The new investigations complement an accumulating list of legal issues facing the former president that could threaten his finances and potentially his freedom.
Outside of office and without the protections the presidency afforded him, Trump is now facing multiple criminal investigations, civil state investigations and defamation lawsuits by two women accusing him of sexual assault.
In the three weeks since Trump left the White House, the many legal threats he faces have grown and become more and more threatening.
Georgia election results
Georgia officials have announced that the former president is facing two new investigations over calls he made to election officials in an effort to reverse the state’s election results.
A source familiar with the Georgia Secretary of State’s investigation confirmed that they are investigating two calls, including one from Trump to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“This isn’t an easy thing, but it’s not one you shouldn’t show,” said Bret Williams, a former federal prosecutor in New York and Atlanta. “It will be difficult to prove that he intended to ask Raffensperger to commit electoral fraud, but maybe he did.”
Trump’s senior adviser, Jason Miller, said in a statement to CNN that there was nothing “inappropriate or unpleasant” about the planned conversation between Trump and Raffensperger.
“If Mr. Raffensperger didn’t want to receive phone calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for Secretary of State,” Miller said in the statement.
The second Georgia investigation is being conducted by the office of the Fulton County District Attorney, which announced on Wednesday that it has also opened a criminal investigation into Trump for his “attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia general election.”
A Fulton County Grand Jury is expected to meet in March at the earliest, and the district attorney’s office can request subpoenas from the grand jury at that time if necessary.
“I believe laws were being broken because I think it was a clear attempt by a president of the United States at the time, who I believe also had some power at the time to get the secretary of state to do something wrong,” said Michael J Moore, a former US attorney for the Middle District of Georgia during the Obama administration.
“I think that’s what the statute says, and when those things happen, it’s a violation of the law,” he said.
Business transactions in New York
Trump is also facing a criminal investigation in New York, where the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is investigating whether the Trump organization has violated state laws such as insurance fraud, tax fraud, or other fraudulent practices. The scope of the investigation is broad, with prosecutors investigating, among other things, whether the Trump Organization has misled financial institutions in applying for loans or violated tax laws in donating an easement on its estate called Seven Springs and deducting fees paid to advisors.
Prosecutors await a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on whether it will continue to delay enforcement of an eight-year subpoena of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns and related data from his accounting firm.
If the Supreme Court allows the summons to be enforced, this will give an important impulse to the investigation.
The office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of its assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance coverage.
The Washington, DC Rebellion
In Washington, federal prosecutors who investigated the January 6 uprising in the Capitol have indicated that no one is above the law, including Trump, and have insisted that nothing is off the table when asked if they were looking at the former’s role. president in inciting violence. .
Freed from Presidency protection
Trump is no longer in office and cannot rely on various defenses he made while he was president.
“It’s going faster. He no longer has the excuse to be the incumbent president,” said Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor and legal analyst at CNN. “I really think that people who expect us to see serious action in civil litigation sooner will be disappointed because civil litigation is going so slow anyway.”
But, Rodgers added, there is no longer any reason to delay those civil suits now that he is out of the office.
Those suits include one from Racine’s office, claiming that the Trump Organization and Presidential Inaugural Committee misused more than $ 1 million in inaugural funds by “ paying grossly too much ” to occupy the event space at Trump’s Washington, DC hotel. for its inauguration in 2017.
Trump has also faced defamation lawsuits that have been largely postponed during his tenure.
Carroll tries to depose Trump and get a smear of his DNA. The case continued until the Justice Department under Trump tried to intervene in the matter.
A federal judge denied the effort, and lawyers from Trump and the Justice Department appealed the ruling. It is not clear whether Biden’s administration will continue the appeal.
Last week, Zervos’ lawyers filed a motion asking the appeals court to dismiss the appeal as “disputable” and allow the lawsuit to proceed.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in both lawsuits.
A legal issue hitting closer to home is whether Trump will be able to continue living at Mar-a-Lago full-time.
Palm Beach resort neighbors have claimed Trump violated an agreement with the city by moving full-time last month. The city maps allow him to live there full-time if he is considered a “bona fide employee” of the club.
“There is no prohibition there for the owner to use the owner’s suite,” said attorney John Marion. “This man (Trump), as he wanders the property, is like the mayor of Mar-a-Lago, if you will.”
After a meeting on Tuesday, the city council has not reached a decision, but the matter is expected to be reviewed in the spring.