Donald Trump has dropped not one, but two pieces of litigation in a major New York lawsuit, just a few days after he was accused of "abuse." Read on for the full sensational story, and to find out what Trump still stands to lose. All dollar amounts in US dollars. 

In a bombshell announcement in September 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Donald Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization of massive fraud. 

Following a three-year inquiry into the company's finances, James filed a civil lawsuit alleging that Trump "falsely inflated his wealth by billions of dollars," hugely overvaluing his assets when asking for loans but undervaluing them when filing taxes. Although Trump can't go to jail for losing a civil lawsuit, James has referred her findings to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. These prosecutors could open a criminal investigation, which could end in a possible jail sentence if Trump is found guilty of bank fraud. 

The former president's three oldest children Donald Jr, Ivanka, and Eric – each of whom worked for the Trump Organization – have also been named in the lawsuit. According to James, it's "with the help of Donald Jr, Eric, Ivanka, and other defendants" that Trump perpetrated his crimes.

James announced that "significant evidence" had been found that Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and Ivanka are guilty of falsifying records, after her team submitted a 160-page court filing in January 2022.

And more potential evidence surfaced when it was revealed that Trump registered a new company called Trump Organization II LLC on the same day that James filed her lawsuit, the Attorney General has claimed.

James urged an independent monitor to be appointed to investigate whether the company was established as part of an attempt to offload assets from the original Trump Organization. The new business, which is listed in New York, was registered by a Delaware entity that was itself established less than a week before.

The New York Times received word from three sources "with knowledge of the matter" that James, who launched her investigation back in 2019, rejected an offer to settle the case. Announcing her lawsuit against Trump, James declared: "Mr Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal, but today, that conduct ends. … There aren't two sets of laws for people in this nation: former presidents must be held to the same standards as everyday Americans." 

James' lawsuit seeks a colossal $250 million in penalties – but this might be the least of the Trumps' worries. It's also seeking a permanent ban on the Trumps operating businesses in New York, as well as a ban on Donald or the Trump Organization buying commercial real estate in New York for five years. 

James subsequently asked for the investigation to be sped up. According to Reuters, she asked to set a trial date of October 2023, claiming the Trumps are still breaking the law. "Since we filed this sweeping lawsuit," James said in a statement, "Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have continued those same fraudulent practices and taken measures to evade responsibility." A New York judge has now confirmed the proposed October trial date. 

James also urged a judge to prevent Trump from moving any assets to the new company. That's because the plaintiffs could find it difficult to uphold a fine if the Trump assets are held by an entity that hasn't been named as a defendant. Trump lost a bid to move the case to a different court but was quick to take alternative legal action... 

Judge Arthur Engoron granted James' request for a monitor – which must be paid for by the Trump Organization – to oversee the business' accounts and financial disclosures. He also prohibited the company from "selling, transferring or otherwise disposing of any non-cash asset" that was listed in Trump's most recent financial statement without the court's knowledge and permission. 

In a post on his social network Truth Social, Trump described the move as "communism come to our shores." He subsequently made a bid to delay the "ridiculous" appointment of the independent watchdog. The Trump Organization requested a stay – a suspension of the requirement to monitor the business while it pursues an appeal.

On 9 November 2022, however, associate justice Angela Mazzarelli of the New York State Appellate Division (pictured) rejected the stay. Engoron gave both sides a deadline of 10 November to put forward three candidates for the role, and on 14 November the retired federal judge Barbara Jones was appointed after being proposed by representatives for both Trump and James.

But that wasn't the end of the matter. On the very same day, Trump filed yet another temporary injunction in a Florida court to delay the appointment of Jones – a motion that was ultimately unsuccessful. Federal judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled against the injunction in December, describing the litigation as having "all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous" in an eight-page court order.

He also warned that Trump's legal team could face sanctions over their repeated attempts to file questionable lawsuits – a warning repeated by Judge Engoron after rejecting recent attempts by both Donald and Ivanka to dismiss the proceedings. Engoron has also slammed Trump's claims that the lawsuit is "a witch hunt," describing the argument as "invalid."

Trump filed his own lawsuit against James in November 2022. The former POTUS accused James of "extraordinary wrongdoing" and waging "a war of intimidation and harassment" against him. He'd previously claimed that the Attorney General, a Democrat, is hounding him for political reasons, adding that James wants to destroy him "personally, financially, and politically." 

The civil suit sought an unspecified amount in damages, according to reports. The 41-page lawsuit, which was filed at Florida State Circuit Court in Palm Beach, also aimed to block James from accessing documents from a Florida trust that partially owns the Trump Organization. 

Trump announced the lawsuit in a post on Truth Social on 2 November last year, accusing "Peekaboo" James of attacking his "great and upstanding" business while letting crime rates in her jurisdiction of New York skyrocket. His lawyers claimed that James' ongoing investigation is "contrary to both the laws of New York and Florida," with the lawsuit naming her "individually and in her official capacity as Attorney General of the State of New York." 

