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(CNN) – President Donald Trump will be old Donald Trump again in 71 days.
And in case you forgot, there are at least half a dozen ongoing cases involving you, putting you at various levels of legal risk and still pending.
As there were so many legal issues surrounding the president during his first term, I thought it might make sense to look into the ongoing controversy involving him and where they are going right now.
1) The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigates the internal financial workings of the Trump Organization
This case, which is overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., arose from questions about various secret money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 election by then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen, to women who claimed to have had affairs. extramarital affairs with Trump. (Cohen told Congress, under oath, in 2019 that he had “no doubts” in his mind that Trump was aware of secret cash payments.) However, the investigation is broader than secret money. As CNN’s Kara Scannell and Erica Orden wrote last month:
“Prosecutors have suggested in court documents that the investigation could look into whether the president and his company were involved in banking fraud, insurance fraud, criminal tax fraud and falsification of corporate documents.”
Trump has repeatedly tried to block the eight-year prosecutor’s subpoena from his tax returns and financial documents as part of the investigation.
In the wake of Cohen’s testimony that Trump, along with his family, had “repeatedly inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be among the richest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce “Taxes,” New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she would investigate the allegations to see if they escalated to the level of fraud. Just last month, Eric Trump was questioned under oath whether he or the organization Trump were trying to artificially inflate and deflate their assets.
3) Attorneys General of Maryland and Washington are suing the emoluments clause
This lawsuit was originally filed in 2017, claiming Trump was violating the Constitution’s emoluments (or taxes) clause by taking advantage of foreign government spending at his Trump hotel in downtown Washington. (Read more about the fee clause here). The case appeared dead until May, when the 4th Circuit overturned a three-judge panel ruling that plaintiffs had no right to present the case. Trump appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. (There is also a second case of fees still pending, presented by a group of restaurants and a hotel operator).
4) The defamation lawsuit of E. Jean Carroll
Days before the 2020 election, a federal judge rejected an attempt by Trump, represented by lawyers from the Department of Justice, to effectively dismiss a case brought by Carroll alleging that Trump raped her in the 1990s. He denied his accusation and said, “He’s not my type.” The case is now proceeding through the federal judicial system.
5) Summer Zervos libel suit
Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” sued Trump in 2017, claiming that by denying his accusation of sexually assaulting her in 2007, he had defamed and harassed her. Trump lost his attempt to dismiss the case in late 2019, but procedures, including a possible summons to Trump to provide a statement, have been suspended until he leaves office.
6) The cause of her niece Mary Trump
The president’s niece and author of the ferocious bestseller “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Most Dangerous Man Alive” sued Trump in September, claiming that he, his sister, and his late brother had committed a fraud to prevent them from getting his fair share of the inheritance from Trump’s father, Fred Sr.
Aside from that half-dozen lawsuits, there is the question of whether Trump could be accused of obstruction of justice for his attempts to prevent and inhibit the 2016 election investigation and Russia’s role in them by Special Adviser Robert Mueller. In an exchange of views during congressional testimony in July 2019, Mueller, a former FBI director, suggested he believes Trump could be indicted once he leaves office.
It is impossible to know if any of these pending lawsuits will ever emerge as a real threat to Trump. Especially considering that Trump, for decades, has shown his willingness to use absolutely every legal way to protect himself, muddle the waters and slow down procedures.
What is clear, however, is that Trump will have less watertight legal protections as a former president than as a president in office. Much less.
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