Key Probes against Ex President Donald Trump, Who Faces Arrest

Washington: Donald Trump claims he will be arrested Tuesday over a hush-money case allegedly involving a porn star, the latest legal peril facing the former US president as he seeks a return to the White House.

With the 2024 campaign set to gain steam later this year, the rebellious Republican billionaire is portraying himself as a politician besieged by angry Democrats and prosecutors filing multiple cases against him in a bid to derail his presidential candidacy.

"There was no crime!!!" Trump insisted Monday on his Truth Social platform as he ranted against the district attorney overseeing the latest case, which may see a former US president indicted for the first time ever.

Here are details of the key investigations weighing on the one-term president:

Stormy hush money?

Prior to the 2016 election, intense behind-the-scenes negotiations occurred to prevent the leak of an embarrassing revelation that Trump had a relationship with Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels, in 2006, a year after he married his current wife, Melania.

Late in the campaign, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her pledge of confidentiality.

After US media broke the story, Cohen cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges of tax and bank fraud, as well as violating federal campaign financing laws.

Cohen testified that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen for his payment to Daniels, which prosecutors said amounted to an undeclared campaign gift to Trump, in violation of election financing laws.

Now Cohen has testified before the current grand jury, a citizen panel which examines evidence presented by prosecutors to decide if a charge is warranted. Daniels has met with the prosecutors, her lawyer said.

Trump too was invited to testify -- a strong sign an indictment against him looms, experts say. But he declined to appear.

The payment to Daniels, if not properly accounted for, could result in a misdemeanour charge for falsifying business records.

That might be raised to a felony if the false accounting was intended to cover up a second crime, such as a campaign finance violation, ex-prosecutors have told AFP.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has not publicly indicated whether it will indict the former president.

Incited Capitol attack?

An independent prosecutor, Jack Smith, will decide whether or not to charge anyone alleged to have "unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power" after the 2020 election or during certification by Congress of the results.

On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol seeking to stop that certification.

Just before the assault, Trump delivered a fiery speech nearby urging the crowd to "fight like hell."

In explosive hearings separate from the Justice probe, lawmakers argued Trump knew he lost the election yet pressed fake claims of fraud.

They also presented evidence of alleged misconduct by Trump leading up to the insurrection, including accusations he attempted to co-opt government departments into his bid to overturn the election results.

Federal prosecutors have obtained convictions of or guilty pleas from more than 500 people for participating in the uprising, but it remains unclear if Trump will face charges for any plotting or fomenting of the Capitol attack.

Secret documents at home

Smith will also decide on any charges in the ongoing investigation into classified documents found at Trump's Florida home -- and over possible obstruction of the probe.

An FBI search of Trump's palatial Mar-a-Lago residence last August turned up classified documents taken when he left office in early 2021.

The raid was triggered by a review of records which Trump finally surrendered to authorities in January 2022.

The Justice Department began investigating after the 15 boxes were found to contain national defense information, including 184 documents marked as confidential, secret or top secret.

Other probes

Trump is separately being investigated for pressuring officials in the southern swing state of Georgia to overturn Biden's 2020 victory -- including a taped phone call in which he asked the secretary of state to "find" enough votes to reverse the result.

The top prosecutor in Georgia's Fulton County, Fani Willis, has assembled a special grand jury that could see Trump facing conspiracy charges connected to election fraud and interference.

Last month the grand jury forewoman, in unusually public remarks, said the 23-member panel had recommended indictments of multiple people, including "certainly names that you would recognize." She did not say whether Trump was among them.

In New York, meanwhile, the state attorney general Letitia James has filed a civil suit against Trump and three of his children, accusing them of fraud by overvaluing assets to secure loans and then undervaluing them to minimise taxes.

James is seeking $250 million in penalties as well as banning Trump and his children from serving as executives at companies in New York.

Original News: World News | Agence France-Presse

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