The suit also suggested that James began "amping up her attacks on President Trump to rev up her political base" ahead of the midterm elections. According to James' office, meanwhile, Trump's lawsuit is an attempt "to shield the key documents governing the structure of his business conglomerate and ownership of his business assets from review." 

And it seems as though the judge overseeing the case thought it was similarly spurious. US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks recently fined Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba (pictured) almost $1 million, ordering them to pay a joint $938,000 to the defendants in another case that he dismissed as "frivolous" – more on that later.

Trump's lawsuit against James also landed before Middlebrooks, and the former president chose to "voluntarily [dismiss]" it shortly after he was hit with the fine. 

On 24 January, Trump and James' office came to an additional agreement that will end his appeal to reverse the court's dismissal of his original lawsuit, leaving the coast clear for James' own suit. According to Habba (pictured here with Trump), the litigation was "voluntarily withdrawn for strategic purposes." And with Trump apparently discouraged from filing more "frivolous" retaliatory lawsuits, we'll have to wait until the case goes to trial in October to find out whether the 45th's company stands to lose $250 million.

But it's been a busy couple of weeks for Trump's lawyers, with Middlebrooks issuing the hefty fine of $938,000 on 19 January. Read on to find out why, and which political opponent was at the center of that case... 

More than six years on from their 2016 election campaigns, Trump wanted to fight Hillary Clinton once again – this time in court. In March last year Trump sued Clinton, her campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and various key members of her election team, including chairman John Podesta, for conspiring to harm his own campaign. 

In the lawsuit, Trump accused Clinton of generating a "contrived Trump-Russia link" in an attempt to discredit his campaign, supposedly assisted by "Clinton loyalists" within the FBI. Clinton's lawyers tried to dismiss the suit on the basis of the statute of limitations, arguing that Trump has waited too long to bring his case forward. Trump's own lawyers, on the other hand, claimed that the extent of the "conspiracy" didn't become apparent until 2019.

Trump's team was attempting to get the provisional trial date of May 2023 pushed back to November 2023. Meanwhile, taking to Twitter, Podesta (pictured) asked: "Do you think Trump filed this case with the hope of calling Vladimir Putin as a character witness? Trump deposition ought to be a hoot."

In September last year, Middlebrooks dismissed the lawsuit, saying that what it "lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances." And Clinton's attorneys later asked a federal judge to order Trump to cover the $1.06 million she and members of her campaign spent defending themselves against the allegations. 

Clinton herself personally asked for $176,412 of the total amount, while Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook also sought to recover their legal fees. Trump, who subsequently appealed Middlebrooks' decision to dismiss his case, was clearly unwilling to cooperate. His lawyer Alina Habba responded: "We vehemently deny the inflammatory allegations contained in the sanctions motion filed by the Clinton team. This motion, conveniently filed one week prior to Election Day, is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to score political points." 

Although the full reparations weren't paid upfront, Middlebrooks did order four of Trump's attorneys to pay sanctions of $50,000 to the court and over $16,000 to another defendant, Charles Doland, back in November 2022. Last week Middlebrooks ordered Trump and Habba to pay almost $1 million in fines for filing the "frivolous" and "bogus" lawsuit, a case that he argued demonstrated "a pattern of abuse" and amounted to "obstruction of justice." 

Describing Trump as "the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process," Middlebrooks has ruled that the former POTUS and Habba must give nearly $938,000 to the defendants in the case. He went on to say: "Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose."

Trump may have two fewer lawsuits to worry about now, but the James and Clinton cases were just the tip of the iceberg. Read on to discover some of Donald Trump's many other active cases – both as plaintiff and defendant. 

According to an anonymous source who spoke to Bloomberg, Trump was deposed in October 2022 in a fraud case originally filed in October 2018 by four investors, who have been described in court documents as "working-class Americans."

They accused The Trump Corporation – including Trump himself and three of his adult children: Donald Jr, Eric, and Ivanka – of "defrauding economically marginalized people" by encouraging them to invest in businesses that paid the Trumps to promote them. These businesses included ACN Opportunity LLC, a company that sold a "tremendous" videophone touted as the next best thing. It flopped. 

The plaintiffs haven't sued The Trump Corporation for a fixed sum. However, they claim that the Trumps "made millions" by conning "victims into giving hundreds or thousands of dollars – losses that many experienced as devastating or life-altering." 

Trump was originally due to be deposed in September 2022, but the sitting was delayed after a judge ruled that the "catastrophic storm surge, winds, and flooding" caused by Hurricane Ian made it unsafe for the ex-president to be deposed at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago (pictured), as originally planned. "Under these conditions, whether the deposition could occur... even remotely, is uncertain," the judge said. 

Despite worsening conditions in Palm Beach, Trump's lawyers opposed the delay. A brief legal battle culminated in the ruling from the judge, who told both sides they needed to agree on a new deposition date. Now that the deposition has taken place, the plaintiffs' lawyers have requested a trial date of October 2023, saying: "Plaintiffs have no desire to interfere with the upcoming campaign, and are mindful that, should the schedule in this case extent into 2024, Defendants likely will, as they have in the past, use the campaign as a basis to seek further delay."

