This is a long title, and it is the short version. The longer version would be something like "Within the next six month, someone in the Trump Administration, Trump Campaign, Trump Organization, or possibly an unofficial ally, will face a legal proceeding, including a search, arrest, indictment, guilty plea or guilty verdict, or sentencing; or a credible and substantial civil suit, or a sanctions by an internal Inspector General investigation", but that is a lot of words. Even that might fully explain all the possible legal troubles that might appear, and to what spectrum of people. Over five hundred people have been charged for storming the US Capitol on January 6th, whether they should be counted in our list of legal trouble for those involved with Donald J Trump is kind of a matter of debate, but it does fit in with a pattern, which is that there has been near constant legal trouble for Trump and his followers.
Since October of 2017, when Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were arrested, there has not been a gap longer than six months before someone new in Trump's orbit entered legal trouble, or someone already in legal trouble entered a new phase of their legal process. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pled guilty. A few months later, Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had his home and office raided, and after some resistance, pled guilty as well. Along with political operative Roger Stone, the four of these would move through the legal process until sometime in 2019. Most of these investigations sprung from the Robert Mueller investigation of Russian-involved election interference, which found insufficient legal grounds to charge anyone with accepting help from Russia, although it did find that the Trump Campaign welcomed such help.
Oh, and along the way there were lots of other little bumps. The name of George Nader, a businessman who helped set up a meeting in the Seychelles with Russian intelligence, might not be widely known, or the fact that he is now serving a ten year sentence for child pornography. I mean, normally "campaign advisor met with Russian spies and got busted for child pornography" would be a pretty big story, but it kind of fell through the cracks as far as Trump associates go.
There was a slight lull in Trump charges between early 2019 and late 2019, a few months where nothing new was going on. Then came Trump's impeachment, where it was found that he was trying to bribe the Ukrainian government by withholding aid unless they smeared his opponent. Trump was impeached in the house but acquitted in the senate, although the investigation would lead to other figures, such as Rudy Giuliani, being investigated. There would be other things going on in the meantime--- remember how Steve Bannon, Trump's "Chief Strategist" was indicted for yet another grift? Or when the local police had to come to the home of his campaign chief, Brad Parscale, for being drunk and threatening suicide? Or when Trump ally Jerry Falwell, Jr lost his job as president of the prominent evangelical university, Liberty University, because he had been paying a poolboy to have sex with his wife? Or when hoaxsters Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl were finally caught for arranging voter suppression robocalls? And these are just the lowlights here.
Anyway, skipping ahead, the next stage in Trump and companies legal challenges comes from a rather regular two-bit fraud: the Trump Organization apparently had two values for their properties: one they gave to tax collectors, the other they gave to insurers. From what I have read, an indictment in this is expected this week. Trump also is in personal trouble for repeated attempts to get officials in the state of Georgia to "find more votes" for him in the 2020 US Presidential Election. And of course, we don't know what legal jeopardy Trump might face from his repeated attempts to obstruct justice in the Mueller investigation.
One problem with the Mueller investigation that there were some parties, such as Louise Mensch, who made such far-fetched claims that people started to think that "nothing was happening". Because Trump wasn't going to get perp walked out of the White House, it seemed it had "fallen flat". And yet, this much legal trouble for a president and his associates is unprecedented, in both depth and width. In a normal situation, law enforcement is very reluctant to search the documents of lawyers. The fact that not one, but two, of Trump's lawyers have had their offices searched says something. (NB: I know that at least one person who is reading this, at some point, is going to whine it means Trump is being treated unfairly. He is not. End of question). Trump and associates legal problems seem to come in a full spectrum of grift and dumbness, and since the pattern has been going on for years, it seems likely we will have lawsuits and investigations going on for years, even if we don't include the many capitol rioters in our list.
Update:
- Allen Wesselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization, was indicted for various tax crimes on Thursday, July 1st, 2021
- Stephen Calk, a banker in Chicago, was convicted of offering bribes to Paul Manafort in an attempt to get a job in the Trump administration, on Tuesday, July 13th, 2021. (I know this is a marginal example, since he was never a member of the administration, but it demonstrates the widespread presence of fraud during the Trump campaign)
- A recent twofer: Paul Hodgkins, a Florida man who carried a Trump flag into the United States Capitol during the riot/insurrection, was the first rioter sentenced for a felony. He pled guilty, and was given an 8 month sentence. On the same day, Enrique Tarrio, Trump supporter and leader of a right-wing gang, pled guilty to stealing and burning a Black Lives Matter banner off a church in Washington, DC. These both happened on July 19, 2021. (Again, these people were not officially affiliated with Trump, but both are firm supporters, and were in the area to support his claims. I will not be going through every plea/sentencing in the Capitol Riots, but I wanted to make note of these ones).
- Tom Barrack, one of the leaders of Trump's inaugural committee, was arrested (along with two other men) for working as unregistered foreign agents. This story just came out, and details are still developing. July 20, 2021. (I had just finished the last paragraph with the hour, when this story broke. Even though it isn't clear whether or how much this is related to Trump, this, unlike the last two cases, is someone who held an official position in the Trump campaigns.)
- Igor Fruman, who together with Lev Parnas, worked with Rudy Giuliani to "persuade" the Ukrainian government to smear Joe Biden, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations for funneling foreign money to elections. To be honest, it is hard to tell how much this is related to Trump directly, but it is still a newsworthy guilty plea by someone close to Trump. September 10, 2021
- Sidney Powell,along with other lawyers who gained brief infamy for threatening to "release the Kraken" of election lawsuits, was sanctioned and ordered to pay around $200,000 in attorney's fees for filing frivolous election related lawsuits in Michigan, on September 9, 2021. This is hard to put a specific date on, because it is a civil lawsuit that will involve a slow movement through the legal system. Powell and associates also face possible disbarment.
- On November 8, 2021, Steve Bannon, formerly of the Trump Administration and Campaign, was indicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, and submit documents, about the January 6 riot. Bannon was previously indicted on an unrelated grift before being pardoned by Trump.
- This one perhaps falls under the penumbra of what constitutes legal trouble, but on February 14, 2022, Trump's long time external accounting firm, Mazars, announced that it will no longer represent him, and that any financial documents they have prepared for him are not reliable.
- On June 3, 2022, Peter Navarro, an advisor for Trump, was indicted on contempt of congress for refusing to appear in front of a committee investigating the January 6 attacks.
- Many things have happened, and I haven't updated all of them, but very significantly, on August 8, 2022, Trump reported that the FBI searched his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. This isn't going away.