It’s hard not to focus on Donald Trump’s four criminal indictments, but he also faces at least three times as many civil lawsuits that could do a fair amount of damage to his finances and reputation. Civil lawsuits that are likely to come to trial months before any of the state and federal criminal cases do. These cases run the gamut from lawsuits over business fraud or rape and defamation, to claims by law enforcement officers harmed during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The civil lawsuits only add further clutter to Trump’s 2024 calendar. The front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination must juggle court dates with campaign events, even as he desperately tries to get the MAGA cult to ante up for his growing attorneys’ fees.
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October IS “Set in stone”
The first of the civil lawsuits to go to trial is potentially the most financially damaging to the Trump crime family. New York Attorney General Letitia James is ready to go to trial this fall. James alleges that Trump, sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, and others repeatedly committed fraud between 2011 and 2021, by inflating Trump’s net worth and overvaluing properties in order to deceive banks and lenders. James also alleges that Trump also undervalued his properties’ value when filing his tax returns.
RELATED STORY: Trump’s overinflated real estate empire, massive fraud end in civil suit from New York AG James
James is seeking at least $250 million in damages. The lawsuit also seeks to bar Trump and his oldest children from serving as an officer of a company in New York, and permanently bar the Trump Organization from doing business in the state of New York. Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka was originally named in the lawsuit, but an appeals court later dropped her from the case, ruling that claims against her were too old. Ivanka Trump left the family business in 2017 to become a White House adviser.
The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, has said that the Oct. 2 trial date is “set in stone,” and has rejected requests by Trump’s lawyers for delays.
James already chalked up a significant victory against Trump in 2019 when she secured a court order settling a lawsuit filed by her predecessor. That suit claimed the Trump Foundation had misused funds to promote his presidential campaign and pay off his business debts. The settlement forced Trump to pay $2 million to eight legitimate charities, and shut down his “charitable” organization.
When James announced the lawsuit in September over property valuations, she accused the Trump family of perpetrating “the art of the steal.”
In a statement, James said:
“For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them. Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct. With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system.”
At the time, James also turned over her findings to federal prosecutors in New York and the Internal Revenue Service.
In the first of his two depositions in August 2022, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 440 times, according to NBC News.
If James is successful, her lawsuit could deal a devastating financial blow to the Trump Organization. The outcome could also spur state and federal prosecutors to consider criminal charges against Trump.
January’S DOUBLE threat
In January, two more civil lawsuits against Trump are scheduled to go to trial: one is quite familiar, but the other is lesser known. These trial dates could be pushed back, depending on the scheduling for Trump’s federal criminal case stemming from his third criminal indictment, brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith charging the former president with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In May, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Trump had sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and awarded her $5 million in damages for battery and defamation. This lawsuit was filed in November 2022 due to a recent New York law extending the statute of limitations for adult survivors of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits, and also involved defamatory remarks made by Trump after he left the White House.
Here’s an excerpt from Trump’s disastrous deposition in the case, which was played for jurors. He did not testify or even appear in court.
Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit against Trump is set to go to trial on Jan. 15 in federal court in Manhattan. This time, Carroll is seeking new damages of at least $10 million.
Coincidentally, Jan. 15 also brings the GOP Iowa caucuses—the first state nominating contest of the 2024 presidential campaign. So Carroll’s case will serve as a reminder of Trump’s reputation as a misogynist and sexual abuser just as the primary season kicks into gear.
The lawsuit being heard in January is based on Carroll’s original 2019 defamation case which cited disparaging remarks made by Trump while he was still president. That lawsuit got tied up in federal courts over legal questions as to whether Trump was acting as part of his presidential duties when he made his comments about Carroll. That would have granted Trump immunity from the lawsuit.
However, in July, the Department of Justice reversed course and decided that it “lacks adequate evidence” to shield the former president from Carroll’s original defamation suit, paving the way for trial.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, was allowed to amend the pending lawsuit to include comments Trump made at his much-criticized CNN “Town Hall” on May 10—just one day after the Manhattan jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll.
During the CNN “Town Hall,” Trump said, “I have no idea who this woman [is] … this is a fake story, made-up story.” He also called Carroll a “whack job.”
Trump just can’t control himself.
The lesser-known case, which has a Jan. 29 trial date, is a reminder that Trump has long been a con man extraordinaire, promoting get-rich-quick schemes.
The now-defunct Trump University promised to teach students Trump’s “secrets of success” in the real estate industry. The scam is notorious after 2018 brought a $25 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by students Trump duped into spending thousands of dollars on expensive seminars and the promise of mentorship from supposed real estate gurus.
But have you heard about the lawsuit involving videophones, which Trump promoted on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2011, as well as in promotional videos and appearances?
Let’s let Rachel Maddow explain the scam:
The federal lawsuit, filed in 2018 by four plaintiffs who chose to remain anonymous, names Trump, his three oldest children, and a Trump company as defendants for promoting two multi-level marketing companies, the biggest of which pushed videophones sold by ACN Opportunity, LLC.
As Insider notes, the lawsuit alleges that Trump took in $8.8 million for promoting the videophones between 2005 and 2015.
"The Apprentice," over the course of its years-long run, became Trump's savior, earning hundreds of millions of dollars from it over 16 years, the Times reported. When he got involved with ACN, the company became one of Trump's most lucrative and dependable streams of income.