One allegation in the McKoy v. Trump Corp. lawsuit is that Trump and his children promoted ACN on The Celebrity Apprentice, which first aired in 2004. It's possible that clips from the show were used as evidence during the deposition. The plaintiff's lawyer Roberta Kaplan rejected an offer to hold the deposition via Zoom on the basis that "we have more than 70 documents and 20 video clips we plan to or may use," according to Bloomberg. She suggested holding the deposition at Trump's New Jersey golf club instead, but his lawyers apparently refused.

Although no specific details of the deposition have been revealed, Kaplan (pictured) reportedly told Insider: "As we complete fact discovery in this important fraud case, we could not be more pleased with the substantial body of evidence we have developed that will prove our clients' claims. We are eager to move this case forward to trial as soon as possible." A trial date of 29 January 2024 has now been set, casting a potential shadow over Trump's 2024 presidential run. 

In a New York Times article in 2019, writer E Jean Carroll (pictured) accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store changing room in the mid-1990s. She later described the assault – which she refers to as a "fight" – in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal.

Trump denied Carroll’s accusations in June 2019. In an interview with American digital media publication The Hill, he claimed Carroll was "totally lying" and "not [his] type." Five months later, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit with the New York Supreme Court. 

Carroll, who had an advice column in Elle magazine from 1993 to 2020, claimed Trump’s denial harmed her both personally and professionally. She allegedly received half as many Ask E. Jean letters and was fired from her position at Elle after The Hill published Trump’s interview, in which he accused Carroll of making up the story to publicize her new book. "It should be sold in the fiction section," he said. 

In December 2021, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments as Trump and Carroll's attorneys discussed whether the comments Trump made about Carroll to the media fell within the scope of his employment. Trump's lawyers argued that the ex-president's prominence meant it was necessary for him to address the lawsuit in the media, while Carroll's counsel claimed he was motivated by "personal spite and malice."

This argument is central to the case because, if it's found that Trump was acting within his federal duties, the US government would become a defendant. Trump counter-sued Carroll using a law designed to dismiss frivolous lawsuits, but this was rejected by a Manhattan judge. In February 2022, Carroll's lawyers revealed they no longer intended to depose him, as doing so could delay the case, but still wanted a sample of his DNA. The following month, the district court denied Trump's request to amend his complaint.

In September 2022, an appeals court ruled that Trump could be protected from the defamation case as he was a federal employee at the time Carroll filed the suit. Meanwhile, Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan, who's also representing the plaintiffs in the McKoy case, revealed that her client intended to file a new sexual battery lawsuit in New York under the state's Adult Survivors Act – a law that enables survivors of sexual assault to file lawsuits against their attackers, regardless of how long ago the assault occurred.

Although Kaplan (pictured) previously said her client would no longer be seeking a deposition, a judge ruled that Trump must be questioned under oath, rejecting his request to delay the testimony. The judge noted that the "advanced age" of both Carroll and Trump, and possibly of some witnesses, meant the case couldn't be delayed further.

"As this court previously has observed," the judge said, "Mr Trump has litigated this case since it began in 2019 with the effect and probably the purpose of delaying it." The judge has since pressed Trump to decide which lawyer will represent him as he battles the ongoing lawsuit, saying he's "known this was coming for months." 

Kaplan filed an upgraded lawsuit on Carroll's behalf mere minutes after the Adult Survivors Act came into effect on 24 November 2022. The filing, which explicitly accuses Trump of rape, is seeking "unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for pain and suffering, psychological harms, dignity loss and reputation damage." Speaking to the Associated Press, Kaplan said: "Thanksgiving Day was the very first day Ms. Carroll could file under New York law so our complaint was filed with the court shortly after midnight." 

In addition to the upgraded accusations, one of the key differences between Carroll's earlier lawsuit and her latest filing is the fact that she can now sue Trump for crimes he allegedly committed before becoming president. This means Trump is potentially no longer protected by the law that states federal employees can be shielded from defamation claims. She's also claimed that Trump has defamed her on his social network Truth Social. 

Trump's October 2022 deposition, which prompted him to describe the US legal system as a "broken disgrace," won't just provide evidence in Carroll's defamation case. It could also prove useful in her upcoming sexual battery lawsuit in New York, according to the judge, as the matter of whether "the fight" took place is central to both suits. 

Until recently, details of Trump's deposition hadn't been revealed, though his attorney was reported as saying at the time: "As we have said all along, my client was pleased to set the record straight today. This case is nothing more than a political ploy like many others in the long list of witch hunts against Donald Trump." 

The transcript, released by a federal judge on 13 January, includes a string of insults leveled by Trump against Carroll. He calls her a "wack job," "mentally sick," and a "nut job." He states that "There's something wrong with her in my opinion."

