Donald Trump: The other legal cases hanging over the former US president

Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush-money trial in Manhattan on Thursday. The former US president faces more legal difficulties.

Documents recovered from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and home in Florida. Photograph: US Department of Justice/New York Times

The classified documents case

Concerns Trump’s handling of government documents which he took with him after his presidency ended. A special counsel, Jack Smith, was appointed to conduct a criminal investigation. Trump was charged in June with 37 criminal counts, including unauthorised retention of national security files and the obstruction of attempts to retrieve the files at his Mar-a-Lago base in Florida. Three additional charges were added in July. According to Trump, it’s another “witch-hunt”. The trial is unlikely to begin before the presidential election in November.

Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis. Photograph: Nicole Craine/New York Times

The Georgia election fraud case

After a recording emerged in 2021 of Trump urging Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” extra votes to get him over the line, Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis began a wider investigation into his alleged attempts to subvert the result of the election. Trump and 18 others face conspiracy charges. Four of the accused have pleaded guilty. Racketeering and conspiracy charges could theoretically carry long prison sentences. The trial is unlikely to begin before the presidential election in November.

Rioters loyal to former US president Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6th, 2021. Photograph: Jose Luis Magana/AP

The January 6th case

After the riots at the US Capitol in January 2021 by Trump supporters in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s election victory, a congressional committee investigated Trump’s role in attempting to overturn the result and inciting the insurrection. It ultimately recommended four criminal charges against Trump, and referred them to the justice department. That was largely symbolic, since the justice department was already running an investigation, again via special counsel Jack Smith. Trump was indicted on four charges in August: conspiracy to violate rights, conspiracy to defraud the government, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding. No trial date has been set – again, the case is unlikely to proceed ahead of the election.