Kara Sears
Former US President Donald Trump has been accused of breaking the law on multiple occasions. The accusations range from sexual assault to inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol.
In 2019, American author E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of sexual assault, saying he raped her in the mid-1990s. Trump denied the allegations, and Carroll sued him for defamation. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages. Trump has appealed the verdict.
In December 2022, the House Jan. 6 committee urged the Justice Department to consider prosecuting Trump for four different crimes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his behaviour during the Capitol insurrection. The committee cited statutes on obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and inciting or aiding an insurrection.
Trump has also faced legal troubles for his handling of classified documents, with federal prosecutors alleging he took them from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence. Additionally, he was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York to conceal damaging information before and after the 2016 election.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and claimed that some of the prosecutions are politically motivated.
What You'll Learn
Sexual assault and defamation
In 2023, a New York jury found former US President Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and defaming her. Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996. Trump denied the allegation, calling it "fiction", and said he had never met Carroll. However, a photo of them together from 1987 was published by New York magazine.
In 2019, Carroll sued Trump for defamation, saying his statements about her were false and damaged her reputation. In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages. Trump was also ordered to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages in 2024.
In addition to Carroll, at least 25 other women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including rape, kissing, and groping without consent. Trump has denied all the allegations.
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Inciting an insurrection
On January 6, 2021, thousands of supporters of former US President Donald Trump gathered at a "Save America" rally near the White House in Washington, DC, to challenge the result of the November 2020 presidential election. In a 70-minute address, Trump exhorted his supporters to march on Congress, where politicians had met to certify Democrat Joe Biden's win. The attack on the Capitol began moments after his speech.
Trump's words played a central part in his second impeachment, which lawmakers voted in favour of. The article of impeachment, or the charge, backed by the House of Representatives, stated that Trump:
> "repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the Presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by State or Federal officials."
In his speech, Trump said:
> "We won this election, and we won it by a landslide. We will stop the steal. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen... You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can't let that happen... If you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore. We are going to the Capitol... I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserts that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. The report details Trump’s inaction as his loyalists were storming the building, detailing the hours when he watched the violence on television but did nothing to stop it. In total, 187 minutes elapsed between the time Trump finished his speech and his first effort to get the rioters to disperse. That inaction was a “dereliction of duty,” the report states, noting that Trump had more power than any other person as the nation’s commander-in-chief.
The committee makes an emphatic point that security failures are not the primary cause for the insurrection:
> "The President of the United States inciting a mob to march on the Capitol and impede the work of Congress is not a scenario our intelligence and law enforcement communities envisioned for this country... Donald Trump lit that fire."
Trump was acquitted of a single impeachment charge that he incited a mob to storm the Capitol. However, Professor Garrett Epps of the University of Baltimore, said that in applying the law of incitement to the president's speech at the rally, it's an "agonisingly close case".
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Offering federal employees buyouts
On January 28, 2025, millions of federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with an offer to resign by February 6 in exchange for eight months of pay and benefits. This offer was framed by the Trump administration as a way to "make the government smaller and more efficient". However, the plan faced intense scrutiny and was blocked by a federal judge just before the deadline for workers to apply.
The buyout offer was sent to all federal employees except military personnel, those working in national security, immigration, and postal workers. More than 20,000 workers had accepted the offer before it was blocked. The offer included extended benefits and pay through September 30, 2025, for those who agreed to opt out by February 6.
Legal and government experts raised questions about the legality of the OPM buyout, warning that it may violate the Anti-Deficiency Act, which prohibits the government from spending more money than Congress has appropriated, and the Administrative Leave Act. The structure of the program raised concerns about incurring obligations beyond the provisions in the federal budget, potentially violating federal law.
Another legal concern was related to the Administrative Leave Act of 2016, which places strict limits on how federal employees can be placed on leave. The deferred resignation program, which effectively placed employees on leave with pay and benefits, was seen as potentially running afoul of this statute.
The Trump administration insisted that the offer would not result in any guaranteed payments beyond the current appropriations period. However, with the federal government's funding set to run out in mid-March, there was uncertainty about whether federal employees who opted to leave would truly receive the promised benefits.
Employee groups, Democrats, and experts warned federal workers not to accept the "deferred resignation" offer, with the largest federal employee union, AFGE, denouncing the buyouts. They argued that the Trump administration's goal was to create a toxic work environment and make agencies inhospitable to workers.
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Granting Elon Musk's DOGE access to sensitive data
During Donald Trump's second term as president, he has been accused of granting Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to sensitive data. Days after Trump's swearing-in, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted Musk and his team access to the federal payment system, which handles over $5 trillion in federal disbursements, including Social Security, Medicare, and tax refunds.
The Treasury Department's payment records are highly sensitive, as they include personal information from taxpayers, beneficiaries of federal programs, and contractors. This has raised concerns about the potential for misuse or mishandling of such data, especially given Musk's companies' substantial government contracts and his personal business interests in government contracts. Legal experts argue that granting DOGE access to this data potentially violates multiple federal statutes, including the Privacy Act of 1974, the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA), and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), as well as strict taxpayer privacy provisions under the Internal Revenue Code.
In response to these concerns, the Trump Administration has stated that Musk "can't do and won't do anything without our approval," emphasizing that any action taken by Musk's team would require White House consent. However, critics argue that inexperienced DOGE staffers, many of whom lack the necessary security clearances, are handling this sensitive information, which may create new vulnerabilities for hackers and foreign governments.
The granting of access to sensitive data to Musk's team is part of a broader pattern of Trump's second administration testing the boundaries of executive authority. Other actions include attempting to dismantle independent agencies, offering unprecedented federal employee buyouts, and clashing with courts and Congress over executive overreach.
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Mishandling classified documents
On June 9, 2023, an indictment charging former US President Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents was unsealed. The indictment included 37 felony counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, obstructing justice, and making false statements.
The indictment alleged that Trump had shared a classified map related to an ongoing military operation and improperly stored boxes containing classified documents at his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, including in a ballroom, bathroom, and shower. Federal prosecutors also accused Trump of defying requests from the Justice Department to hand over classified documents, making false statements to the FBI, and enlisting his aides to hide boxes of records.
Trump's valet, Walt Nauta, was also charged in the indictment and accused of being Trump's co-conspirator. Nauta was seen removing boxes at Mar-a-Lago on a surveillance camera. The indictment described how, days after receiving a subpoena from the Justice Department in May 2022, Trump's then-lawyer, Evan Corcoran, and another lawyer told Trump they needed to search Mar-a-Lago for any documents sought by the subpoena. However, Trump was resistant and asked questions such as, "What happens if we just don't respond at all?" and "Wouldn't it be better if we just told them we don't have anything here?"
Trump was indicted on two separate occasions for mishandling classified documents. The first indictment, issued in July 2023, was dismissed by a Trump-appointed judge, Aileen Cannon, who ruled that the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland violated the appointments clause of the US Constitution. The second indictment, issued in November 2023, was dropped by the Department of Justice due to a department policy that bars the prosecution of sitting presidents.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, Trump was charged with multiple counts of mishandling classified documents by taking them from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence after he left office.
Yes, Trump was charged with four criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.
The House Jan. 6 committee urged the Justice Department to consider prosecuting Trump for inciting or aiding an insurrection. Trump was impeached by the House but later acquitted by the Senate on a charge of incitement.