Mischaracterizing an interview that Carroll had with CNN, Trump claimed that she'd talked about enjoying being sexually assaulted: "She actually indicated that she loved it. Okay? She loved it until [the] commercial break."

This stunning statement prompted Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan to ask Trump to confirm an admission of rape: "So, sir, I just want to confirm: It’s your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you?"

Trump answered: "Well, based on her interview with Anderson Cooper, I believe that’s what took place. And we can define that... I think she said that rape was sexy – which it’s not, by the way."

In another stunning development, reports have revealed that Trump misidentified a photo of Carroll as his ex-wife Marla Maples. The black and white photo, which Kaplan showed him during his deposition, depicts Trump with Carroll and his first wife Ivana. Trump pointed to the photo and said "It's Marla" before being corrected by Kaplan, a remark that has stuck out given Trump's repeated insistence that Carroll wasn't his type.

These controversial statements might not have any legal consequences for Trump, but they certainly won't serve him well in the court of public opinion. 

Carroll's case is now expected to proceed to trial in April, after a New York judge rejected Trump's attempts to dismiss her lawsuits as "absurd." Trump's lawyers had tried and failed to argue that the Adult Survivors Act is unconstitutional. 

In March 2020, Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign sued The Washington Post for "millions of dollars." The lawsuit focused on two articles that the American newspaper published in June 2019, both of which linked Trump’s 2016 election to foreign interference from Russia and North Korea. 

Trump’s campaign described the articles as "false and defamatory" and is seeking "appropriate remedies for the harm caused." Although the lawsuit didn’t quote an exact sum, it suggested that the articles had cost the campaign "millions of dollars" in damages. The matter hasn't yet been settled in court. A similar libel lawsuit that Trump filed against The New York Times was dismissed on the grounds that media opinion pieces are constitutionally protected. 

During Trump’s second presidential campaign in August 2020, he shared a video on Twitter that mocked President Biden. The animation showed Biden driving an old-fashioned handcar, trailing behind a "Trump Train" that bears the phrase "KAG" ("keep America great"). It was retweeted almost 65,000 times – but one person was staunchly unimpressed.

Guyanese-British musician Eddy Grant sued Trump for copyright infringement because the video features 40 seconds of Grant's 1983 hit Electric Avenue. Although Trump removed the video after Grant complained, Grant's attorneys filed a lawsuit on the basis that Trump "sought to incapsulate [his] intellectual property into derogatory political rhetoric, further encapsulated in a video production that can only be construed at best as being wicked, thereby causing... considerable emotional distress."

In response, Trump filed a motion to dismiss the claim. His lawyers argued that he had a right to use the music because it had been "transformed" for a "comedic, political purpose" and that Trump had "Presidential absolute immunity" at the time. However, a New York federal judge has dismissed both arguments and it's recently been revealed that Trump was deposed in the case at some point in 2022.

It's not the first time an artist has fired back at Trump for using their music without permission – Adele, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Rihanna, Neil Young, and the son of David Bowie have all complained in the past – and Grant is pressing ahead with his lawsuit. 

A vocal critic of her uncle Donald, Mary Trump wrote a best-selling book about him titled Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. The memoir was published by Simon & Schuster in July 2020, after a lawsuit from the Trump family – which resulted in a temporary restraining order against the book's publication – was lifted by a New York appellate judge. 

Donald fought back harder in September 2021 by filing a lawsuit against his niece and The New York Times, suing them for "at least $100 million" over their "insidious plot" to "smuggle" his tax records. 

In Too Much and Never Enough, Mary revealed that she'd provided copies of her uncle's tax records to New York Times journalists. Co-writers Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for their exposé, which Trump's lawsuit claimed was motivated by "their desire to gain fame, notoriety, acclaim, and a financial windfall [to] advance their political agenda."

The article, Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father, alleged that Trump took part in numerous "tax dodges in the 1990s" to inflate his fortune, including through "instances of outright fraud." The report was the result of an 18-month investigation into Trump's tax dealings, challenging his supposed status as a self-made billionaire.

In November 2020, the Legal and Defense Fund (LDF) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a lawsuit against Trump and his campaign. It claimed that Trump had violated Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act by pressuring officials not to certify the 2020 election result.

The following month, LDF amended the lawsuit. The updated version alleged that Trump had also violated the Enforcement Act of 1871, known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, which protects everybody’s equal right to vote. By discarding votes in cities with large Black populations, LDF argued that Trump – who tried to dismiss the case in February 2021 – was discriminating against voters. LDF is asking for statutory damages, as well as a court order that will prevent people from intimidating voters and election officials in the future. 

Last November, a federal judge dismissed Trump's claim that he had presidential immunity and said: "The Court concludes that Former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit." 

In March 2021, two Capitol police officers – James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby – sued Trump for the "physical and emotional injuries" they sustained during the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. 

According to the lawsuit, Blassingame and Hemby were attacked with bear spray, hit with flagpoles and fists, and crushed against a door. Blassingame also claims that the pro-Trump intruders racially abused him while forcing their way into the Capitol building. 

