Donald Trump's criminal charges
Victor Wu
Written May 24, 2024
4 years ago, an election took place in the United States. It was during the global pandemic, when then-president and Republican nominee Donald Trump ran against the Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Coincidentally, these same two candidates will run against each other again this year, marking the first presidential rematch since 1956. To Americans, this is not much of a surprise, because Mr. Trump clearly is not someone who is willing to give up.
Donald Trump in the Manhattan Criminal Court(Source: Associated Press)
Trump’s criminal trials
Trump, aged 77, currently has four criminal charges against him. The first case — known as the “New York Hush Money Trial” — involves Trump’s alleged act of having an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels before paying her $130,000 to make her stay quiet so he doesn’t suffer from those consequences in the 2016 election. However, Trump allegedly faked the payment by stating that it is for “legal fees”. Faking business records is illegal, and Trump is now facing fraud accusations.
Trump’s second criminal charge is about if Trump had mishandled classified documents. After Trump left office, he allegedly took classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This is illegal under the Espionage Act, because he unlawfully retained the documents —which includes important national defense information —when he no longer had the authority to access them.
Trump’s third criminal trial includes his alleged efforts to invalidate the 2020 Presidential Election. After the election, Trump allegedly tried to overturn the results by spreading lies about the election and attempted to use the Capitol attack as an excuse to postpone Biden’s inauguration. Trump was now charged with the conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and the conspiracy against the rights of the US citizens.
In addition to all of the above mentioned cases, Trump is also accused of overturning the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, where he was narrowly defeated by Biden.
Trump’s campaign
Currently, Trump is the first and only president to be criminally indicted. But the criminal charges are apparently unable to thwart his determination to run for president again this year.
Having won the primary elections, Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. However, it is unclear if he will be convicted, and if he goes to jail, whether he will still be able to run for president.
Trump at a campaign rally at Iowa (Source: CNBC)