At the time, Trump was running the Trump Organization along with his children. He and his family members appeared frequently in ACN's videos and magazines, shown to existing IBOs and potential recruits like the four plaintiffs. In these, Trump made "materially false and misleading statements" that made ACN seem like a solid investment, the lawsuit says.
"It's my absolute pleasure to speak to you on behalf of ACN." Trump said in the video where he claimed "100% confidence" in the company, according to the lawsuit.
"ACN has a reputation for success," Trump said in another. "Success that is really synonymous with the Trump name, and you can be a part of it."
Trump's support for ACN extended to its live events. At a 2015 conference, Trump walked out onstage to a cheering audience, the Wall Street Journal reported, to the tune of the O'Jays song "For the Love of Money," — part of which also doubled as the theme song for "The Apprentice."
Sidebar: “The Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett definitely bears much responsibility for throwing a financial lifeline to Trump that also turned the man into a myth by transforming the king of bankruptcy into a TV billionaire tycoon and potential presidential candidate.
As Maddow notes, ACN’s videophones could only connect with other ACN videophones. They were rendered obsolete with the introduction of Skype in 2006 and Apple’s iPhone FaceTime feature in 2010.
NBC News:
"From 2005 to at least 2015, defendants received millions of dollars in secret payments to promote and endorse ACN," the suit alleges, referring to a multilevel marketing company that was among the businesses the Trumps were endorsing. "In return, Donald J. Trump told prospective investors that '[y]ou have a great opportunity before you at ACN without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take,' and that ACN's flagship videophone was doing 'half-a-billion dollars' worth of sales a year.' Trump also told investors that he had 'experienced the opportunity' and 'done a lot of research,' and that his endorsement was 'not for any money.' Not a word of this was true."
The lawsuit originally claimed that the defendants had violated the RICO Act by engaging in “a pattern of racketeering activity,” but a judge dismissed the RICO claims while allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
KEEP THAT CALENDAR OPEN/TBD
Multiple civil lawsuits have been filed by law enforcement officers and House Democrats, accusing Trump of inciting the violent mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. No trial dates have been set for these lawsuits yet.
The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin noted Thursday that Smith, “for practical and legal reasons, chose not to indict Trump on charges of instigating the violence on Jan. 6, 2021.” She added that “Smith wants a solid, slimmed-down case without First Amendment complications, which could arise in focusing on Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ speech on the Ellipse.”
The civil lawsuits, however, do focus on Trump’s actions relating to the Jan. 6 attack, claiming damages because Trump was responsible for assembling the mob at the rally on the Ellipse, and then explicitly directing the crowd to walk to the Capitol. Without Trump, the suits allege, there would have been no assault on the Capitol.
So far, Trump’s lawyers have responded to two of the lawsuits—one brought by House Democrats and the other by two Capitol Police officers injured in the attack—by claiming Trump had immunity as president.
Insider wrote:
Trump's lawyers have argued that his time as president grants him immunity that shields him from civil liability in connection with his January 6 address at the Ellipse, where he urged supporters to "fight like hell."
A federal judge rejected Trump's bid to dismiss the civil lawsuits, ruling that his rhetoric on January 6 was "akin to telling an excited mob that corn-dealers starve the poor in front of the corn-dealer's home."
US District Judge Amit Mehta said Trump later displayed a tacit agreement with the mob minutes after rioters breached the Capitol when he sent a tweet admonishing then-Vice President Mike Pence for lacking the "courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country."
Trump’s lawyers have appealed Mehta’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Justice Department argues that "incitement of imminent private violence’ would not fall within the scope of a president's official duties,” per Reuters.
The appellate court has yet to issue a decision.
Just Security assembled a handy list of seven civil lawsuits filed against Trump relating to Jan. 6 and his months-long efforts to overturn the election results.
- Ten House Democrats are suing Trump, longtime attorney and fellow RICO indictee Rudy Giuliani, plus members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Those elected officials, represented by the NAACP, allege the defendants conspired to stop Congress from counting the 2020 electoral votes via the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol;
- Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California has sued Trump and others of violating federal civil rights laws, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, by conspiring to interfere with the counting of electoral votes;
- There are three civil lawsuits, filed against Trump by a total of 10 Capitol Police officers, claiming damages for injuries they suffered while protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6;
- Two Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officers filed a separate lawsuit for injuries they suffered as a result of Trump inciting the Jan. 6 riot;
- The NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund cites the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act in its lawsuit against Trump, the Trump campaign, and the Republican National Committee.
ON APPEAL/ANY DAY NOW
Finally, two noteworthy civil lawsuits have been dismissed, but are being appealed by the plaintiffs:.
- Former Trump attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen filed a federal lawsuit against Trump, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and federal prison employees and officials seeking $20 million in damages. Cohen alleges the U.S. government acted in retaliation by sending him back to prison for promoting a tell-all book;
- Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, sued him and two siblings for defrauding her and her brother out of millions of dollars, in an inheritance dispute going back to when her father—the former president’s brother—Fred Trump, Jr,. died in 1981.
Of course, all of these civil lawsuits might have been expected, given Trump’s litigious history. In 2016, USA Today reported that Trump had been involved in 4,095 lawsuits over three decades, both as plaintiff and defendant, ranging from “skirmishes with casino patrons to million-dollar real estate suits to personal defamation lawsuits.”