Tracking the Trump criminal cases

On March 30, 2023, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump. Five days later, local prosecutors unveiled the criminal charges: 34 felony counts of violating a New York law on corporate record-keeping. Trump’s defense team unsuccessfully pushed for a dismissal of the charges, alleging that the district attorney “selectively targeted” the former president in a delayed and politically motivated prosecution. Writing that these allegations “strain credulity,” Justice Juan Merchan denied the motion to dismiss. Merchan also imposed a gag order on Trump, restricting him from publicly commenting on likely witnesses, jurors and other people involved in the case. After the trial began on April 15, 2024, the judge twice held Trump in criminal contempt and fined him a total of $10,000 for violating the gag order 10 times. The judge threatened jail time for additional violations. After a dramatic six weeks of trial and one and a half days of deliberations, the jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts. Trump successfully delayed his sentencing hearing, which is now scheduled for Nov. 26, 2024. He has also asked Merchan to toss out the verdict in light of the Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024, ruling on presidential immunity.

Smith’s Jan. 6 investigation followed the work of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack, which voted in December 2022 to refer Trump (along with lawyer John Eastman) to the Justice Department for prosecution. A Washington grand jury met for months and heard testimony from many former Trump aides and officials in the Trump White House, including Pence.

On Aug. 1, 2023, the grand jury approved an indictment against Trump, charging him with an extraordinary conspiracy that threatened to disenfranchise millions of Americans.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan initially scheduled the trial to begin March 4, 2024. But Trump sought to dismiss the case on various grounds, most notably a novel argument that former presidents are immune from criminal charges related to their conduct as president. His immunity bid delayed the case and forced Chutkan to call off the trial date.

On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court largely sided with Trump on the immunity issue. By a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, the high court declared that presidents have “absolute” immunity from charges stemming from their “core constitutional powers” and “presumptive immunity” for all other official acts. The court ruled that some of the allegations in Smith’s indictment must be set aside — and it sent the case back to Chutkan for her to determine whether the indictment must be further pared down or even dismissed altogether.

The Supreme Court’s handling of the issue effectively ruled out the possibility for a trial in the case to occur before Election Day.

Willis opened the criminal investigation in February 2021. She summoned many of Trump’s top allies before a so-called special grand jury, which had the power to investigate crimes but not to approve criminal charges. In the summer of 2023, Willis presented her evidence to a regular grand jury, which approved a 98-page indictment on Aug. 14, 2023. In early 2024, the case was derailed over allegations that Willis had a financial conflict of interest stemming from her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to run the case. McAfee denied a bid by Trump and other defendants to disqualify Willis from the case. That decision is now on appeal, with oral arguments scheduled for Dec. 5. Proceedings in the trial court are frozen while the appeal proceeds.

In early 2022, the Justice Department opened an investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents after his presidency. In June 2022, a Trump lawyer avowed that Trump had turned over all classified records, but two months later, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and seized 102 documents with classified markings. Smith was appointed in November 2022 to lead the investigation, and for months, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., reviewed evidence and heard testimony — including testimony from some of Trump’s own lawyers.

Smith’s team then sought an indictment from a grand jury in Florida. On June 9, 2023, that indictment was unsealed, charging Trump with 37 felonies and his longtime aide, Walt Nauta, with six felonies. Trump pleaded not guilty.

On July 27, 2023, Smith’s team unveiled a revised indictment, known as a “superseding” indictment, adding three new felony charges against Trump and two new felony charges against Nauta. The superseding indictment also added a third defendant: Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago employee who was charged with four felonies. The superseding indictment included new allegations that Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira sought to destroy security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago after investigators tried to obtain the footage.

A trial was scheduled for May 20, 2024, in Fort Pierce, Florida, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, postponed it indefinitely. For months, Cannon’s plodding pace and her unusual rulings on pretrial issues befuddled many legal experts and frustrated prosecutors. Then, in a bombshell ruling on July 15, 2024, Cannon ordered the case dismissed after concluding that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.

The special counsel’s office is appealing her ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.