This year, former president Donald Trump became the first president in history to face criminal charges. Trump is facing a total of 91 criminal charges and has three trial dates set for 2024. Additionally, while these trials are being set, Trump has his eye on the 2024 Presidential Election.
One of the criminal cases include the Mar-A-Lago case, whose expected trial date is on May 20, 2024. Trump was indicted for reportedly storing hundreds of classified documents in his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida after the end of his presidency in 2021. Trump’s actions went against the Espionage Act which deals with the interference of national defense information.
The New York hush money case has a set trial date for March 25, 2024. Trump is being charged for attempting to cover up hush money payments to two women he had sexual relationships with before the 2016 presidential election. The first woman is porn star Stormy Daniels, and the second is Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The former President allegedly arranged for his previous lawyer Micheal Cohen to pay Daniels $130,000 and McDougal $150,000 in order to suppress their claims.
The court case describes the different events that unfolded leading to Trump’s indictments along with the actions and concerns of various government organizations. The case also details where the boxes of documents were found in his house.
The 2020 election interference and Jan. 6 case does not have a set trial date. A federal grand jury indicted Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Within this claim, he was charged with Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Conspiracy against rights.
Additionally, Trump allegedly interfered with President Biden’s victory in 2020 by pushing his supporters to march to the capital and working with co-conspirators to submit a fraudulent slate of electors.
The fourth and final case is the Georgia 2020 interference case. Fanni Willis, who is the district attorney in Georgia’s Fulton County, is investigating Trump’s role in attempting to overturn the state’s 2020 election. During his presidency, Trump recruited Republican electors to replace the official electors in Georgia.
Trump took these same actions in other states where President Biden won. Along with this, Trump tried to get in touch with the Georgia Secretary of State 18 times and forced him to find the votes to make him win.
The main question on everyone’s mind is: how will these charges affect Trump’s race in the 2024 presidential election? An academic project called Bright Line Watch whose goal is to monitor the health of American Democracy, recently conducted a survey about the charges against former president Donald Trump—and specifically the Mar-A-Lago documents case–eight in 10 republicans said Trump would not have been prosecuted if he were someone else. This suggests that many still support Trump and will continue to do so through the upcoming election.
On the other hand, some reacted to Trump’s indictments in negative ways. “Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States,” former Vice President Mike Pence said. Many share this viewpoint, suggesting that Trump’s actions should have major consequences.
After talking with a GA student Jazziah Manning ’25 and asking what her reactions to Former President Trump’s indictments were, she expressed her views. “The fact that a criminal president seems to be the standard now is really bad and the fact that he could potentially run for reelection…it is scary that he could genuinely win again”. Additionally she says that it “sets a really bad tone for the country..a president should be someone we look up to and someone that is an upstanding citizen”.
https://www.vox.com/trump-investigations/23832341/trump-charges-prison-time-sentence-indictments
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-espionage-acts-constitutional-legacy