As of: January 29, 2024, 10:35 a.m
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Donald Trump.
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Former US President Trump suffered a clear defeat in court.
Many other trials against the 77-year-old are still ongoing.
An overview.
Another jury has spoken and it will cost Donald Trump $83.3 million.
In addition to the five million dollars he already has to pay to the writer E. Jean Carroll.
This edition of our Trump Trials newsletter focuses on the civil courts, where we expect Trump will receive more bad news in the coming weeks.
Okay, let's get started.
Lawsuits against former President Donald Trump – what’s next?
Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to soon announce his ruling on monetary penalties in the New York Attorney General's civil fraud lawsuit.
He has demanded that Trump and his companies be ordered to pay $370 million for allegedly misrepresenting the value of their business assets.
At the same time, we await a decision from the federal appeals court in Washington on whether Trump is protected from criminal prosecution for actions taken during his presidency.
A deadline expires Friday in Atlanta, where District Attorney Fani Willis has filed charges against Trump and more than a dozen others.
Until then, the prosecutor has to respond to allegations that she abused her office by maintaining a romantic relationship with a subordinate, Nathan Wade, whom she had assigned to handle the case.
A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Wade's divorce case, which sparked the controversy.
Now a look back at the events of last week.
My news
Baerbock hits the Union with the K question at a carnival event - “... and get Söder” read
Russia reacts to major NATO maneuvers – and threatens “tragic consequences” read
If Russia wins: Hungarian right-wing extremist wants to annex Ukrainian territories read
Russians are advancing on several sectors of the front: Putin's goal is becoming more and more concrete
Ukraine Navy in transition: Vice Admiral wants to attack Russian territory
Putin's T-90 is defeated in a duel - a steel colossus full of weak points
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Influencing the election results – federal court proceedings regarding the 2020 election
The details: Four counts related to conspiring to influence the 2020 election results.
Scheduled hearing date: March 4th.
What Happened: Without explicitly saying so, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has sent two important signals in recent days that she expects the trial to be postponed.
In a court filing, the judge said she will give the defense necessary time to prepare after higher courts ruled on Trump's claims that he cannot be prosecuted because of presidential immunity and a form of double jeopardy.
And Chutkan has another trial scheduled for early April — an indication that she doesn't expect to be involved with Trump's case then.
Another defeat for Trump – appeals court rejects ex-president’s application
Trump is subject to limited news blackouts in both his federal criminal trial in Washington DC and his civil business fraud trial in New York.
Both orders prohibit him from attacking specific people connected to the cases.
A federal appeals court in Washington, which had previously upheld most of Washington's news blackout, last week rejected Trump's request for a rehearing before the full court.
This means that if Trump wants to continue fighting the decision, he will have to go to the Supreme Court next.
(This appeal by the full bench is known as en banc)
Georgia: Indictment for attempted election fraud in 2020
The details: Trump is charged in 13 states because he is said to have attempted to falsify the election results in that state.
Four of his 18 co-defendants have pleaded guilty.
Planned trial date: Not yet known.
What Happened Last Week: Unanswered allegations of an inappropriate relationship between District Attorney Willis and her deputy, Wade, threaten to damage the credibility of the case - even though the underlying facts remain very murky.
This week's events are heading toward a crucial hearing on February 15 - an important date for Trump in more ways than one.
Later more.
Florida: 40 Federal Indictments - Top Secret Government Documents in Trump's Private Home
The details: Trump faces 40 federal indictments on charges that he stored top-secret government documents at Mar-a-Lago — his home and private club — and ignored government requests to return them.
Scheduled hearing date: May 20th.
What Happened: The lawyers argued over access to classified information and the redaction of documents in a recent court filing.
This is not surprising in a case that essentially involves national defense secrets.
Much of the arguments between prosecutors and defense attorneys leading up to the trial revolved around who should know the sensitive details of the case.
New York: State hush money case
The details: 34 charges related to a hush money payment from 2016.
Scheduled hearing date: March 25th.
Last week: The case remains on hold as attorneys await a hearing on Feb. 15 — the same day as the Georgia hearing — to decide how and when to proceed.
Trump was very busy in New York - even as he won the New Hampshire primary.
The former president spent several days in federal court in Manhattan complaining bitterly to his lawyers about the judge overseeing the Carroll case.
On Thursday he left court saying: “This is not America.”
Nerd Word of the Week: “Collateral estoppel”
Collateral estoppel: One of the most difficult concepts in American law: “Collateral estoppel” is comparable in criminal law to protection against double jeopardy;
in civil jurisdiction it means that parties cannot re-appeal issues that have already been decided in a previous court case.
Collateral estoppel loomed large in Trump's major trial loss to Carroll last week, as an earlier jury found that Trump had sexually assaulted and defamed her.
Under the doctrine of collateral forfeiture, this meant that Trump could not claim to the jury that he did not do so.
In court, the former president bristled at that restriction, saying the judge “shouldn’t be able to do that.
This is a separate procedure.”
But the collateral presumption meant that Trump's first trial, which he lost to Carroll, would make an important contribution to his second trial.
Time for questions
Has Trump already paid the $5 million he owes Carroll?
Will he have to pay the new $83.3 million judgment while he appeals?
Trump is appealing the jury's initial $5 million verdict, but according to standard court practice, he has already deposited about $5.5 million into a trust account, so that sum will be available once the appeal process is complete.
He must either do the same for the $83.3 million verdict or post bail with a down payment, security or both to show he can pay the full amount if he loses the appeal.
The former president has long insisted he has that kind of cash.
To the authors
Devlin Barrett
writes about the FBI and the Justice Department and is the author of October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election.
He was part of the reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022.
In 2017, he was a co-finalist for the Pulitzer for Feature Writing and the Pulitzer for International Reporting.
Perry Stein
covers the Justice Department and FBI for The Washington Post.
She previously covered education in Washington.
Before joining the Post in 2015, she was a staff writer at the Washington City Paper and wrote for the Miami Herald.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on January 29, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.