A Georgia grand jury indicted former president Donald Trump Monday, bringing 41 charges against him and 18 other defendants for conspiracy in trying to steal the state’s electorial votes from President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she would seek a trial date “within the next six months.”
They’ll have to get in line. Trump is currently facing five major court cases over the next year, which he’ll have to fit in around his 2024 presidential campaign. His legal team has been attempting to dismiss, countersue, or delay all of these court trials indefinitely or at least until after the 2024 presidential election.
Despite his legal woes — and, some experts have said, possibly in part because of them — Trump remains the GOP presidential front-runner with 54% support from GOP voters in a recent Real Clear Politics average of national polls, easily besting the next in line, Gov. Ron DeSantis, with 13%.
Here’s how Trump’s schedule looks at the moment.
Sometime in the next six months: Georgia conspiracy indictments
Date: Undecided. Willis told reporters she would like a trial date for the Trump case “within the next six months,” emphasizing RICO defendants get prison – not probation, and said she would like to try all 19 defendants together.
Charges: The Georgia grand jury’s 98-page indictment accuses Trump and his allies, including former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, of a coordinated plan to have state officials after the 2020 election award the state to Trump despite Biden’s win, focusing on a behind-the-scenes pressure campaign on state election workers and harassment of a poll worker Trump falsely accused of fraud.
Trump and the other defendants have until Friday, Aug. 25, to surrender or face arrest, Willis said.
Potential penalties: The defendants have been charged with criminal conspiracy to commit election fraud under the state’s RICO law, a provision that, at the federal level, was created to target organized crime. In Georgia, those crimes carry a minimum five-year prison sentence and up to 20 years.
Aug. 23, 2023, Milwaukee: First Republican presidential primary debate
The first Republican presidential primary debate will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
Seven candidates have said they meet the qualifications to attend, as of early August: Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum.
Trump has not yet committed to participating in the debate, but he said he’ll announce his intentions next week. In June, he threatened to skip the event, claiming on his social media site Truth Social that Fox News, one of the event’s sponsors, ignored his campaign events.
DeSantis said in an interview in July with Fox News host Will Cain that he will be on the debate stage regardless of whether Trump joins.
Oct. 2, 2023, New York City: New York Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud lawsuit
Date: Oct. 2, 2023
Charges: In September 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump — and his children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, and senior members of the Trump Organization — of massive fraud in a civil lawsuit after a three-year inquiry into his family business.
James said Trump “falsely inflated his wealth by billions of dollars” to enrich himself and his family and mislead banks, insurers and other financial institutions. The lawsuit seeks to effectively shutter the former president’s namesake business, the Trump Organization. James described an “astounding” pattern of fraud that allegedly represented a “violation of the law.”
One example given was Trump’s estate in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, which was valued as high as $739 million but which the attorney general said was closer to $75 million as the higher figure was “based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed and sold for residential use,” which was not true.
Trump gave a deposition for the case in April, where he dismissed it as “ridiculous.”
Potential penalties: The lawsuit seeks $250 million in penalties and a permanent ban on the Trumps from running businesses in New York. It also attempts to block Trump and the Trump Organization from purchasing commercial real estate in New York for five years.
The civil case also could lead into a later criminal one. James announced she had referred some of the allegations to the U.S. Attorney’s office and the IRS for possible criminal investigation. In May, James announced that her office was partnering with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” James spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement first reported late Tuesday by CNN. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan (district attorney).”
Jan. 2, 2024, Washington, D.C.: Jan. 6 trial
Date: Jan. 2, 2024 (proposed, not decided yet)
Charges: A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Trump on four counts related to the Jan. riot: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Special counsel Jack Smith has proposed a Jan. 2 trial date for Trump as “an appropriately speedy trial in the public interest and in the interests of justice.”
Trump’s lawyers have denounced the proposal, accusing the prosecutor of election interference and playing “political games.”
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan will ultimately set the schedule for the trial. She has not yet announced one, but Trump’s recent attacks against her on Truth Social may get him a speedier trial than he’d like.
