A criminal investigation in the state of Georgia. Expanding a New York-based investigation into Donald Trump’s business empire. Lawsuits by women claiming Trump assaulted them. Defamation of billions of dollars against people who act according to Trump’s demands. Furious enemies and former friends who see fresh legal vulnerability. And ongoing litigation and possible charges as a result of the deadly MAGA riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Following the speedy acquittal of former President Trump’s second prosecution trial last week, Trump, his advisers and his lawyers spent part of the long weekend celebrating his isolation from yet another legal issue.
But with the Senate hearing in the background, Trump now confronts a whole series of other legal dramas during his immediate post-presidency. According to Trump, who is no longer protected by the substantial legal protection of the Oval Office, he complains that his enemies will investigate or ‘sue’ for the rest of my life, according to one person who has discussed the matter with him in the past. a few weeks.
The new lawsuits, which are mainly about his attempts to overturn the election results, seem to be growing weekly.
On Tuesday, a new federal lawsuit was filed by the NAACP against Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democratic Mississippi. The case, which was also filed against Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the Oath Keepers, and the Proud Boys, alleges that both men and the two groups violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 when they tried to certify the To stop Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.
“The case alleges that Trump and Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was passed in 1871 in response to KKK violence and intimidation that prevented members of Congress in the South during the Reconstruction from carrying out their constitutional duties. , “reads a press release. the announcement of the lawsuit said. “The law was specifically intended to protect against conspiracies.”
Several Trump and Giuliani advisers have not responded to inquiries about which attorneys would handle this federal case for their respective clients – although Michael van der Veen, one of the Trump attorneys in this month’s Senate hearing, and Alan Dershowitz, the well-known lawyer who joined. Trump’s legal defense for the first indictment, both told The Daily Beast that they had not been contacted by the Trump lane on Tuesday about these matters.
The federal lawsuit comes just as the lawyers working in the DC Attorney General’s office are still talking about whether the former president should be charged with violating local law when he allegedly incited the riots, according to CNN.
Although the riot was the culmination of Trump’s months of attempts to overthrow the 2020 election, it is hardly the only chapter in Trump and his allies’ efforts that the former president has legally exposed.
On February 10, in early January (before the riots), prosecutors in Georgia launched a criminal investigation into Trump’s conference call, during which the then president put state officials under pressure to “find” the necessary votes to defeat Joe Biden in 2020 in that state. The phone call was just one facet, secretly captured on tape, of Trump and prominent Republicans’ months-long legal and message crusade to throw out Biden’s clear and legitimate victories in several key states. Trump’s failed mission became increasingly authoritarian as the presidential transition continued, but virtually all of the legal challenges were thrown out of court or laughed at, including by Trump-appointed judges. The Georgia State Department’s office has also launched its own separate investigation into the infamous call, describing the investigation as ‘factual and administrative’.
‘The timing here is not given by accident [the] accusation, ”Jason Miller, Trump’s senior adviser, told The Daily Beast in a brief statement, referring to the criminal investigation in Georgia. “This is simply the Democrats’ latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everyone sees it through.”
But the legal exposure could extend beyond political commitments, as the voting technology ventures that smeared Trump and his best allies unfounded as part of a fictitious conspiracy to revamp or slash the election and typify it to Biden are already numerous legal threats. sent to individuals close to the former president.
Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems have already filed huge lawsuits against Giuliani, former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, and others. Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal advocate, and Powell imposed these fictitious conspiracy claims on behalf of Trump, who himself printed such false allegations on Twitter and elsewhere. Those working on Team Dominion, for example, said they still take a good look at others involved in the company’s groundless tarmac – and the pool of people includes, perhaps in the first place, the 45th president of the United States. “Our legal team honestly looks after everyone, and we do not exclude anyone,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said in a CNN interview in late January.
The upcoming lawsuits against Trump in his national presidency could also become personal. Two days before Trump resigned last month, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough publicly stated that he was still weighing a possible case against Trump, who during his time in the White House promoted the evidence-free smear that is Scarborough . a killer.
According to a person with knowledge of the case, Scarborough recently told people that he is still considering filing a case against the former president, but that he has not yet made a final decision and probably not for months. not. However, the MSNBC host also said that if there were to be a lot of civil lawsuits against Trump in the coming months, especially over his role in the start of the riots on January 6, it would probably work into his own calculator. if.
This expert source added in recent months that Scarborough had discussed a possible case against Trump with Washington, DC attorney Elizabeth “Libby” Locke, of the well-known Clare Locke firm.
In the weeks since Biden was sworn in, Trump has been strikingly low in public and media appearances. Many longtime allies of the former president believed it was the best thing and advised Trump to keep it for the time being, especially if a shower of lawsuits is filed. One source close to the former president said they were “happy [Trump’s] no longer on Twitter, ”because if he had been, his angry tweets after the presidency could have” inevitably “strengthened potential court cases, especially libel, against him.
But after the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday, Trump could not help him. He called in Fox News to talk about Limbaugh’s life and their friendship – and finally he tried to make it about himself and the lie that he won the 2020 election. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that Trump would appear Hannity, Newsmax TV and ON, all also on Wednesday.
A person familiar with the matter said Trump was recently reminded not to name Dominion or Smartmatic during any new interviews, for fear it could be used against him if one of the companies decides to back down as well. to engage him in slander.
However, not all of the former president’s lawsuits are new. Others sat quietly, waiting for him to return to civilian life.
His new status has also reawakened prosecutors in New York who, according to The Wall Street Journal, is now investigating loans that Trump has taken out on several buildings, including the important aspect of his sprawling family business: Trump Tower in Manhattan. The Trump organization and the former president are still wrestling with how to address the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in debt that are being incurred, with the repayment dates for the loans coming up in a few years.
In New York, both the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Attorney General Letitia James are investigating whether the Trump organization committed tax and insurance fraud by lying about the value of assets. The investigation has sparked a separate court battle over District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s efforts to sue Trump’s tax returns. The case is pending before the Supreme Court, but according to Bloomberg, Vance apparently obtained many of the proceeds in other ways.
The power of maintenance has also given former President Trump the ability to evade negative consequences for his alleged history of sexual violence and harassment. Another source close to Trump says that the former president is still constantly complaining about the Me Too movement, and considers it one of the more destructive movements that received national traction during his one term in the White House.
A lawsuit by former journalist E. Jean Carroll in which it is alleged that Trump slandered her by calling her a liar – after she accused Trump of raping her in a shopping mall in New York in the 1990s , is still pending. Under Attorney General Bill Barr, the Department of Justice tried to remove the case from the state court and place it in federal court where attorneys from the department would handle the case on Trump’s behalf.
Furthermore, during the entire Trump administration, Summer Zervos was once a contestant on Trump’s now-defunct NBC reality TV show The apprentice, Trump tried to dismiss in a defamation lawsuit. Towards the end of the 2016 presidential election, Zervos publicly accused the then-Republican nominee of sexually assaulting her, grabbing her breasts and ‘squeezing’ her.[ing]”His” genitals “with her. While in office, the White House’s official position was that the many women who went on record to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct or assault were simply lying.
Early last year, a court in New York interrupted the case, postponing the possible removal of the then sitting president of the United States. But last week, Zervos and her lawyer formally asked a judge to allow her to continue with her case, as he can no longer claim the protection of the highest office in the country that his lawyers have long said. to protect him from this deposition.
‘[The] Defendant is no longer president. As a result, the accused’s appeal is heavy, “Zervos’ lawyer argued in the new submission.