lemon reported.

2020 election and January 6: House select committee

Before concluding at the end of 2022, the House select committee referred Trump to the Justice Department on at least four criminal charges. It investigated the US Capitol attack and uncovered dramatic evidence of Trump’s actions before and on January 6, especially efforts to use the levers of government to overturn the election. It also issued an 845-page report.

Trump Organization: Convicted of criminal tax fraud

The Trump Organization was convicted in December by a New York jury of tax fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records in what prosecutors allege was a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation provided to employees. Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to his role in the tax scheme and was sentenced to five months at Rikers Island. He will be released this summer.

Trump Organization: NY attorney general investigation

New York Attorney General Letitia James, after a lengthy investigation, sued Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization in September, alleging they were involved in an expansive fraud lasting over a decade that the former president used to enrich himself. James is seeking $250 million in allegedly ill-gotten funds. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated based on the electoral ambitions of James, a Democrat. A trial is set for October 2023.

E. Jean Carroll: Defamation suit over Trump’s denial of rape claims

Former magazine writer E. Jean Carroll alleged Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defamed her when he denied the rape, said she was not his “type” and alleged she had made the claim to boost sales of her book. Trump denies all claims brought against him by Carroll.

January 6: Lawsuits by police officers

Several members of the US Capitol Police and Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police are suing Trump, saying his words and actions incited the 2021 riot. The various cases accuse Trump of directing assault and battery; aiding and abetting assault and battery; and violating Washington laws that prohibit incitement of riots and disorderly conduct.

Personal retaliation: Peter Strzok lawsuit

Former top FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, who was fired by the FBI in 2018 after the revelation of anti-Trump texts he had exchanged with a top lawyer at the bureau, Lisa Page, has sued the Justice Department alleging he was terminated improperly.

Strzok and Page were constant targets of verbal attacks by Trump and his allies as part of the larger ire Trump expressed toward the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation. Trump repeatedly and publicly called for Strzok’s ouster until he was fired in August 2018. A federal judge ruled last month that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray can be deposed for two hours each as part of the lawsuit.

Trump-filed lawsuits: Bob Woodward

Trump sued journalist Bob Woodward in January 2023 for alleged copyright violations, claiming Woodward had released audio from their interviews without Trump’s consent. Woodward and publisher Simon & Schuster said Trump’s case is without merit.

Trump-filed lawsuits: The New York Times, Mary Trump and CNN

The former president in 2021 sued his niece and The New York Times in New York state court over the disclosure of his tax information.

Trump’s lawsuit – which is seeking “damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be no less than One Hundred Million Dollars” – alleges that Mary Trump’s disclosure of the tax information to the Times amounted to an illegal breach of contract, among other claims, because the disclosure allegedly violated the 2001 settlement agreement among the Trump family. The Times is fighting the lawsuit.

Donald Trump also sued CNN in a southern Florida federal court last fall, accusing the network of a “campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander” that “escalated in recent months.” CNN has asked the judge for the case to be “dismissed with prejudice.”

Former President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump condemned the criminal charges he faced in New York Tuesday night, saying to a crowd of supporters that “the only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.” 

Trump flew back to his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida following his arraignment in Manhattan.

Trump went on to group the indictment — stemming from a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign — with various other legal and political threats he’s faced, dismissing them all. 

He repeated his claim that the prosecution is meant to derail his candidacy.

Throughout his remarks, Trump was dismissive of the case presented by prosecutors.

Trump also went to attack the other legal threats still percolating, including an investigation in Georgia into election interference, a DOJ investigation into his handling of classified documents post-presidency and an investigation by the New York attorney general into the Trump Organization. 

Trump said, of the case being led by Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, that she is “doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine.”

On the Justice Department investigation, overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith, Trump said: “This lunatic special prosecutor named Jack Smith – I wonder what it was prior to a change – who others of his ilk say, he’s even worse than they are, is only looking at Trump.”

Trump also criticized a lack of focus on President Joe Biden’s classified documents.

