Former President Donald Trump has been slammed with several allegations and legal challenges since leaving the White House on the heels of a contentious reelection effort.
Now, while the former reality star remains confident and ahead in the polls among GOP supporters in his latest presidential bid, the scales of justice have been mounting with evidence against him.
Leading some of those efforts to punish Trump for his wrongdoings are two Black women — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The Republican candidate filed a boatload of lawsuits opposing the 2020 election results after he was defeated by Democrat President Joe Biden in 2020. However, now he has found himself on the other side of the docket.
Among Trump’s troubles is the U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into his handling of top secret documents, and a congressional panel has recommended criminal charges against the former president and those who helped him push to overturn the election results.
In late March, Trump faced his first criminal indictment in New York, led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, over hush money he funneled to a porn star through his lawyer during his first presidential campaign to keep the details of his extramarital affair private.
On May 9, a New York jury awarded writer E. Jean Carroll $5 million after finding Trump liable for her sexual abuse and defamation after she accused him of rape in a department store in the mid-1990s.
Still, the arrogant billionaire who used his loud mouth and racist dog whistles to propel his campaign to become president has been able to avoid confinement behind jail or prison bars.
The Atlanta-area prosecutor Willis announced in April that her goal is to announce indictments against the embattled ex-president between mid-July to September. Willis’ ongoing probe seeks to hold Trump accountable for possible criminal meddling in Georgia’s 2020 general election.
Fulton County investigators have spent more than two years examining Trump’s attempt to interfere in the state’s election results. Biden narrowly won Georgia by a margin of 0.23 percent or 11,779 votes, a victory that had to be reaffirmed after three recounts.
Trump, his cronies and attorneys pressured election officials, raised questions about election security and claimed there was widespread election fraud perpetuated by Democrats to steal the election.
Inflamed by Trump, Georgia Republican legislators created special committees to review the election process eventually leading to an overhaul of the state’s voting laws.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close Trump ally, called him during an audit of the results to ask if he could disqualify mail-in ballots in counties with signature errors.
Graham disputed Raffensperger’s interpretation of the call that was witnessed by another state election official.
Trump also made a more obvious call to Raffensperger.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump reportedly said.
Graham was among the list of witnesses called into the special grand jury probe that lasted nearly a year. Attorney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were also summoned to testify. The prosecutor also subpoenaed false GOP electors who unofficially called the election for Trump in the state as it was being certified for Biden by Democratic electors in December 2020.
Georgia’s Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, other state party leaders, GOP donor Daryl Moody, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, GOP activists and businessmen David G. Hanna and Mark W. Hennessy were among the group of 16 electors who alleged signed the bogus documents in Trump’s favor, according to the Georgia Recorder.
The forewoman of the special grand jury indicated in a February interview with The New York Times that several indictments were recommended by the panel, although the final report of its findings remains sealed.
“It is not a short list,” Emily Kohrs told the Times.
The special grand jury is not authorized to issue indictments. Willis must now decide whether she will call for a regular grand jury with indictment powers. Reports show the report accuses some of the 75 witnesses that testified before the panel of perjury.
Trump is seeking to block the release of the report and have Willis disqualified from the case for what he calls the Democrat’s political bias against him. He also applauded state legislation that would create an oversight board to punish or remove local prosecutors for “willful misconduct.”
The former occupier of the Oval Office, who was known for his inflammatory tweets before he was banned from Twitter, predictably had a tantrum.
“The Racist District Attorney in Atlanta, Fani T. Willis, one of the most dangerous and corrupt cities in the U.S., is now calling the Georgia Legislature, of course, RACIST, because they want to make it easier to remove and replace local rogue prosecutors who are incompetent, racist, or unable to properly do their job,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he launched after his Twitter ban.
The New York attorney general started investigating Trump ahead of the 2020 election.
James started reviewing Trump’s businesses in 2019 to present a fraud case in civil court. She filed a lawsuit against the former president, his family and the Trump organization in 2022, which is set for trial in October. The former president has unsuccessfully fought to stop the lawsuit from going forward.
“As we have shown all along, we have a legitimate legal case against him and his organization, and we cannot be bullied or dissuaded from pursuing it,” James said in a January statement.
The lawsuit seeks to remove Trump and his three oldest children from their roles over the businesses, ban them from future leadership in New York and demand they repay $250 million they are accused of illegally obtaining.
It accuses the Trumps of falsely reporting the value of their assets, including Trump Tower in Manhattan and his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, to get loans and tax benefits. James also referred the findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Internal Revenue Service for criminal investigation.
“For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them. Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct,” James said in a statement.
Trump and his lawyers maintained that he didn’t do any wrong, the numbers were not intended to be exact, and the lenders “profited handsomely” from interest and fees.
“He remains resolute in his stance that he has nothing to conceal, and he looks forward to educating the Attorney General about the immense success of his multi-billion dollar company,” Trump’s attorney said in a statement.
Once again, Trump lashed out at the opponent. The Republican also accused James, who is a Democrat, of being politically and bias-motivated.
“Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General, Letitia James,” Trump wrote last September on Truth Social. “She is a fraud who campaigned on a “get Trump” platform.”
