News
Donald Trump’s Indictments and Court Case
Sahar Ali
Volume 4 Issue 3
March 13, 2024
Image Provided by Kaiser Health News
Lately, you may have heard about former President Donald Trump in the news. You may have heard about trials and indictments. These charges made against the former President may not seem serious to us; however, it is a significant moment in the history of the United States.
WHO IS DONALD TRUMP?
Former President Donald Trump was born on June 14th, 1946, in Queens, New York. His father, Fred Trump, was a real estate developer. As a child, he studied at the New York Military Academy, and later, the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, during his adolescence. In 2005, Trump married Melania Knauss and later had his fifth child, Barron Trump. Children from his previous marriages include Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany.
Donald Trump ran for president during the 2016 election. Although he had lost the popular vote against Democrat Hillary Clinton, he won the majority of the Electoral College votes, which determines who takes the role of U.S. President. Trump’s victory led him to become the 45th President of the United States of America. His slogan, which many people are familiar with was, “Make America Great Again.”
During his presidency, Donald Trump made many changes and improvements to the United States. He signed a major tax reform bill into law and oversaw a reduction in federal regulations. Trump had protectionist trade policies that imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. Additionally, the Trump Administration discussed trade agreements with countries including Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, and China. The former President also increased military budgets, enforced border and immigration control, and decreased the prices of prescription drugs. But even though all these accomplishments were made by Trump and his administration, this does not mean that Trump did not have any dark moments during his presidency.
As President, Donald Trump used his position to criticize the media and members of his administration. On Twitter, now known as X, Trump posted 26,000 tweets consisting of false statements reflecting the former president’s ideas, which eventually led him to be permanently banned from the social media platform. Additionally, after more than 150 years, Trump was the United States’s first chief executive to not attend the next President’s inauguration. Under the Trump administration, there was a surge of fake news and misinformation regarding racism, terrorism, illegal immigration, and sexism. The former President also made multiple claims that would require fact checking; this included his assertion that voter fraud led to his defeat in the 2020 election. Not only that, but COVID hit the United States while Trump was in power; under the Trump Administration, the nation’s economy suffered as thousands of Americans lost their jobs and businesses during the pandemic.
Donald Trump decided to run for a second presidential term during the 2020 election; however, it did not go as he planned. Trump lost both the popular vote and Electoral College Vote to the democratic candidate, Joe Biden, the current President of the United States. The former President falsely claimed that widespread voter fraud was the leading cause of his loss. His defeat in the 2020 election was the start of the many issues that would later arise for Trump.
IMPEACHMENT
Impeachment occurs when a government official is charged with a crime. If the official is found guilty during their trial, they will be removed from office. In 1868, President Andrew Johnson, along with President Bill Clinton in 1998, were both impeached by the House of Representatives. Former President Donald Trump was impeached in 2019 and 2021; later for the unprecedented events that occurred on January 6th, 2021.
On January 6th, 2021, during the “Save America” rally, hundreds of Trump supporters gathered at Washington D.C., where the former President encouraged his supporters to protest the counting of the Electoral College Votes. As time progressed, violence erupted as law enforcement was overwhelmed by the enormous number of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. The violence caused by Trump’s supporters resulted in the breaching of the United States Capitol and impediment of the vote count. As a result, the United States Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage and five people lost their lives.
Following the violence at the Capitol, the United States House of Representatives approved the second Article of Impeachment against Donald Trump on January 13th, 2021: the incitement of insurrection. Donald Trump is the only president in the history of the United States to have been impeached twice by Congress. This January marked three years since the attack on the Capitol.
COURT CASE
Along with being impeached, the former President has multiple court cases to deal with.
American journalist and author, E. Jean Carroll, claimed that former president Donald Trump sexually abused her in the 1990s. Trump denies these claims; however, in May 2023, a jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996 at a luxury department store and further went on to defame her in 2022. As a result, Trump must pay $5 million dollars in damages, but the question that remains is how much the former president must pay for the defamation. As of publication of this issue, a Manhattan federal jury decided former President Donald Trump should pay $83.3 million to the writer, Carroll.
The previous case is not the only one Trump must await trial for. Letitia James, the New York State Attorney General, led an investigation into Donald Trump’s business practices that eventually devised a lawsuit that accused the former President of “staggering” fraud. The investigation began back in 2019 when Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress that the former President manipulated his net worth for his own benefit. In a filing, Letitia James described how the Trump Organization inflated the value of the company’s properties. In September of 2022, James rejected a settlement offer given by Donald Trump’s lawyers. Further, James went on to file a lawsuit against the former President and his family business, which accused them of fraudulent business practices that were observed to occur in a pattern. A year later, the civil trial started against Trump on October 2nd, 2023. Although the former President attempted to have his trial delayed, a New York Appeals Court rejected his request. The judge of the case found that Donald Trump consistently engaged in fraud by inflating the value of his assets; in simple words, Trump did not conduct business according to the law, which caused the former President to lose control over many of his New York properties. Not only that, but Trump, along with his sons, could be prohibited from conducting business in New York. This case is still ongoing as Trump tries to delay the trial until after the 2024 election.
Although Donald Trump and his administration had many achievements during the presidency, there are still numerous trials awaiting him. The former President has 91 felony charges for 4 criminal indictments, which include his attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election after he faced defeat. Even with all these allegations against him, Donald Trump will again be a candidate for the 2024 election.
As of publication, Nikki Haley has since dropped out of the race.
SOURCES:
Trump seeks delay of civil trial in E. Jean Carroll defamation suit - CBS News
Donald J. Trump | The White House
How federal impeachment works | USAGov
Text - H.Res.24 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors. | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
How America Changed During Trump’s Presidency | Pew Research Center
Trump NY Fraud Trial: What to Know After Closing Arguments - The New York Times (nytimes.com)