The Criminal Cases Against Donald Trump

The New York case centered on payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Prosecutors alleged that Trump directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The payments were then recorded as legal expenses in the Trump Organization’s books, which prosecutors argued constituted falsification of business records.

The case was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony because prosecutors alleged the falsification was committed to conceal another crime—namely, a violation of federal campaign finance laws. After a six-week trial, the jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts. On January 10, 2025, Judge Merchan imposed an unconditional discharge, meaning Trump faced no jail time, probation, or fines, but the felony conviction remained on his record. Trump’s legal team has appealed the conviction.

The classified documents case arose from the discovery that Trump had retained hundreds of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after leaving office. The documents included materials related to national defense, nuclear programs, and intelligence sources.

After the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to investigate. The indictment alleged that Trump not only willfully retained the documents but also directed efforts to obstruct the government’s attempts to retrieve them, including moving boxes and suggesting his attorney hide or destroy documents.

Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case on July 15, 2024, ruling that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. The Special Counsel’s office appealed the ruling to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, but the appeal was subsequently dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

The federal election interference case was the most sweeping of the four indictments. Special Counsel Jack Smith alleged that Trump engaged in a broad conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The indictment alleged that Trump spread claims about voter fraud he knew to be false, pressured state and federal officials to block Joe Biden’s victory, and attempted to exploit the violence at the Capitol to delay the certification of electoral votes. The case was significantly affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States (July 2024), which established broad presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Following Trump’s victory in the November 2024 presidential election, Special Counsel Smith moved to dismiss the case, citing longstanding DOJ policy against prosecuting a sitting president. The case was dismissed without prejudice on December 2, 2024.

The Georgia case was a sprawling racketeering prosecution that originally named 19 defendants, including Trump and several of his allies. The indictment centered on alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, including Trump’s January 2021 phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump asked him to “find 11,780 votes.”

The case was beset by controversy when a romantic relationship between District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade was revealed. In December 2024, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis and her office from the case. Without a prosecuting authority willing to take over the complex case, the charges against Trump and remaining defendants were ultimately dropped in November 2025.