Article by Madeleine Büchner 7b and Clara Cullen 8b  (05.03.2026)

On 30 March 2023, Donald J. Trump was indicted by the New York State Supreme Court, with Judge Juan Merchan overseeing the proceedings. The investigation was led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg. The trial began on 15 April 2024, over a year after the original indictment.

The charges included 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The indictment accused the then former president of falsifying business records in connection to payments made during the final weeks of his 2016 election campaign, sent to an adult film star named Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford, professionally known as Stormy Daniels. The reason for this was that Clifford threatened to reveal a 2006 sexual encounter of hers with Trump. The case alleged that Trump's personal lawyer, Micheal Cohen, supposedly paid Clifford 130,000 USD in October in exchange for her silence. According to the prosecution, Trump then reimbursed the lawyer in installment payments using his company, the Trump Organisation, under a false retainer agreement after he won his presidential campaign. In addition to the payments made to Stephanie A. Clifford, Trump was also charged in connection with payments made to Playboy model Karen McDougal and a doorman to prevent scandals from breaking out during his 2016 presidential campaign. The Manhattan District Office charged him with low-level felony and 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, which carries a maximum of four years per count. The indictment stated that Trump orchestrated a “catch and kill” method from August 2015 to December 2017. The “catch and kill” method is when the perpetrator obtains (“catch”) information by buying it, so that they then have the rights to it which they then use to stop it from spreading to the public (“kill”).

In interviews, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg stated that it was “an election interference case” when talking about the cover-up story. Trump’s defense, which denied his having an affair with Daniels, went on to accuse Bragg of conducting a “witch hunt” against him. Trump’s legal team sought to have the judge on the case removed, alleging a conflict of interest. The judge declined removing himself from the case, saying “This Court is certain in its ability to be fair and impartial”.

Come November 2023, the president's legal team sent in an appeal to remove the case from state court, claiming the jury was unfair to him, and to instead host it in federal court. On 30 May 2024, the jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of felony. In July of 2024, during his presidential campaign, he was granted presidential immunity by the Supreme Court. Trump’s lawyers requested a delay in sentencing, which was granted by the judge. His ever-persistent legal team urged the judge to vacate the jury’s verdict and dismiss the case. On 3 September 2024, Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied an effort by Trump's lawyers to move the state case to Federal Court. The team of lawyers, which sought to overturn the conviction based on the Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity, appealed the judge's decision. Then, in a filing released on 3 December 2024, Trump’s legal team requested the conviction to be thrown out, arguing that the elected president should be protected from legal issues that might disrupt his presidency. Later on, in mid-December, the New York Judge, Juan Merchan, denied yet another attempt by Trump’s legal team to get the conviction thrown out. On 10 January 2025, the judge finally sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge, which meant that Trump would not face any prison time, probations, or fines, meaning he faced no consequences to his actions. Trump has gone on to vow to appeal the conviction in a social post.

 (2) On 27 July 2023, Special Counsel member Jack Smith charged Trump with three more counts. The trial was scheduled to begin on 20 May 2024, but it was postponed to July of the same year. It was held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon and Special Counsel Jack Smith as lead investigator. The charges included 32 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, three counts of withholding or concealing a document, two counts of false statements, and two counts of altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object or record. Donald J. Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury, making him the first ever U.S. president to face federal charges. The indictment accused Trump of taking highly sensitive national security documents when he left the White House at the end of his first term in January 2021, and resisting the government’s repeated attempts to retrieve them. Six other co-conspirators were named. According to the indictment, the National Archives and Records Administration repeatedly demanded that the then former president return all missing presidential records. In August 2022, FBI agents recovered more than 100 classified documents from Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. Then, on top of all of that, federal prosecutors alleged that there were papers stashed in odd locations throughout his Mar-a-Lago resort, including in a “ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room”. Prosecution claimed that the documents contained sensitive information on other countries' nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities to a military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in case of foreign attacks. Additionally, Trump’s aide Walt Nauta and his property manager Carlos de Oliveira were found to be co-conspirators in the case. The indictment also further claimed that the disclosure of these documents could have put the nation's security and safety at risk. Each count of making false statements can lead to five years in prison, while each count of willful retention of national defense information is punishable by up to 10 years. Each count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding documents, and altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing records could result in 20 years in prison. Trump's defense, as well as his co-conspirators, Nauta and de Oliveira, pleaded not guilty. In a motion filed in January 2024, Trump’s lawyers claimed they intended to prove the records were stored in secure locations at the Mar-a-Lago estate and that the case was “politically motivated and biased” and intended to harm Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. In March 2024, a federal judge denied the motion to throw out the case. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case, ruling that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution, according to a court filing on 15 July 2024. In late August, Jack Smith appealed Judge Cannon’s decision, saying that the judge made a mistake in dismissing the case because his appointment was valid, pointing to past precedent with other special counsels. In the aftermath of the 2024 election, Smith filed another motion to remove Trump as co-defendant from his appeal, pointing to DOJ policy that prohibits the prosecution of a sitting president.

