Now he is not in office, Donald Trump is not shielded from prosecution
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Donald Trump is facing a potential slew of civil lawsuits, possible criminal charges, impeachment and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt repayments, after becoming a private citizen.
The former president is no longer legally shielded after leaving office on Wednesday, putting him firmly in the crosshairs of litigators and prosecutors across the country.
He is already facing at least 10 suits, from potential tax fraud to sexual assault allegations — some of which involving Mr Trump personally, others pertaining to his businesses.
Former US federal prosecutors and attorneys told The Telegraph a legal storm is brewing and Mr Trump may not be able to weather it out as he has done in the past.
Tax fraud allegations
A wide-ranging criminal investigation in New York is arguably the most serious legal concern for Mr Trump and his real-estate company, the Trump Organisation.
This case, which is being overseen by Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, grew out of questions regarding several alleged hush money payments made in the run-up to the 2016 election by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen to women including porn star Stormy Daniels alleging they had engaged in extramarital affairs with the president.
Michael Cohen, former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, testifies before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill
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Trump has denied the affairs. Mr Cohen told Congress, under oath, in 2019 that there was "no doubt" in his mind that his former boss knew about the hush money payments.
But the investigation has been digging much deeper than just the hush money.
Prosecutors have suggested in court filings that the investigation could examine whether the former president and his company engaged in bank fraud, insurance fraud, criminal tax fraud and falsification of business records.
Separately, Letitia James, New York Attorney General is also examining how Trump valued his assets, alleging he repeatedly "inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.”
Ms James is investigating the claims to see if they elevate to the level of fraud.
However, some experts say they are not confident the charges will stick against Mr Trump, who has historically shown a willingness to exercise every legal avenue to protect himself and has often succeeded.
“Even assuming the evidence is there, I’m sceptical that New York law will be broad enough to allow prosecutors to bring an air-tight case against Trump,” said Daniel R. Alonso, a former US federal and New York state prosecutor who is now a partner at Buckley LLP.
New York City Police officers guard the front of Trump Tower, in New York
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“One way to do this would be for the DA (district attorney) to gather a strong case and have it filed by federal prosecutors in federal court, where the law is much more favourable to the government than it is in New York state court,” he told The Telegraph.
“Tax fraud cases are pretty hard to bring. It’s not enough to just show that someone should have paid additional taxes and they didn’t. They have to have consciously chosen to mislead the tax authorities with the intention of paying less than they would have otherwise have owed.
“This is difficult to do with a CEO, a businessman who is surrounded by lawyers and accountants,” Mr Alonso said. “It’s very hard to prove.”
One alternative, assuming the evidence supports it, he offered, would be to charge the Trump Organisation, rather than the former president himself. “A corporate prosecution is certainly a possibility here, which would not make Trump particularly happy but he would not be in personal jeopardy.”
While he is being aggressively pursued in his former hometown of New York, Mr Trump is also being sued in Maryland and DC over the so-called emoluments clause. This action was launched back in 2017, alleging that he was violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution by profiting from foreign governments’ spending in his Trump Hotel in downtown Washington.
Here, Mr Trump faces the risk of millions of dollars in fines or a criminal prosecution that could send him to prison.
Trump Tower
Mr Trump also still faces a lawsuit stemming from a 2015 altercation between security guards and a group of protesters.
The lawsuit was brought by a group of men who protested outside Trump Tower in New York before he became president.
They alleged that the security guards shoved them and destroyed their signs and that Trump’s head of security punched one of them in the head while another attempted to choke a protester, The Washington Post reported.
In September 2019, a federal judge ordered Trump to testify in the case, though another judge issued a temporary stay against the order,
It’s a family affair
Then there are the multiple civil lawsuits stalking the former president.
Mary Trump, Mr Trump’s niece, who wrote a scathing bestseller documenting deep family dysfunction, has sued her uncle and two of his siblings, alleging they defrauded her out of tens of millions decades ago by manipulating the value of properties and lying to her about the worth of her inheritance.
The lawsuit, filed in September in New York Supreme Court, accuses Mary Trump’s uncles, Donald and Robert, and aunt Maryanne Trump Barry, of pretending they would guard her assets that she inherited after her father died, only to bully and take advantage of her during estate settlement negotiations.
Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, is suing her uncle
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The lawsuit, which alleges fraud, conspiracy and violations of fiduciary duties, seeks at least $500,000 in damages. Crucially, Mr Trump can no longer cite his presidential duties as a reason not to testify.
Mr Trump said earlier this month that his niece’s lawsuit against the family is full of “conspiracy theories” — and all just part of a plan to make money off the famous family name, in an request to the court to toss the case.
Claims of sexual assault
Mr Trump also has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women whose allegations span decades.
E Jean Carroll, a long-time columnist for Elle magazine, has accused Mr Trump of raping her in a dressing room at a luxury Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Mr Trump denies it and is contesting her defamation claim.
In her lawsuit, filed in Manhattan, Ms Carroll argues Mr Trump defamed her by saying he could not have raped her because "she’s not my type". She is seeking unspecified damages and a retraction of Mr Trump’s statements.
Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice," meanwhile, filed a suit against Mr Trump back in 2017, arguing that in his denial of her allegation that he had sexually assaulted her in 2007 he had defamed her and subjected her to harassment.
E. Jean Carroll, who says President Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s, leaves the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse
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The former president lost a bid to dismiss the case in late 2019, but the proceedings — including a possible subpoena for him to provide a deposition — were put on hold until he left office.
Roberta Kaplan, who represents Ms Carroll, said she has sent Mr Trump’s legal team a proposed schedule to proceed. His attorney in the case did not immediately respond.
It is unclear how much of a threat the civil suits will pose.
Impeachment and incitement
In the state of Georgia, he could be investigated for a phone call made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him “find votes” that would potentially overturn the state’s election results. Recordings made of the conversation were leaked to the Washington Post.
Some Georgia prosecutors said they believed Mr Trump had clearly violated state law.
“If you took the fact out that he is the president of the United States and look at the conduct of the call, it tracks the communication you might see in any drug case or organised crime case,” offered Michael Moore, the former US attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. “It’s full of threatening undertone and strong-arm tactics.”
Pro-Trump protesters storm the US Capitol to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results by Congress
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Mr Moore said he believed there had been "a clear attempt to influence the conduct of the secretary of state, and to commit election fraud, or to solicit the commission of election fraud."
On top of all these, he will also face an imminent Senate impeachment trial, where, if convicted, he could be barred from holding public office in future, as well as a federal probe by Michael Sherwin, the acting US Attorney for DC, that may look at Mr Trump’s role in the inciting supporters to storm the US Capitol this month.
This too will be a struggle to bring to court, Mr Alonso said. “The riot case has so many unanswered questions,” he cautioned, “I wouldn’t charge him with a crime today, based on all the available evidence I’ve seen, but there is certainly enough to investigate Trump’s involvement in organising the rallies and what his intentions were.
“Same with the Georgia investigation,” he told The Telegraph. “I would want to know if Trump had other, similar conversations with election officials, that would build a picture of something more sinister.”
Debt repayment
Mr Trump is also indebted to the tune of nearly $400 million, including $100 million on Trump Tower which is due next year; $125 million on his Doral golf resort in Florida in 2023; and $170 million on the Washington hotel in 2024. He personally guaranteed most of that debt, which means the lenders could pursue his other assets if he cannot pay or refinance.
An ongoing audit by the Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, could cost the 74-year-old more than $100 million.
He could also run into more severe financial difficulties with the Trump Organisation, which has lost a number of contracts in the wake of the storming of the Capitol building on January 6.
The New York City government itself, three banks, the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) Championship, and a real-estate firm that handled many of his leasing agreements, have distanced themselves from the Trump family firm.
Why did he not pardon himself?
Experts say a pardoning could amount to an admission of guilt and open Mr Trump up to more private lawsuits. He could have tried to pardon himself from possible charges of criminal incitement, but admitting the crime makes it easier to bring a civil suit against him.
On whether there might be any surprises in the coming weeks and months, Mr Alonso said: “They (prosecutors) could have been holding back on subpoenas, not wanting to be a distraction with everything else going on, and knowing that Trump, as president, would have interposed strong objections.”
Whatever happens, the year ahead will likely be a rough one for Mr Trump.
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