Finally, Trump went on to condemn New York Attorney General Letitia James' investigation into the Trump Organization saying she, “campaigned on ‘I will get Trump.’ I will get him. This was her campaign. Never ran for office. I will get him. Her name is Letitia James,” he said. 

Toward the end of his remarks, Trump returned to criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the charges leveled against him Tuesday in New York.

He also directed sharp attacks at Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money case, saying, “I have a Trump-hating judge.” 

Stormy Daniels exits the federal court building in lower Manhattan on April 16, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/FILE)

Donald Trump had a substantial victory in another court, Tuesday, 3,000 miles away from his New York legal drama. 

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Trump in his effort to recoup additional legal fees from adult film star Stormy Daniels, who had filed and lost a defamation suit against the former president. 

Daniels was ordered to pay Trump’s attorneys just over $120,000 in legal fees. That’s on top of the over $500,000 in court-ordered payments to Trump attorneys she’s already been ordered to pay. 

The civil litigation is officially unrelated to Trump's arrest and charges filed against him in New York — but both involved Daniels, who was paid $130,000 in hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an affair. Trump denies the affair.

Daniels sued Trump in 2018 after Trump called an allegation by Daniels that an unknown man threatened her in a parking lot to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump a “total con job” in a tweet. 

Dismissing the lawsuit in October 2018, federal Judge S. James Otero said Trump’s statement was protected by the First Amendment. 

Otero later ordered Daniels to pay roughly $293,000 in legal fees. Daniels was also ordered to pay another $245,000 in fees after losing another appeal. 

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, had asked the appeals court to knock down another award. The court declined her request. 

“Clifford’s argument that the fee request is unreasonable and excessive is not well-founded,” the 9th Circuit filing states. 

“Trump’s attorneys reasonably spent the requested 183.35 hours preparing a motion to dismiss, a reply to the opposition to the motion, two extension motions, the answering brief, and the fee application,” it added. 

Trump's attorney Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the ruling in a tweet Tuesday.

The historic indictment against former President Donald Trump was unsealed Tuesday and is now public. 

Prosecutors alleged Trump was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 that was ordered by the defendant to suppress the negative information that would hurt his campaign. 

The criminal charges stem from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into hush-money payments, made during the 2016 presidential campaign, to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which he denies. 

Trump denies all wrongdoing and his lawyers have said they’ll fight to get the charges dropped.  

Read the full indictment here:

Former President Donald Trump delivers remarks at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night. (Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters)

Former President Donald Trump made a speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday night after he was arraigned in Manhattan on felony charges of falsifying business records — and delivered a barrage of false claims that have been previously debunked. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all the charges Tuesday.

The former president was repeatedly inaccurate when he pivoted to the subject of the federal investigation into his handling of official governments. He also repeated some of his favorite falsehoods on a variety of other subjects. 

Here is a fact check of some of Trump's claims:

George Soros and the district attorney: As he has on social media in the last month, Trump invoked liberal billionaire donor George Soros while criticizing District Attorney Alvin Bragg in his speech on Tuesday night — claiming that Bragg is a "radical left, George Soros-backed prosecutor." 

Facts First: This needs context. Soros did not make any donations to Bragg's 2021 election campaign, and a Soros spokesperson, Michael Vachon, told CNN that the two men have never once communicated in any way; there is no evidence that Soros had any role in Bragg's decision to prosecute Trump. However, Soros, a longtime supporter of Democratic district attorney candidates who favor criminal justice reform, did support Bragg's election campaign indirectly: he was a major donor to a liberal political action committee, Color of Change PAC, that says it spent just over $500,000 on an independent expenditure effort in support of Bragg's candidacy.  

Vachon told CNN: "Between 2016 and 2022, George Soros personally and Democracy PAC (a PAC to which Mr. Soros has contributed funds) have together contributed roughly $4 million to Color of Change's PAC, including $1 million in May 2021. None of those funds were earmarked for Alvin Bragg's campaign. George Soros and Alvin Bragg have never meet in person or spoken by telephone, email, Zoom etc. There has been no contact between the two." 