The case, which Trump filed an unsuccessful motion to dismiss in June 2021, alleges that the then-president incited his supporters to attack the police officers. Blassingame and Hemby believe Trump illegally conspired with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to storm the Capitol, and are asking for at least $75,000 in compensation, not counting interest and costs. 

In June 2021, Trump filed a lawsuit against New York City – his second suit against the administration that year. He alleges that the city, led by Mayor Bill de Blasio, illegally terminated its golf course contract with the Trump Organization to punish him for the Capitol riots. The city also ended contracts to run two skating rinks and a carousel in Central Park.

The Trump Golf Links, at Ferry Point in the Bronx, opened in 2015. New York City ended the contract on the basis that professional golf tournaments were unlikely to associate themselves with the Trump Organization after the Capitol riots. The Trump Organization is suing the city for unlawful termination, claiming the original contract didn’t say anything about professional golf tournaments taking place at the Links.

Like James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, police officer Conrad Smith and six of his colleagues also filed a lawsuit against Trump, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Their case, which was filed in August 2021, alleges that the defendants conspired to start the riot and injure the Capitol officers on duty.

Unlike Blassingame and Hemby, the second group of Capitol police officers claim that the defendants violated the DC Bias-Related Crimes Act. According to DC law, "bias-related crimes" include acts that are motivated by political affiliation. The officers allege that the Capitol rioters were motivated by their hatred of the Democratic Party and that Trump had praised the attack, saying: "We love you. You’re very special." As previously mentioned, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account in the wake of the riots "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

In July 2021, Donald Trump filed a class action lawsuit against Twitter after it permanently suspended his account following the Capitol riots. The lawsuit, which he filed in a Southern Florida federal court, accused Twitter and its then-CEO Jack Dorsey of "impermissible censorship" and violating Trump's First Amendment right to free speech.

Trump's lawyers argued that Twitter and other big-name tech platforms such as Facebook and Google are effectively "state actors" rather than private companies, meaning it's unconstitutional for them to censor people.

The lawsuit also named Linda Cuadros and the American Conservative Union (Ivanka Trump is pictured here speaking at one of its conferences) as plaintiffs. Cuadros, who used to have around 10,000 followers on Twitter, claimed that her account was also permanently suspended after she shared a post about vaccines. Meanwhile, the American Conservative Union accused Twitter of removing a substantial number of its followers on the platform – allegedly as a form of partisan censorship.

According to the filing, "Dorsey and Twitter acted to censor" differing medical and political opinions, and were incentivized by the government to do so, as Democrat legislators "repeatedly requir[ed] their appearance at hearings" and "reinforc[ed] their potential to impose regulations."

Back in November 2020, Dorsey was ordered to testify remotely during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (pictured). Called "Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election," the hearing aimed to determine the extent to which social media platforms such as Twitter were to blame for spreading "fake news," and whether they should be held responsible for the content other people post. 

While being questioned, Dorsey said that Trump's social media account would be subjected to stronger moderation policies once he'd left office, claiming that political world leaders are given more freedom. "If an account is not a world leader anymore, that particular policy goes away," he said. Of course, Trump's Twitter account was removed just two months later. 

In the wake of the riots, big tech companies came under renewed fire. Another Congressional hearing sought to work out the role that social media sites played in inciting and facilitating the riots.

Mike Doyle, Chair of a House subcommittee on Communications and Technology, argued that Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai hadn't done enough to stem misinformation about supposed election fraud and the dangers of vaccines. "You can take this content down," he said. "You can reduce the vision. You can fix this. But you choose not to. You have the means. But time after time you are picking engagement and profit over the health and safety of users."

Trump has alleged that Twitter was unlawfully pressured into removing his account, which had 88 million followers at its peak, by Congress. He filed similar lawsuits against Facebook and Google, both of which were also questioned as part of the Congressional hearing (although neither of which banned him permanently from their platforms).

The three lawsuits were presided over by three different judges. Trump's Twitter suit was overseen by James Donato, a San Francisco federal judge who'd been appointed by Barack Obama. In May 2022, 10 months after Trump's attorneys filed the suit, Donato threw it out – but Trump wasn't prepared to let the matter lie. 

Last November, Trump launched an appeal against the ruling and asked the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to revive his lawsuit, which seeks "an award of Compensatory and Punitive damages to the Plaintiff and the Class in an amount to be determined at trial" as well as an injunction ordering the immediate reinstatement of Trump's Twitter account.

And now, Trump's lawyer has confirmed his client is pressing ahead with the case – despite his account now having been reinstated and the ex-president reportedly mulling what his first tweet will be... 

In November 2021, Delaware County election official James Savage filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and two Republican poll-watchers. Savage has accused the defendants of defamation after they tried to overturn the result of the 2020 election, claiming their actions caused him to suffer two heart attacks due to stress. 

