 | | A supporter at Donald Trump's rally in Ohio last week.Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times |
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Author's note: It's been a year and a half since I came on board to help Lisa with the On Politics newsletter. It's been a thrill to chronicle this often-dizzying chapter in American history, and I've enjoyed receiving thoughtful feedback along the way from many of you via email. |
But this evening's newsletter will be my last. I'm heading off to write a book (though I will continue contributing regularly to The Times's music desk). Feel free to keep up with me on Twitter, or just drop me a line over email. |
You're in excellent hands going forward: Starting next week, the excellent Maggie Astor and Marc Tracy will take over the weekday newsletters. And Lisa will still be writing to you on Saturdays. Thanks, and goodbye for now! |
Donald Trump hit the campaign trail again last weekend, and he certainly seemed happy to be back in the spotlight. He bashed President Biden and undocumented immigrants, repeated his false claims of a stolen 2020 election, and hinted at a possible run for the presidency again in 2024. |
But as he contemplates a return to politics, he has a more immediate question to contend with: Will he be able to stay out of legal trouble? |
Weisselberg's was the first indictment to come out of a lengthy investigation that is being conducted by that office, and it could signal a turning point. If he agrees to testify against the former president, Weisselberg would be a powerful witness: He has long been one of Trump's closest financial advisers, and Trump once praised him for his willingness to do "whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line." |
After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump was impeached for a second time — something that hadn't happened to any previous U.S. president. If he were to be indicted on a criminal charge, that too would be a first for a former president. |
Ed Rollins, the chairman of the Great America PAC, which backed Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns but has not pledged to support him in 2024, said that Trump remained the presumptive front-runner for the Republican nomination. Still, he said in an interview, the threat of criminal prosecution "certainly makes it more difficult" for Trump to claim the party's mantle. |
"You have to be adding people, adding players, convincing people that, 'My loss was detrimental to the country,'" Rollins added. "People are going to be saying: 'Tell me why I should go back to you. Why should I put money into your campaign?'" |
And the Manhattan D.A.'s investigation is only one of a smattering of legal obstacles that Trump may need to overcome, as he considers a possible return. Here's a look at the many investigations and lawsuits that he's currently fighting — touching on his business dealings, accusations of misconduct toward women, and his role in drumming up the Capitol riot. |
Taxes and financial affairs |
Weisselberg was indicted as part of a long-running investigation by Cyrus Vance, the district attorney for Manhattan. At Weisselberg's arraignment this afternoon, prosecutors described a 15-year tax fraud scheme and leveled 15 felony counts against him, the Trump Organization and Trump Payroll Corporation. |
Vance has assembled a grand jury and is in the process of determining whether to bring charges against Trump; the body has already questioned a number of the former president's associates. Prosecutors have seized Weisselberg's personal tax and financial records, as well as those of his daughter-in-law. |
Letitia James, the New York attorney general, also opened a parallel investigation into whether the Trump Organization had manipulated property values to avoid taxes and gain other financial benefits. In May, James's office announced that its investigation, which began as a civil concern, had expanded into the criminal realm and would join Vance's inquiry. |
The former president's niece, the psychiatrist and author Mary Trump, has also sued him for fraud. Last year, she filed a suit claiming that Donald Trump had defrauded her out of tens of millions of dollars. She had claimed that when her father, Fred Trump Jr., died, she was prevented from accessing her stake in his will, and that her share was slowly depleted by Donald Trump and other family members. After Fred Trump Sr. died, the remaining Trump siblings sought to exclude Mary from the family holdings entirely, she said. |
She accepted a settlement in 2001, but after a 2018 Times investigation drew back the curtain on the family's finances, she filed a lawsuit accusing her uncle and his siblings of fraud and breaching fiduciary trust. The suit is still pending. |
The most high-profile lawsuit against Trump may be the one brought by E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and advice columnist, whose 2019 book accuses him of raping her in the 1990s. After Trump publicly denied the allegation and said Carroll was "not my type," she sued him for damaging her reputation and career. |
When Trump was still in office, the Justice Department sought to stanch the lawsuit by arguing that he was legally protected from defamation suits filed over things he said while executing his duties as president. A federal judge ruled against the administration, but the agency's lawyers appealed. |
Another woman, Summer Zervos, sued Trump in 2017, days before he took office, saying that he had damaged her reputation and her financial well-being when he denied her accusation of sexual assault. The dispute stems from her time as a contestant on "The Apprentice," when she claims he groped and kissed her against her will. |
Because he made the statement in question before becoming president, Trump's remarks aren't protected under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The suit is currently before the New York Court of Appeals. |
Members of Congress and Capitol Police officers have filed separate suits seeking to hold Trump accountable for his role in organizing and riling up the rioters who stormed the government building on Jan. 6. |
Representatives Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Eric Swalwell of California, both Democrats, have both filed suits arguing that Trump violated the so-called Ku Klux Klan Act, a Reconstruction-era law that makes it a crime for people to conspire to prevent elected officials from discharging their duties. |
In a different suit, a pair of Capitol Police officers who were injured on Jan. 6 are seeking damages from Trump for his part in the events of that day. The officers, James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, say in the suit that they were hit with bear spray, assaulted with flagpoles and crushed against a door by the attackers as they tried to fight them back. |
The attorney general of Washington, D.C., Karl Racine, has also opened an investigation into whether Trump's incendiary language rose to the level of criminal incitement. |
The Supreme Court upholds Arizona voting restrictions. |
The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld voting restrictions in Arizona and signaled that challenges to new state laws making it harder to vote would face a hostile reception from a majority of the justices. |
The decision was the court's first consideration of how a crucial part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 applies to voting restrictions that have a disproportionate impact on members of minority groups, and it was issued as disputes over voting rights have taken center stage in American politics. |
As Republican-controlled state legislatures increasingly seek to impose restrictive new voting rules, Democrats and civil rights groups have turned to the courts to argue that Republicans are trying to suppress the vote, thwart the will of the majority and deny equal access to voters of color. The Arizona decision suggested that the Supreme Court would not be inclined to overturn many of the state measures. |
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said courts should strike down voting restrictions only when they impose substantial burdens on minority voters that effectively block their ability to vote, and added that states had a legitimate interest in rooting out fraud. |
"Fraud can affect the outcome of a close election, and fraudulent votes dilute the right of citizens to cast ballots that carry appropriate weight," he wrote. |
In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the majority had done violence to the Voting Rights Act, a civil rights landmark. |
Sway: Biden's chief of staff on what he's worried about |
On today's episode, Kara Swisher spoke with Ron Klain, President Biden's chief of staff. She pressed Klain on whether the president's ambitious agenda and focus on bipartisanship will succeed — or whether infrastructure will be "Biden's Obamacare," costing Democrats their control of Congress in 2022. |
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