Jurors returned a guilty verdict last week in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, where he faced charges related to hush money payments made before the 2016 presidential election.
A grand jury in Manhattan indicted Trump last year on 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records. Prosecutors said records showed that Trump reimbursed his attorney for payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels — who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump years before he ran for president — with checks that were disguised as payments for legal services.
Under New York law, it’s a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means.
Trump has denied all charges, saying he has done nothing wrong and that the investigation and others focused on his conduct are aimed at knocking him out of the 2024 race for the White House.
In addition to his presidential campaign, here is what Trump is facing this year:
The charges
88: The number of charges filed against Trump iin the four indictments.
40: The largest number of charges in any one of the indictments. Federal prosecutors have filed 40 charges against Trump related to classified documents recovered last year from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
[ Trump, 18 others indicted by grand jury; DA sets Aug. 25 deadline for defendants’ surrender ]
The indictments
1st indictment (March 30, 2023): Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of covering up alleged state and federal election law violations. The indictment says Trump falsified business records about payoffs to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. Prosecutors said the payments were part of a “catch and kill” scheme aimed at keeping negative stories about Trump out of the press before the 2016 election. As part of the alleged conspiracy, payments were also made to Playboy model Karen McDougal — who also claims to have had an affair with Trump — and a Trump Tower doorman who had information claiming Trump fathered a child out of wedlock, authorities said.
[ Trump found guilty on all counts in hush money trial ]
According to the indictment, $130,000 was paid to Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — $150,000 to McDougal and $30,000 to the doorman, Dino Sajudin, to buy their silence in the runup to the 2016 presidential election.
Trump pleaded not guilty on April 4, 2023. A jury found him guilty of all charges on May 30. He is set to be sentenced in July.
[ Trump says he's been indicted in classified documents case ]
2nd indictment (June 9, 2023): The second indictment centers on classified documents Trump took from the White House when he left in 2021. According to Smith, Trump showed some of the papers to people who did not have security clearances to view the material.
Smith also charges that Trump tried to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence” by asking a person who works for him at his Mar-a-Lago home to delete video footage at the estate. According to Smith, he obstructed justice and made false statements.
On June 13, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts. On July 27, Smith filed a superseding indictment that added three more charges, bringing the total to 40. The charges include counts of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, felony counts of obstruction-related crimes and two felony counts of false statements.
A trial is expected to be held this year in Fort Pierce, Florida.
[ Trump indicted in 2020 election interference probe; Smith says Capitol attack ‘fueled by lies’ ]
3rd indictment (Aug. 1, 2023): Trump was charged with felony counts connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and efforts to pressure officials into overturning the 2020 presidential election results. He pleaded not guilty at a court hearing on Aug. 3.
The former president is charged with 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 and his co-conspirators attempted to organize fraudulent slates of electors in seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Six unindicted co-conspirators were listed in the indictment. They were not identified by name in court records, although the indictment shed light on their identities.
[ Trump indictment: 6 people named as unindicted co-conspirators ]
4th indictment (Aug. 14, 2023): Trump is one of 19 people accused of racketeering in order to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election. In a 98-page indictment obtained by WSB, authorities said the group “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
Among the defendants are Trump, former New York Mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer John Eastman, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
[ Georgia grand jury: Read the full indictments against Trump, others ]
Trump was initially charged with 13 counts, including:
- Three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer
- Two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree
- Two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings
- Two counts of false statements and writings
- One count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act
- One count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer
- One count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents
- One count of filing false documents.
However, Judge Scott McAfee quashed the solicitation of violation of oath by public officer charges in March.
Four of Trump’s original co-defendants — bail bondsman Scott Hall and attorneys Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis — have pleaded guilty to charges.
[ Trump indicted: Can he still run for president? ]
Some more numbers Trump is looking at:
- $110.8 million: The total amount of money raised by Trump’s main fundraising committee from Jan. 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024, according to records from the Federal Election Committee.
- $65.6 million: The amount of money Trump and the Republican Party said they raised in March, according to The Associated Press. The amount was significantly up from previous months after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
- $13.5 million: The amount of money Trump’s campaign received from donors in the week after a Manhattan grand jury indicted him on March 30, 2023.
- $3.9 million: The amount of the single largest online fundraising day for Trump’s campaign, April 4, 2023. That was the day Trump was arraigned in Manhattan on the first indictment.
- $1.3 million: The amount taken in on the day of Trump’s arraignment in Miami.
- $5.8 million: The amount the campaign took in during the week that Trump was indicted in Miami on federal charges for his handling of classified documents.
- 46/45: A New York Times/Siena College released April 13 showed Trump narrowly leading Biden in the 2024 race for the White House. An earlier poll from USA Today/Suffolk University showed Trump leading Biden 40-38.