According to the lawsuit, Savage – who works as a voting machine warehouse custodian – suffered physical and emotional distress due to "deliberate, malicious, and defamatory statements and insinuations" made by Trump, Giuliani (pictured), and others. After the election, they accused Savage of illegally registering 50,000 votes for Biden at voting machines in Delaware County. The accusations came after two Republican poll-watchers, Greg Stenstrom and Leah Hoopes, claimed to have seen Savage uploading Biden votes using USB cards. 

Savage's attorney Conor Corcoran has confirmed that Savage is seeking a jury trial on charges of defamation, civil conspiracy, and invasion of privacy. He's also asking for financial damages of at least $50,000. Corcoran described his client's wellbeing as "collateral damage" as Trump and Giuliani questioned the legitimacy of Biden's Pennsylvania victory, which was instrumental in securing Biden's presidency. 

Last November, a judge dismissed a 2021 lawsuit that Michael Cohen – Trump's former personal attorney – filed against the ex-president and other members of the Trump administration.

Cohen had claimed the defendants violated his right to free speech under the First Amendment and placed him in solitary confinement after he threatened to publish a tell-all book about his experience working for Trump. 

After being imprisoned in 2018, Cohen was moved to house arrest in 2020 amid concerns that he could contract COVID-19 in prison. He quickly took to Twitter with the hashtag #WillSpeakSoon to promote his book: the ominously titled Revenge, which was released in October 2022.

"Revenge is all about... uncovering the truth and showing that the true liar, which I believe we all know, the true dumpster fire that was formerly sitting in the Oval Office, is Donald Trump and his acolytes and inner circle," Cohen has said. 

After being spotted at a restaurant in Manhattan, Cohen was sent back to jail and spent 16 days in solitary confinement – despite the fact his lawyer claimed the outing didn't violate the terms of his house arrest. Cohen himself has argued that his rearrest was an attempt by Trump and his cronies to silence him, after his probation officer told him he could return to house arrest on the condition he stopped engaging with the media or posting on Twitter. 

Cohen's lawsuit named Trump, Cohen's probation officer, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal. He'd previously filed a federal tort claim against the government, seeking $20 million in damages, but his claim was dismissed.

In April 2022, Trump filed a motion to dismiss the latest suit, arguing that he was protected by presidential immunity at the time of Cohen's imprisonment. Now a judge has granted Trump's motion, ruling that Cohen's stay in solitary confinement didn't violate his First Amendment right to free speech. 

But there's a silver lining for Cohen. Appellate judges in New York unanimously ruled that the former fixer can sue the Trump Organization for "millions of dollars" to cover his legal fees, meaning yet another lawsuit could be on the horizon for Trump as he prepares for his 2024 presidential bid.

On 8 August 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida (pictured). The raid was part of an investigation into Trump’s mishandling of presidential documents, including classified files containing state secrets that he may have unlawfully brought to the residence from the White House. 

Federal investigators had already removed 15 boxes of White House documents from Mar-a-Lago back in January 2022, ruling that they were the property of the US government under the Presidential Records Act. According to reports, the raid on 8 August 2022 resulted in the removal of over 100 classified documents and nearly 11,180 documents belonging to the government. More than 30 of these papers were labeled "confidential," with 54 labeled "secret" and 18 "top secret." 

Trump’s legal team subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a review of the documents that were seized from the estate. They requested that a special master be hired to ensure that documents covered by attorney-client privilege were protected from scrutiny, and last September a federal judge approved the appointment of judge Raymond Dearie for the role. The lawsuit also claimed that the search warrant was too broad as it allowed the FBI to seize "boxes of documents merely because they are physically found together with other items purportedly within the scope of the warrant." 

Furthermore, Trump’s lawyers accused Attorney General Merrick Garland (pictured) of using the criminal justice system to influence politics, as the raid was carried out 90 days before 2022's midterm elections. 

Trump’s team also claims that the search warrant violated the Fourth Amendment in reference to a part of the US Constitution that protects citizens from "unreasonable searches and seizures" without due cause. In a statement posted on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said: "This Mar-a-Lago Break-In, Search, and Seizure was illegal and unconstitutional, and we are taking all actions necessary to get the documents back."

In a big win for the US Justice Department, on 21 September 2022 the Appeals Court restored the Justice Department's access to many of the classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. And more potential evidence has been unearthed. As reported by the New York Times, security camera footage has shown former Trump aide Walt Nauta carrying storage boxes out of a room in Mar-a-Lago before and after the Justice Department's subpoena was issued. Nauta isn't formally cooperating with the investigation, though he's reportedly answered some questions. 

The case has since moved quickly. The Justice Department asked the courts to void the appointment of special master Raymond Dearie, claiming the federal judge who granted Trump's request for an independent arbiter didn't go through the correct legal process. Garland then appointed political corruption prosecutor Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the ongoing probe, before a three-person panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unanimously decided to throw out Trump's lawsuit and rule that it was wrong for him to have blocked access to the records, even temporarily. 

Unsurprisingly, Trump wasn't happy. And recent revelations that batches of White House documents from Barack Obama's presidency have been discovered in an office and a garage used by President Biden have angered him further... 