“I intend to ensure the orderly administration of justice in this case as I would with any other case,” Chutkan said during a hearing Friday. “The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool or intimidate potential witnesses, the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial to ensure a jury pool from which we can select an impartial jury.”
Potential penalties:
- Conspiracy to defraud the government: Up to five years in prison.
- Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding: Up to 20 years in prison.
- Obstructing an official proceeding: Up to 20 years in prison.
- Conspiracy against rights: Up to 10 years in prison, unless the crime involves murder, rape or kidnapping (successful or attempted), in which case the maximum punishment is the death penalty.
Each conviction could be sentenced with consecutive terms but generally federal sentences are lower than the maximum penalty. There are no mandatory minimum sentences for any of the charges.
Jan. 15, 2024, New York City: E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit
Date: Jan. 15, 2024
Claim: In May of this year, a federal jury found Trump liable in a civil case for sexual abuse and defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll, who said he sexually assaulted her in a New York City department store in 1996 and disparaged her character when he lied about it afterward. The jury awarded her $5 million in damages. Trump has appealed the verdict.
Trump said during a CNN town hall the very next day that Carroll was a “whack job” who told a “made-up story.”
Based on that, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan permitted Carroll to amend her defamation lawsuit to seek additional damages.
Potential penalties: Carroll is asking the court for at least $10 million more.
Jan. 15, 2024: Iowa GOP presidential caucuses
Also on Jan. 15, Iowa’s Republicans will choose their presidential candidate in the first caucus in the U.S. for the 2024 presidential election. In caucuses, delegates are chosen by the political party to the party’s national convention where they will approve the nominee. The next GOP caucuses and primaries (which are votes held by state and local governments) will be:
- Jan. 23: New Hampshire primary (not finalized)
- Feb. 8: Nevada caucus
- Feb. 24: South Carolina primary
- Feb. 27: Michigan primary
- Mar. 2: Idaho caucus
March 5: Super Tuesday primaries
On Tuesday, March 5, about a third of all the delegates to the presidential nominating conventions will be named, a strong indicator of the eventual nominee for each party. Super Tuesday includes primaries for the GOP and Democrats in 14 states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.
The rest of the states’ primaries and caucuses will run through June 4. Florida’s primary for both parties is on Mar. 19.
May 20, 2024, Fort Pierce, Florida: Classified documents case
Date: May 20, 2024
Charges: After FBI agents seized hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in August last year, Trump was indicted on 37 counts, including willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice and concealing documents. This came more than a year and a half after Trump left the White House.
Prosecutors asked for a December trial, Trump’s lawyers argued it should happen after the 2024 election.
“We need to set a timetable,” U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon said in July. “Some deadlines can be established now.” She scheduled the trial to begin May 20 in Fort Pierce.
Potential penalties: According to Vox, Trump may be facing:
- Willful retention of defense information: Up to 10 years
- Conspiracy to obstruct justice: Up to 20 years
- Withholding documents from an official proceeding: Up to 20 years
- Concealing documents from an official proceeding: Up to 20 years
- Concealing documents from federal investigators: Up to 20 years
- Scheme to conceal: Up to 5 years
- Making false statements to the US government: Up to 5 years
- Altering, destroying, or hiding something the government is seeking: Up to 20 years
The maximum sentences are unlikely.
March 25, 2024, New York City: Hush-money payments case
Date: March 25, 2024.
Charges: Trump has been charged with 34 counts of allegedly falsifying business records at his eponymous company to hide hush money payments his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, arranged to silence porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal before the 2016 election.
The Trump Organization paid Cohen in the form of legal fees, the indictment said, and Cohen has testified that 11 reimbursements went to him to silence Daniels for $130,000 and McDougal for $150,000 over their claims of having had sex with Trump. Trump pleaded not guilty.
Potential penalties: If convicted, the maximum sentence for the felony would be four years in prison, but first-time offenders typically get shorter sentences or probation.
July 15-18, 2024, Milwaukee: Republican National Convention
The 2024 Republican National Convention, where delegates will select the party’s nominees for president and vice president, is scheduled to be held July 15-18 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Contributors: John Fritze, USA TODAY