Smith then requested the case against Trump be dismissed “without prejudice”, which would make it possible to refile the charges after Trump left office. The other two defendants, Nauta and de Oliveira, remained in the appeal. 

(3) On 1 August 2023, Donald J. Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury, which was revised on 27 August 2024. The proceedings were held in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The judge overseeing the proceedings was U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, as well as Jack Smith leading this investigation. Charges included two counts related to conspiring to obstruct and obstructing an official proceeding, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States government and one count of conspiracy to violate rights. Over two and a half years after the January 6 incident, Jack Smith indicted Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and disrupt the certification of the electoral vote so he could remain in power. The indictment alleged that in the two months between the November 2020 election and January 6, Trump spread claims of electoral fraud that he knew were false, as he had been told by multiple officials—both from the Justice Department and his campaign team—that he had in fact lost the election. It also alleged that he took part in a scheme involving false slates of electors and pressured Republican state officials, as well as former Vice President Mike Pence, to overturn the electoral results. Although federal prosecutors did not charge Trump with direct incitement of the Republican mob attack at the capitol, they claimed that Trump exploited the violence to try to change the election's outcome. In late August, Special Counsel Jack Smith issued a revised indictment to “respect and implement” the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. Smith kept the original charges but removed allegations that Trump had pressured Justice Department officials to support his claims of election fraud. The revised indictment reintroduced Trump as a “candidate for president of the United States in 2020” instead of the 45th president, as it initially described him. Trump’s defense pleaded not guilty to both the original and revised version of the indictment. In addition to this, Trump admitted to not respecting the lawyers who informed him that he had lost. The trial court judge in Washington, D.C., threw out a motion by Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case on the grounds that presidents should have absolute immunity from prosecution for actions taken while in office. In October 2023, the judge overseeing the case imposed a partial gag order (a judge's directive forbidding the public disclosure of information on a particular matter), on Trump, banning him from making public statements attacking witnesses and officials involved in the case, stating concerns that his comments could spur violence from his supporters. Trump then argued that the order violated his First Amendment rights. An appeals court panel in December upheld the order but revised it to allow statements critical of Jack Smith, as well as witnesses in some specific contexts. In January 2024, the full federal appeals court rejected Trump’s bid to lift the order, which meant appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court was his last choice. The case was dismissed on 25 November 2024, with Trump set to re-enter the White House, Jack Smith moved to dismiss the case, complying with the DOJ policy that the Constitution protects sitting presidents from prosecution. Judge Chutkan approved Smith’s request to dismiss the case without prejudice, which would allow the charges to be revisited after Trump’s presidency. Before resigning as special counsel ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Smith made a portion of his investigation public. In a report, Smith and his team concluded that the evidence would have been enough “to obtain and sustain a conviction”.

Donald Trump repeatedly denies sexually assaulting and harassing women since as long as the 1970s. These women have all stated to multiple news sources that they have been sexually harassed by Trump. The last two say they have been sexually assaulted by him.  Trump’s explanation is and has always been “women who took money to talk badly about him”.

This is a list of all 18 women who claim to have been sexually harassed and/or assaulted by Trump: 

- Jessica Leeds says that Trump groped her on a plane in the 1970s. Trump has thoroughly denied this statement many times.

- Kristin Anderson told her friend Brad Trent that in the early 1990s, at the old China Club bar in New York, Trump slid his hand up her skirt and grabbed her p****. (note: it said this in the statement)

- Jill Harth claims that in 1992, with her then-boyfriend, she was having dinner with Trump and he tried to put his hands between her legs. A month later he tried to kiss her at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida. She says that she has moved on from it and hopes that Trump has become a better man.

- Cathy Heller says that she put her hand out to Trump to shake it, and he tried to kiss her but she pulled away, and he said “Oh, come on”, and tried to kiss her again and got near her lips. This happened in 1997, in front of her family.

- Temple Taggart McDowell claims that at a pageant in 1997 Trump kissed her right on the lips.

- Karena Virginia claims that Trump approached her at the US Tennis Tournament in 1998, and touched her arm and then groped her breast. She says that she flinched and he responded with “don’t you know who i am?”.

- Bridget Sullivan says Trump walked into the pageant while all the contestants were naked. A couple years later, when asked for an interview, she declined and said “I’ve said all I have to say”.

