What are Donald Trump’s four criminal trials?

5 mins

• The so-called Stormy Daniels affair

The case for which Donald Trump is being tried from Monday by the justice system of the State of New York dates back to the last days of his victorious 2016 campaign. It is the oldest of the four criminal proceedings.

At issue is the payment of $130,000, disguised as legal fees, to a former pornographic film star, Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about a sexual relationship in 2006, which he denies. The former head of state’s defense maintains that these payments were legal and responded to an extortion attempt.

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan prosecutor, elected to this position under the Democratic label, sees it as electoral fraud since the aim of the operation was, according to him, to conceal from citizens information potentially harmful to the Republican candidate.

Donald Trump faces up to four years in prison on the most serious charges. This would not prevent him from being a candidate in the presidential election, but would place the campaign in an unprecedented situation.

Donald Trump pleads not guilty and denounces, as in other cases, a “ witch hunt » to prevent him from returning to the White House.

Read alsoUnited States: Donald Trump appears for his first criminal trial, in the Stormy Daniels affair

• The 2020 presidential election and the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021

In federal justice, Donald Trump is being prosecuted for unlawful attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, won by Joe Biden. He is notably charged with “ conspiracy against American institutions ” and D'” violation of the right to vote » of voters.

The special prosecutor Jack Smith accuses him of having put pressure on the local authorities of several states in which the election was played to invalidate the official results.

If the former Republican president is not directly concerned for the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the prosecutor accuses him of having “ exploited violence and chaos “. In this case, Donald Trump faces decades in prison.

Read alsoAssault on the Capitol: Donald Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, testified in court

The trial, initially scheduled for March 4 in Washington, was postponed while the Supreme Court ruled on the criminal immunity invoked by the former president. This criminal immunity was previously rejected by Judge Tanya Chutkan, then by a federal court of appeal.

The Supreme Court’s decision is expected in June, or even July.

• The accusation of attempted electoral fraud in 2020 in Georgia

Before the courts of Georgia, in the southeast of the country, Donald Trump is being prosecuted with fourteen other people, under that state’s law on organized crime, providing for maximum sentences of twenty years in prison.

The investigation was triggered by a January 2021 phone call from the outgoing president asking a senior Georgia official to “ find » 12,000 ballots in his name that he needed to win the state.

His indictment forced Donald Trump to report to an Atlanta prison in August 2023 for taking a criminal ID photo and fingerprinting. A first for a former American president.

Prosecutor Fani Willis proposed that this trial, the only one of the four to be televised, begin on August 5 for the fifteen defendants.

Judge Scott McAfee has not yet ruled on the timetable, but indicated that he would favor two separate trials if there were still as many defendants remaining.

Four of the 19 people initially charged have already pleaded guilty. In exchange for reduced sentences which allow them to avoid prison, they have agreed to testify at the future trial of the other accused.

• The retention of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago

The classified documents affair concerns actions subsequent to Donald Trump’s departure from the White House. In this other federal case, also investigated by prosecutor Jack Smith, Donald Trump is being prosecuted with two of his personal assistants for his management of classified documents at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

He is accused of having compromised national security by keeping these documents, including military plans or information on nuclear weapons, there after the end of his presidency, instead of handing them over to the National Archives as required by law. . He is also accused of attempting to destroy evidence in the case. The heaviest charges are punishable by ten years in prison.

This trial, which was to begin on May 20, will most likely be postponed for several months. Judge Aileen Cannon has not yet set a new date.

In all these trials, Donald Trump seeks through his multiple appeals to go to trial as late as possible, in any case, after the presidential election on November 5. If he were elected again, once inaugurated in January 2025, he could order a halt to federal proceedings against him.

Read alsoUnited States: update on the four criminal cases targeting Donald Trump