Biden was reportedly "surprised" by the discovery of the documents. The president's lawyers and aides have allegedly been searching for more materials since November, when an initial cache of around 10 documents was found at the Penn Biden Center near the White House.

Biden has cooperated with a review by the Archives and Department of Justice, and the papers were immediately handed over to the authorities. Special counsel to the president Richard Sauber has said: "The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives."

Many people have been quick to point out the differences between the documents found in Biden's possession and those discovered at Mar-a-Lago. According to Fox News analyst Karl Rove (pictured), the cases aren't directly comparable: "For example, how many documents in Biden's case, there appear to be about 10. In the case of President Trump, hundreds... How responsive were they? When the Biden people found out, they called immediately, called the appropriate authorities and turned them over. We spent a year and a half watching the drama unfold in Mar-a-Lago, and it had to end in a police search to recover the documents."

Meanwhile, Georgia Representative Hank Johnson has even suggested there's a possibility that the documents discovered in Biden's properties were "planted." 

The Trumps, unsurprisingly, don't agree. Taking to Twitter, Donald Trump Jr said he hoped Johnson would be treated as a conspiracy theorist, while his father slammed Fox's Karl Rove in a post on his social network Truth Social, saying he "was, as usual, wrong." In a subsequent post speculating about the contents of the papers, he added: "Biden's documents are HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL, many pertain to UKRAINE, where Hunter was 'raking in the dough,' and FUNDED BY CHINA, which gave $55 Million to Biden, through Penn, and probably had easy access." He called the investigation into him "A giant Scam."

And that wasn't Trump's latest Truth Social tirade. On 12 January he took to the social network again, expressing his contempt for special counsel Jack Smith. Describing him as a "Trump Hating THUG," Trump made three separate posts about Smith and the way the FBI has handled the investigation into the Mar-a-Lago documents. He wrote: "Fire a man who may very well turn out to be a criminal, Jack Smith. His conflicts, unfairness, and mental state of derangement make him totally unfit for the job of 'getting Trump.' Go after Biden and the Biden Crime Family instead."

And that's exactly what's happening. Merrick Garland has also appointed a special counsel, former US attorney Robert Hur, to investigate the Biden documents. Speaking during a press conference at the Department of Justice, Garland said: "This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law."

With calls for the FBI to raid the White House – and concerns that the Biden case could complicate the ongoing Trump probe – it remains to be seen whether the investigation into the current president will escalate. As part of the latest developments, it's just been revealed that two additional documents with 'secret' classifications were discovered at Trump's Florida storage unit last year, but as his lawyers handed the papers over immediately they won't be used as evidence in the investigation.

In September 2022, Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN, accusing the network of sabotaging his 2020 election campaign. The former POTUS is seeking $475 million in damages.

Trump's 29-page lawsuit claims that CNN has used the phrase "the Big Lie" to describe Trump's accusations of voter fraud – which he maintains cost him the 2020 election – more than 7,700 times. The phrase is typically associated with Hitler, who coined it in his book Mein Kampf. 

"It is intended to aggravate, scare and trigger people," the lawsuit alleges. 

CNN has declined to comment on the filing, according to Reuters. But the network has long had a rocky relationship with Trump, who claims it's "tried to taint [him] with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of 'racist', 'Russian lackey', 'insurrectionist', and ultimately 'Hitler'" as part of its "concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the left." 

In an additional filing in December 2022, Trump's lawyers described CNN journalists as an "enemy to democracy" and accused them of fueling the "rise of disinformation."

This photo shows Trump supporters at a rally back in 2018. 

According to USA Today, Trump suggested in a statement that he might file similar lawsuits against other news outlets. He's launched legal action against both the New York Times and Washington Post in the past, although he didn't specify which organizations he would target next. 

In a case of political déjà vu, Donald Trump is once again battling a criminal inquiry into an alleged relationship with Stormy Daniels after announcing an upcoming presidential bid.

Back in 2018, The Wall Street Journal published a report that claimed Michael Cohen had given Daniels $130,000 in exchange for staying silent about an affair she'd had with Trump in 2006. Allegedly, this payment was made at the height of Trump's presidential campaign and Trump later reimbursed Cohen. 

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal back then, Cohen said: "President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels." The following month, however, Cohen admitted to making the payment, which the Journal claimed was sent to Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) through her lawyer Keith Davidson. 

Rumors about the alleged affair between Daniels and Trump originally surfaced as early as 2011. Despite initially denying the claims, Daniels gave an interview with 60 Minutes in March 2018 during which she said that she and Trump slept together once in 2006, and that she was confronted after a fitness class and threatened in front of her young daughter into signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

If her side of the story is true, it would mean that Daniels' affair with Trump occurred just four months after the birth of his youngest child Barron. Daniels is pictured here leaving the courthouse after testifying at Cohen's 2018 trial.