- Tasha Dixon says that in 2001 Trump went into a dress rehearsal while the contestants were half naked at a pageant. Apparently they were told to “fawn all over him”. She was 18 at the time.

- Mindy McGillivray claims that in 2003 that while she was working as a photographer's assistant, Trump grabbed her butt.

- Rachel Crooks told the New York Times that in 2005, when she first met Trump, he shook her hand and kissed her on both cheeks, then the mouth outside of an elevator in Trump Tower.

- Natasha Stoynoff claims that Trump “inappropriately touched her” in 2005 when she was at Mar-a-Lago for an interview.

- Jennifer Murphy says that Trump had kissed her on the lips in 2005 after a job interview. 

- Jessica Drake says that she met Trump in 2006 at a golf tournament; she walked the course with him and was then invited to his hotel suite, and brought two other women with her as she didn’t feel right going alone. She said that when they had entered the room he grabbed them all in a tight hug and -without permission- kissed each of them in turn. She then continued by claiming that when she and the other women had left, she got a call from Trump asking her to come back and have dinner with him; he then asked her “What do you want? How much?”.

- Ninni Laaksonen says that Trump stood right next to her and suddenly squeezed her butt.

- Summer Zervos says Trump kissed her twice during a meeting in Trump Tower in New York, later having groped and kissed her in a California hotel room. She said “He grabbed my shoulder and began kissing me aggressively and placed his hand on my breast,” at a 2016 October news conference. 

- Cassandra Searles claims to have been sexually harassed by Trump in 2013; she said that he had continually grabbed her a** and had invited her to his hotel room.

- E. Jean Carroll claims she had been sexually assaulted by Trump in 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.

- Amy Dorris claims she had been sexually assaulted by Trump in 1997, where he had groped her body and shoved his tongue into her mouth outside of a bathroom.

Trump has been heard saying “You know I’m attracted to beautiful- I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.” on tape.

Sources:

Part 1:

Indictment file (hush money case): https://manhattanda.org/district-attorney-bragg-announces-34-count-felony-indictment-of-former-president-donald-j-trump/

PBS article: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-guide-to-the-criminal-cases-against-donald-trump/

Definition of catch and kill method: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol121/iss2/2/

Alvin L. Bragg interview: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial-stormy-daniels.html

“Witch hunt” statement: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/nyregion/trump-hush-money-trial-stormy-daniels.html

Trump truth social post: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113804764963563444

Trump denies Stormy Daniels affair: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-white-house-expected-to-be-asked-about-stormy-daniels-russia-and-gun-violence-marches

Removing judge off case because off conflict of interest: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65182727 

Appeal to remove case from state court to federal court: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wgzlqwnp2o + https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFs/press/PDFs/People%20v.%20DJT%20Clayton%20Decision.pdf

Juan Merchan: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65182727

Juan Merchan involvement: https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFs/press/PDFs/People%20v.%20DJT%20Clayton%20Decision.pdf

Indictment for Federal case: https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf

37 charges of the Federal case: https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1181340894/trump-indictment-classified-documents-charges

Mar-a-lago FBI raid: https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/LSB/PDF/LSB10810/LSB10810.4.pdf

Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira: https://www.justice.gov/storage/US-v-Trump-Nauta-De-Oliveira-23-80101.pdf

Motion filed by Trump: https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/LSB/PDF/LSB10810/LSB10810.4.pdf

  Jack Smith appealing Judge Cannon: https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/0e08ef053e15296d/942b5d6c-full.pdf

Indictment file: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

 Revised Indictment statement: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/08/27/trump-dc-indictment-new-charges-jan-6/ 

 January 6th charges https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191493880/trump-january-6-charges-indictment-counts

Former vice president Mike Pence https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/26/trump-pence-call-january-6-book

Trump trying to overturn election results https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf

Trump claiming the election was rigged https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/17/politics/trump-election-results-decision

Trump arguing his first amendment right https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-argues-first-amendment-protects-him-from-insurrection-cases-aimed-at-keeping-him-off-ballot

The report in which jack smith says there was enough evidence for a conviction https://www.axios.com/2025/01/14/trump-jan-6-report-jack-smith

Sources, part 2:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/15/donald-trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations-cathy-heller

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/365533-trump-accuser-lobbied-to-be-his-makeup-artist-months-before-her-sex/

Picture source:

„Milliardär spendet offenbar 50 Millionen Dollar an Trumps Kampagne“. tagesschau.de, 27. Juni 2024, www.tagesschau.de/ausland/amerika/50-millionen-spende-trump-100.html. (Last accessed 05.04.2026)