Before he battled his way back to the White House, President Donald Trump battled a slew of civil lawsuits and criminal charges that threatened to upend his finances and take away his freedom. Those cases mostly abated since his return to office, albeit with some loose ends.
Trump declared "total victory" Aug. 21 after an appeals court threw out a massive financial penalty in New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit alleging that he exaggerated his wealth and the value of marquee assets like Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago. Other punishments affecting Trump's business still apply, but they can be paused pending further appeals.
Since Trump's reelection in November, four separate criminal cases β including his hush money conviction and allegations of election interference and illegally hoarding classified documents β either were dropped, resolved or put aside. On the civil side, several high-profile lawsuits against Trump have quietly worked their way through the appeals process.
Here's a look at some of Trump's cases and where they stand now:
Then-Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom April 16, 2024, at Manhattan criminal court in New York as a judge worked to find jurors to decide whether Trump was guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign.
Hush money
Trump became the first former U.S. president convicted of felonies when a New York jury found him guilty in May 2024 of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan in January sentenced Trump to what's known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him any punishment. Trump appealed the conviction.
Merchan said he had to respect Trump's upcoming legal protections as president.
Georgia election
Willis
In August 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged Trump and 18 others with participating in a scheme to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Willis cited Trump's January 2021 phone call to Georgia's secretary of state, an effort to replace Georgia's Democratic presidential electors with ones who would vote for Trump, harassment of a Fulton County election worker and the unauthorized copying of data and software from elections equipment.
The case stalled over revelations Willis was in a relationship with the man she appointed to prosecute it. A state appeals court in December removed Willis from the case.
She appealed that decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. Even if the high court takes the case and decides in her favor, it's unlikely she can pursue criminal charges against Trump while he's in office.
Smith
Federal election
Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in August 2023 with conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss to President Joe Biden in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors allege Trump and his allies knowingly pushed election fraud lies to push state officials to overturn Biden's win and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to disrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes.
Smith moved to drop the case after Trump won reelection in November, as Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.
Classified documents
Smith charged Trump in June 2023 with illegally retaining classified documents he took to Mar-a-Lago after he left office in January 2021, and then obstructing government demands to give them back. Prosecutors filed additional charges the next month, accusing Trump of showing a Pentagon "plan of attack" to visitors at his golf club in New Jersey.
Smith also moved to drop that case after Trump's election victory.
Writer E. Jean Carroll, right, and her attorney Roberta Kaplan stand outside a Manhattan federal appeals courtΒ Sept. 6, 2024,Β in New York.
Sexual assaults
In May 2023, a federal jury found that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The jury awarded her $5 million.
In January 2024, a second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages for comments Trump had made about her while he was president, finding that they were defamatory. Trump appealed that decision.
He also appealed the first jury decision, but a federal appeals court in December upheld it and declined in June to reconsider. Trump still can try to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal.
Civil fraud
James
A five-judge panel of New York's mid-level Appellate Division overturned Trump's whopping monetary penalty in James' lawsuit while narrowly endorsing a lower court's finding that he engaged in fraud by padding his wealth on financial statements provided to lenders and insurers.
The judges ruled that the penalty β which soared to $515 million with interest tacked on each day β violated the U.S. Constitution's ban on excessive fines. At the same time, they left in place other punishments, including a ban on Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years.
The decision likely will be appealed to the state's Court of Appeals, and the upheld punishments can be paused until that court rules.