Before Daniels' interview aired, Trump sued her for $20 million and claimed that she'd broken their NDA on at least 20 occasions. Shortly afterward, Daniels filed her own civil lawsuit against Trump in California, claiming that the NDA was invalid because the then-POTUS had never personally signed it. Trump responded by taking out a restraining order against her to prevent her from sharing "confidential information." 

Daniels' new lawyer Michael Avenatti – who replaced her original lawyer Keith Davidson after she sued him for colluding with Cohen to violate her attorney-client privilege – took to Twitter, asking "how can President Donald Trump seek $20 million in damages... based on an agreement that he and Mr. Cohen claim Mr. Trump never was a party to?" 

All of Daniels' lawsuits were thrown out – and her bad luck didn't end there. In July 2018, she was arrested by undercover cops in Columbus, Ohio for allegedly touching the officers while performing at a club, a criminal offense in the Buckeye State. The charges were dismissed just 12 hours later, and it was soon revealed that the lead detective who'd organized the arrest was a staunch Trump supporter. 

One month after Daniels' arrest and subsequent release, Cohen officially surrendered to the FBI. That December, he was disbarred and sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud, finance violations, and lying to Congress about Russian involvement in the 2016 US election. One of the charges against him was that he used money from Trump's 2016 presidential campaign to pay off Daniels. 

The federal investigation into the alleged hush money was officially closed in 2019, but Trump's feud with Daniels has rumbled on. In March 2022, for example, a California court ruled that Daniels owes the former president almost $300,000 in legal fees to cover the cost of her failed lawsuits against him. Daniels has insisted she'll "go to jail before [paying] a penny."

And it's now been reported that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured here with New York attorney general Letitia James) has reopened the investigation into Trump's alleged involvement with hush payments. Citing "people with knowledge of the matter," The New York Times reports that "to help build the hush-money case, prosecutors are revisiting another strategy that has yet to work: pressuring a top Trump lieutenant, Allen H. Weisselberg, to cooperate." According to The New York Times, Weisselberg definitely has knowledge of the $130,000 given to Daniels and "to ramp up the pressure, the prosecutors are considering a new round of charges against [him] in hopes of securing his cooperation against the former president."

Earlier this month, Cohen and his attorney met with Bragg's office to continue discussing the case, a 90-minute meeting that Cohen said "went very well."

"It appears that I'll probably be meeting with them again."

The estate of a police officer who died after defending the Capitol during the 6 January riots has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Donald Trump. Brian Sicknick passed away on 7 January 2021 after suffering a series of strokes, a condition that a medical examiner has ruled as "natural causes." However, the examiner added that the stress of the insurrection likely "played a role in" Sicknick's death.

Sicknick's family is reportedly seeking $10 million in damages. In court papers, the plaintiffs have claimed that "Defendant Trump intentionally riled up the crowd and directed and encouraged a mob to attack the US Capitol and attack those who opposed them... The violence that followed, and the injuries that violence caused, including the injuries sustained by Officer Sicknick and his eventual death, were reasonable and foreseeable consequences of Defendant Trump's words and conduct."

As well as "Donald J Trump (in his personal capacity)," the lawsuit also names the 6 January protestors Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios as defendants. The case accuses the trio of wrongful death, assault, negligence, and of assaulting Sicknick's civil rights. 

Additionally, Sicknick's girlfriend has filed her own lawsuit against the trio. Sandra Garza has reportedly sued Trump, Khater, and Tanios for $30 million, claiming they were "directly and vicariously" responsible for her long-term partner's death. 

On 6 January this year, Texas attorney John Anthony Castro (pictured left) filed a lawsuit in Florida against Donald Trump, Bloomberg reports. His case argues that Trump's alleged involvement with the Capitol riots should disqualify him from the presidential race under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that people who engage in an insurrection cannot hold public office. 

Castro filed the lawsuit just a few weeks after the committee investigating the riots recommended that criminal charges be brought against Trump. The panel has formally asked the US Justice Department to prosecute the former POTUS for inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement, and the obstruction of an official proceeding.

It remains to be seen whether the Justice Department will prosecute Trump – and although several state-specific groups have announced that they will protest Trump's spot on their ballots, Castro stated: "I don't feel comfortable waiting that long."

Instead of challenging Trump after he's launched his campaign, the attorney wants to prevent him from being able to stand in the first place. It's not the first time he's attempted to do so: Castro filed a similar lawsuit at the end of 2022, but a judge dismissed the case and Castro is still appealing the decision. 

But who is Castro? A few years after graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC, Castro launched his own tax law firm, Castro & Co. According to his website: "In a span of only a few years, John Anthony goes from struggling under the pressure of mounting student loan debt to having a net worth in excess of $20 million." But he always had political as well as professional aspirations and, like Trump, Castro intends to stand for the Republican nomination in 2024. 

He's said: "I could spend the rest of my life building a business empire and even becoming a billionaire if I really set my mind to it, but that's not who I am. I've proven I can do it. But that's just not who I am. This is who I am. I was born to help people. I was born to serve my country. I was born to lead my country that I love so dearly." 

Now take a look at Donald Trump's worst business decisions