Here are some of the lawsuits and criminal probes that may haunt Donald Trump as he leaves office https://t.co/MkHP10XW4K
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 7, 2020
A NEW YORK PROSECUTOR
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who enforces New York state laws, has been conducting a criminal investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization for more than two years.
The probe originally focused on hush money payments that Trump’s former lawyer and self-described fixer Michael Cohen paid before the 2016 election to two women who said they had sexual encounters with Trump, which the president has denied.
Vance, a Democrat, has suggested in recent court filings that his probe is now broader and could focus on bank, tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsification of business records.
The case has drawn attention because of Vance’s efforts to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court, denying Trump’s bid to keep the returns under wraps, said the president was not immune from state criminal probes while in office, but could raise other defenses to Vance’s subpoena.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROBE?
Trump could conceivably face a criminal prosecution brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, led by a new U.S. Attorney General.
Some legal experts have said Trump could face federal income tax evasion charges, pointing to a New York Times report that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017.
NEW YORK CIVIL FRAUD INVESTIGATION
New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James, has an active tax fraud investigation into Trump and his family company, the Trump Organization.
E. JEAN CARROLL
E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after the president denied Carroll’s allegation that he raped her in the 1990s and accused her of lying to drum up sales for a book.
SUMMER ZERVOS
Trump also faces a lawsuit by Summer Zervos, a 2005 contestant on Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice,” who says Trump kissed her against her will at a 2007 meeting and later groped her at a hotel.
After Trump called Zervos a liar, she sued him for defamation.
