Donald Trump has been charged with conspiracy to commit forgery in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
It is the fourth time Mr Trump has been criminally charged so far this year, with additional legal troubles over alleged conspiracies to overturn the 2020 election, his handling of classified documents since leaving the White House, and allegations he falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Mr Trump denies wrongdoing and claims he is a victim of a witch-hunt. The charges have so far failed to dent his popularity as the Republican presidential frontrunner for 2024.
Until March, when the first indictment was unveiled, no sitting or former US president had ever been criminally indicted. Here are all the criminal cases Trump faces:
The 2021 Insurrection Case
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Trump with four crimes relating to his attempts to derail the transfer of power in the 2020 election.
These are conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Two of the charges relate to the disruption of Congress’ certification of the electoral vote on January 6, 2021.
The charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States comes from an alleged sustained effort to prevent the counting of votes in the election, while the fourth charge accuses Trump of plotting to deprive some US citizens of their right to vote in a bid to stay in power.
In effect, prosecutors led by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith claim a two-month conspiracy from November 2020 to January 2021 to cling onto power, including the notorious January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt at the US Capitol.
They say he, along with six unnamed conspirators, attempted to pressure state officials to undermine the results, assembled false slates of electors, and tried to get Mike Pence to not validate Joe Biden’s legitimate victory.
The classified documents case
Trump separately faces 37 charges in a classified documents case with a provisional trial date set for May 20, 2024.
He is accused of more than 30 violations of the Espionage Act, over claims he stored dozens of classified documents at his Florida resort of Mar–a-Lago, and refused to return them to the FBI.
Prosecutors allege that on at least two occasions, Trump showed sensitive documents to others who weren’t supposed to view them - among them an apparent top-secret plan of military attack.
Both Trump and his long-time aide Walt Nauta are accused of conspiring to obstruct justice by blocking investigators.
A fresh ‘superseding’ indictment filed last month also included allegations that Trump, Nauta and a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, sought to destroy CCTV footage at Mar-a-Lago after investigators tried to obtain the footage in their probe. Trump denies the claims.
The case is expected to be complex, in part due to the amount of classified material involved, which will require a lot of legal wrangling.
The hush money case
The former US president became the first former president to be criminally indicted when state prosecutors charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The case centres around allegations Trump authorised ‘hush money’ payments to bury allegations of an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges, and Trump’s legal teams are currently involved in pre-trial litigation, including a bid by Trump to have the case heard in federal court.
The case is notable for the remarkable scenes of Donald Trump surrendering himself to authorities for processing, appearing in court as a criminal defendant and then entering not guilty pleas.
Normally, falsifying business records in New York is a misdemeanour, but prosecutors have brought felony charges, which happens when it is alleged the defendant falsified the records with the intent of furthering a separate underlying crime. A trial date is set for March 2024.
Election interference in Georgia
Trump has been charged with conspiracy to commit forgery in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
On January 2, 2021, Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and urged him to “find” 11,780 votes for Trump in an explosive phone call.
This would have overturned the narrow victory for Joe Biden in the state, as Biden won the state with fewer than 12,000 votes.
District Attorney Fani Willis began investigating more than two years ago, and is also investigating allegations Trump’s campaign plotted to send fake electors to Washington.
In January 2023, after hearing evidence for seven months, a special grand jury recommended potential indictments.
The slew of charges against him in Georgia include racketeering, conspiracy to commit forgery, false statements and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