Former presidents' handling of documents after leaving the White House: Defending his handling of government documents, which is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation, Trump repeated his false claim that that several other former presidents took documents with them upon leaving the White House. 

Trump claimed in his Tuesday speech that "openly taking boxes of documents and mostly clothing and other things to my home" is something "which President Obama has done." He continued, "The Bushes have done. Jimmy Carter's done. Ronald Reagan is done. Everybody's done."

Facts First: This is false, as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) itself pointed out in a statement last year; there is no evidence that previous presidents did anything like what Trump did after the Presidential Records Act took effect in 1981 (beginning with the Reagan administration). In reality, NARA was granted custody of the presidential records of former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and both George Bushes as soon as these presidents left office, as required by the Presidential Records Act, and it was NARA, not those presidents, that moved those documents to temporary archival facilities — facilities managed by NARA. 

NARA said in an October statement that it gained physical and legal custody of Obama, Reagan, H.W. Bush and W. Bush's records, as well of those of President Bill Clinton, "when those presidents left office." It said of the temporary facilities to which the documents were moved: "All such temporary facilities met strict archival and security standards, and have been managed and staffed exclusively by NARA employees. Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading." 

Inflation: Trump claimed that the United States has "an economy that has been crippled by the biggest inflation we have seen in more than 60 years." 

Facts First: Trump's "60 years" claim is an exaggeration, though the inflation rate does remain high by historical standards.  

Last June, the year-over-year inflation rate hit its highest level since late 1981, 9.1%. But about 41 years does not round to "60 years," much less "more than 60 years". The actual highest year-over-year inflation rate for the last 60 years is 14.8% (in early 1980), far higher than mid-2022 levels. More importantly, year-over-year inflation has now declined for eight straight months, hitting 6% in February 2023 — not even close to the 60-year high. 

This Trump claim is an example of how the former president tends to increase his exaggerated figures over time. At a campaign rally in Texas in late March, he claimed — also incorrectly — that the country had the highest inflation in "50 years." 

Read more here.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom with his attorneys Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles, Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn during his arraignment at the Manhattan Criminal Court on April 4 in New York. (Andrew Kelly/Pool/Reuters/Getty Images)

Following former President Donald Trump's arraignment, prosecutors said they expect to produce the bulk of the discovery in the next 65 days. Trump's team has until August 8 to file any motions and the prosecution will respond by September 19. Judge Juan Merchan said he will rule on the motions at the next in-person hearing, scheduled for December 4.

Trump attorney Jim Trusty said Tuesday he expects “robust” motions to challenge the case and hopes they can succeed in stopping the case. 

If not, Trusty said he expects Trump’s attorneys will “figure out if there’s a way to try to push this earlier” than the December 4 hearing.

(Rebecca Wright/CNN)

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating former president Donald Trump in connection with his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election.

The indictment by a New York grand jury was unsealed Tuesday, providing the public and Trump’s legal team with details about the charges against him for the first time. Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges.

Here’s what we know about Trump’s indictment so far:

What's in the indictment? The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office began when Trump was still in the White House and relates to a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels in late October 2016, days before the presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

Prosecutors on Tuesday alleged Trump was a part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. They allege he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment.

The reason he committed the crime of falsifying business records was in part to “promote his candidacy,” prosecutors alleged. Trump is not charged with criminal conspiracy.

Each criminal charge Trump is facing relates to a specific entry among the business records of the Trump Organization, according to the indictment. Prosecutors accuse Trump of repeatedly causing false entries in the business records.

Trump's response: Trump was caught off guard by the grand jury’s decision to indict him, according to a person who spoke directly with him. While the former president was bracing for an indictment, he began to believe news reports that a potential indictment was weeks – or more – away. The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the matter and continued his attacks on Bragg and other Democrats following news of the indictment.

Next appearance: The next in-person hearing date for Trump’s case in New York is set for December 4 as of now.

Read more here.