The events leading to Donald Trump’s indictments

A brief look into Donald Trump’s
four indictments in the wake of his
iconic mugshot.
Last week, former United States Presi-
dent Donald Trump was booked into
Fulton County Jail in Georgia following
charges relating to his alleged attempt
to overturn the state’s presidential elec-
tion results in 2020. Although Trump was
released on bond shortly after being de-
tained, Fulton County Sheriff’s Office re-
vealed his mugshot, which has made its
way around the internet as potentially the
most iconic photo of the former president
today. His partial bond payment permits
him to walk free pending trial.
This latest indictment is the fourth for
Trump and precedes several trials that will
occur during the course of late 2023 and
into early 2024. These trials are specu-
lated to be detrimental to the timeline of
his running as the Republican presiden-
tial candidate, but without a conviction
Trump is still eligible to run. He is currently
awaiting trials regarding his previous three
indictments. In all four of his in-
dictments, Trump has pleaded not guilty.
The details and most recent updates on the
four cases are as follows:
Hush money case: In late 2016 Trump’s
attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000
to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels, allegedly
as hush money in order to keep her silent
about a sexual encounter between her and
Trump. In order to maintain secrecy about
this exchange, the prosecution is claiming
Trump falsified business-financial records
between himself and Cohen in an attempt
to hide repayments towards the attorney.
Trump was charged with 34 felony counts
for the state of New York on corporate
record-keeping. He submitted himself to
the authorities, pleaded not guilty and was
released without posting bail. A trial for
the case is currently scheduled for March
2024.
Classified documents case: Prosecu-
tors state that in January 2021, Trump
and his team moved boxes from the White
House following his transfer of power to
the President-elect Joe Biden. The boxes
were hidden throughout Trump’s Mar-a-
Lago resort and were continuously moved
around in the estate. Investigators believe
that the timing of these relocations was
suspicious, especially since they were
around the times in which the National
Archives inquired about the state of the
documents. Recorded interactions show
that Trump revealed some of the classi-
fied government documents to unauthor-
ized individuals when he himself was no
longer in office. In 2022, an investigation
was opened in order to locate these miss-
ing records and 102 were recovered. Al-
though testimonies from both Trump and
his lawyers stated no ill intent, Trump was
charged with 32 felony counts — one for
each document that he refused to return
— of willful retention of national defense
information, six felony counts from ob-
struction-related crimes and two felony
counts of false statements, for a total of
40 counts for this case. Trump pleaded not
guilty during an attempt to arraign him in
June 2023. A trial for the case is currently
scheduled for May 2024.
Jan. 6 insurrection case: Following
Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential
election, Trump and his team formed a
campaign that voiced disapproval over
the results of the election. For weeks,
Trump and his team made claims about
voter fraud which many argue were an
attempt to invalidate and undermine the
official results. This came to a climax on
Jan. 6, 2021 when a mob of over 2,000
of Trump’s supporters stormed the United
States Capitol building in what many be-
lieve was an attempt to disrupt the trans-
fer of power between the former president
and the president-elect. Following an in-
vestigation containing several testimonies
from Trump’s aides and former Vice Pres-
ident Mike Pence, Trump was indicted
under a total of four felony counts of con-
spiracy and obstruction of an official pro-
ceeding. Many of those who were arrested
following the riot at the Capitol building
have either been imprisoned with criminal
charges or are still waiting for their tri-
als. A trial for Trump’s case is currently
scheduled for March 2024.
Georgia election interference case:
Throughout Trump and his team’s ex-
pressions about the 2020 election’s valid-
ity, they specifically targeted the state of
Georgia because it was a state in which
Biden narrowly won its electoral votes.
In a phone call with Georgia’s Secretary
of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump urged
him to “find the remaining votes” that
would secure the former president’s vic-
tory over Biden. Prosecutors have viewed
his actions to try proving his electoral vic-
tory as unlawful. Trump was charged with
a total of 13 counts of oath violation, false
statements and various counts of con-
spiracy. Following a 98-page indictment,
Trump surrendered himself to the Fulton
County Jail on Aug. 24, 2023. However,
as previously stated, he was released after
posting a partial bail. Although an official
date of the trial for this case has not yet
been selected, it is currently slated to be
in late 2024.
Despite the counts and charges im-
posed upon him, supporters of the former
president — and Trump himself — are
claiming that he is innocent. Trump and
his lawyers are pushing for the trials to be
postponed until after the 2024 presiden-
tial election, many speculate that they be-
lieve that Trump would be able to pardon
himself of his own federal crimes should
he secure victory and the presidency once
again. As all of the cases are still in devel-
opment, Trump’s guilt or innocence is not
yet confirmed.