The key legal threats facing Donald Trump as he seeks presidency for third time

Mounting legal threats against Donald Trump continue to grow as the former president gears up for a third run for the White House.

Civil cases against him demand hundreds of millions in damages. Intensifying criminal inquiries carry the possibility of hard prison time.

Fresh off the heels of his namesake company’s criminal conviction, Trump is expected to face separate civil trials accusing him of rape and inflating his net worth by billions of dollars in 2023.

Here’s a look at the key court battles awaiting Trump as he seeks to become commander-in-chief once again.

FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks to guests at Mar-a-lago on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla.

In its final report on Dec. 23, the House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol urged Justice Department prosecutors to bring criminal obstruction and insurrection charges against Trump for a “multi-part conspiracy” to overthrow the 2020 election.

In a series of criminal referrals in the comprehensive 845-page report, the panel said Trump should face charges for obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, inciting and assisting an insurrection, and various other conspiracy statutes.

The report referred Trump lawyers John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro for possible prosecution for corrupting an official proceeding for their role in devising an illegal plan to overturn the election results.

A video of former President Donald Trump is shown on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 21, 2022.

It found that several Republican lawmakers — GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and representatives Scott Perry, Andy Biggs and Jim Jordan — should face an ethics investigation. That’s unlikely to happen with Republicans taking control of the House this week.

The panel’s legal roadmap to bring charges against Trump is not binding, but the report’s findings pressure the DOJ to take action against the ex-president and those the committee says enabled him.

The Justice Department in November enlisted Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to oversee the inquiry into Trump’s influence on the Capitol riot.

More missing documents continue to turn up in the Justice Department’s investigations into missing classified papers Trump allegedly took with him to his Florida country club when he left the White House.

Earlier this month, his lawyers discovered classified documents at a Florida storage unit, according to emails released by the General Services Administration.

The discovery followed a raid in August when FBI investigators seized 103 missing documents that included top secret information on Iran’s missiles and highly-sensitive China spy secrets, the Washington Post reported.

“My beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in response to the summer raid. “They even broke into my safe!”

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is also leading the probe into Trump’s treatment of classified documents.

Armed Secret Service agents stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, late Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla.

A Georgia grand jury finished hearing evidence last month about how Trump and his allies allegedly sought to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis presented testimony from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, among other witnesses.

The probe was born out of Trump’s infamous recorded comments to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, ordering him to “find the votes.”

Rusty Bowers, Arizona state House Speaker, from left, Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, and Gabe Sterling, Georgia Deputy Secretary of State, are sworn in to testify as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, June 21, 2022.

It’s unclear what Willis plans to do or whether she will issue criminal charges against Trump. Willis announced in early 2021 that she would investigate whether the ex-president and others committed felonies.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office convicted two Trump Organization entities in early December on criminal tax fraud charges carrying hefty fines.

The DA’s case came together with the August guilty plea of the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who admitted to engaging in a 15-year scheme to avoid paying taxes on luxury work benefits.

The company and Weisselberg are scheduled to be sentenced in January, with the CFO facing a five-month stint on Rikers Island.

Front page of the New York Daily News for Dec. 7, 2022: Trump's real estate biz guilty on all 17 counts of tax and financial crimes. Testimony from CFO was key to convictions. Former President Donald Trump was not personally charged in the case, but the Trump Organization, his real estate company, was found guilty of evading taxes and other financial crimes.

The Manhattan DA’s broader probe into Trump, which the Trump Organization case stemmed from, remains ongoing. Bragg has not ruled out bringing charges against Trump, sources have told The News. He’s promised to publicly announce his decision on whether to do so when he’s made up his mind.

Bragg’s December hiring of former Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo, who’s gone up against Trump in court, has provoked speculation Trump may still face criminal charges in the inquiry.

In September, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a bombshell civil action lawsuit against Trump, his namesake company, and his adult children, Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr.

The $250 million lawsuit came after a years-long investigation into Trump’s business practices that ran parallel to the Manhattan DA’s.

The sweeping lawsuit claims that Trump and his senior executives habitually misrepresented the value of company assets like golf resorts and skyscrapers to hundreds of millions of dollars to score better loan deals and tax breaks. It accuses Trump of misstating his net worth by “billions.”

Trump has countersued the AG, who he frequently derides on his social media website Truth Social, and has filed a flurry of appeals in the case. James has successfully sought to fast-track the case to trial, with the presiding judge Justice Arthur Engoron setting an October 2023 trial date.

Donald Trump, left, and Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of The Trump Organization, are pictured on January 11, 2017.

Writer and former Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll is ready to take Trump to court with two outstanding lawsuits pending in Manhattan federal court.

Carroll first sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he notoriously called her a liar and said she was “not my type” in response to her allegations he raped her in the mid-1990s.

Carroll alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her inside a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman after a happenstance encounter in the mid-1990s. The author claims she kept the dress she was wearing during the alleged assault and that it has traces of Trump’s DNA.

E. Jean Carroll is seen outside State Supreme Court on March 4, 2020, in New York.

Trump sought to dodge Carroll’s defamation lawsuit by arguing that he was president when he made the comments in 2019 and thus cannot be sued. In an unusual move, President Biden’s Justice Department has continued to defend him — arguing that federal officials should be protected from litigation.

The D.C. Court of Appeals is expected to hear arguments on the matter in early January and will determine whether or not the U.S. should substitute Trump in the initial suit. Both Trump and Carroll have been deposed in the litigation.

However, Carroll no longer relies on the D.C. court’s decision. She filed a new lawsuit against him in November under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which lifted the statute of limitations for victims to sue their alleged assailants for one year.

When Carroll announced her plans to file a second suit against Trump under the new legislation, he repeated his inflammatory remarks calling her a liar — this time as a citizen. Carroll’s new lawsuit includes a new defamation claim for those comments.

With News Wire Services

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