Former US President Donald Trump said on Monday that FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The focus of the investigation was not immediately clear, and law enforcement officials had no comment by mid-morning Tuesday. Here’s a look at some of the probes and lawsuits Trump is facing.
Documents are missing
The US National Archives and Records Administration notified Congress in February that it had recovered about 15 boxes of White House documents from Trump’s Florida home, some of which contained classified material.
The Democratic-led oversight committee in the U.S. House said at the time it was expanding an investigation into Trump’s actions and asked the archives for additional information. Trump previously confirmed that he had agreed to return certain records to the archives, calling it an “ordinary and routine process.”
The Capitol Riot
A congressional panel investigating the January 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol is working to build a case that he broke the law in trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Vice President Liz Cheney has said the committee could make multiple referrals to the Justice Department to seek criminal charges against Trump, who accuses the panel of conducting a bogus investigation.
LOOK | Trump is not the victim of a conspiracy, says Republican strategist:
FBI raid on Trump home likely to galvanize supporters, political strategist says
The FBI raid on former US President Donald Trump’s private home in Florida is likely to galvanize Trump loyalists and push him early in the next presidential election, says Rick Wilson , co-founder of the Lincoln Project.
In a March 2 court filing, the committee detailed Trump’s efforts to persuade his Vice President, Mike Pence, to reject the electoral rolls of Democrat Joe Biden, who won the election, or to delay the recount. ‘these votes in Congress.
Trump’s efforts likely violated a federal law that makes it illegal to “corruptly” obstruct any official proceeding, or attempt to do so, David Carter, a federal judge in California, said earlier this year.
In the March 2 filing, the committee said it was likely that Trump and others conspired to defraud the United States. This law criminalizes any effort by two or more persons to interfere with governmental functions “by deception, craft, or deception.”
In addition to Trump’s efforts to pressure Pence, the committee cited his attempts to convince state election officials, the public and members of Congress that the 2020 election was stolen, despite several allies telling him it was not. there was evidence of fraud.
Democrats said at a June committee hearing on Jan. 6 that Trump, a Republican, raised about $250 million from his supporters to advance in court fraudulent claims that he won the election but ran much of the money elsewhere.
That raises the possibility he could be charged with wire fraud, which prohibits obtaining money under “false or fraudulent pretenses,” legal experts said.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump rallied in support of him after Monday’s FBI sting. Some legal experts worry about the anger that could be unleashed if Trump is ever indicted. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images)
The committee cannot charge Trump with federal crimes. That decision must be made by the Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland. It is known that a search warrant was obtained in connection with John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who the committee has heard was instrumental in finding pro-Trump voters to replace those of Biden.
Biden did not receive advance notice of a raid on Trump’s Florida home, the White House said Tuesday, stressing that the Justice Department conducts independent investigations.
“The president was not briefed, he was not aware,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “No one in the White House was notified,” he added.
While the Justice Department has a decades-old policy that a sitting president cannot be impeached, there is no such protection for former presidents or presidential candidates.
Lawrence Douglas, a law professor at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, recently told CBC News that the committee has presented “pretty strong evidence” of “a conspiracy to defraud the United States and … obstruction corruption of an official procedure”. .”
LOOK | Enforcement of the federal warrant usually results in charges, the prosecutor says:
Federal warrant enforcement ‘very serious,’ prosecutor says after Trump home raid
Former US federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti says the execution of a federal warrant, such as the one carried out at the home of former US President Donald Trump, is extremely serious and usually leads to charges.
Legal experts who spoke to Reuters as well as Douglas, who predicted in a book that Trump would not quietly concede an election loss, said the stakes are enormously high.
However, prosecuting a candidate could have political implications and spark the kind of anger that was exposed on January 6, 2021. Trump, as he has done after being acquitted in the Senate after two impeachments, could claim a vindication if a prosecution is unsuccessful.
Georgia pressure campaign
A special grand jury was selected in May to consider evidence in a Georgia prosecutor’s investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to influence the state’s 2020 election results.
The investigation centers in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021.
Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump’s election defeat, according to a publicly released audio recording.
Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three of Georgia’s criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit voter fraud, criminal solicitation to commit voter fraud and willful interference with election duties.
GUARD l Breach of duty is not a criminal charge, but other charges could remain:
Expert weighs in on political and legal issues at Jan. 6 committee hearings
American law professor Lawrence Douglas says the stakes for bringing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump are very high, even if there is strong evidence.
New York probes
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has been investigating whether Trump’s family real estate company misrepresented the values of his properties to get favorable bank loans and lower tax bills, though after two top lawyers who had led the investigation resigned in February, the investigation’s future was thrown into doubt.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated real estate values.
Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, agreed to testify in the investigation that will begin on July 15.
Trump was in New York on Monday and not at his Florida estate, but it is unclear whether his impeachment is imminent or has already taken place.