Trump Faces Potential Criminal Charges, a Lot of Debt After He Leaves Office

President Donald Trump was already facing a number of legal threats that pre-date the election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team detailed several instances in which the president may have obstructed justice, and Trump was also potentially implicated in the campaign finance case that resulted in a three-year sentence for his former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Justice Department policy has shielded Trump from federal prosecution as a sitting president, but that goes away on Wednesday, and the incoming administration could revive those cases. The revelation by the New York Times that Trump took a number of questionable deductions over the years and paid only $750 in income taxes in 2016 could also spur a fresh probe into possible tax evasion.

New York state authorities have been eyeing Trump as well. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is leading a probe of the president's business dealings that could ultimately result in criminal charges. New York Attorney General Letitia James is simultaneously pursuing an investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated asset values.

Trump's personal conduct is also at issue in a number of civil cases. He could soon face depositions in two New York defamation lawsuits brought by women he said were lying when they accused him of sexual assault.

Since the election, Trump has only added to his potential legal woes. His shocking Jan. 2 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked the election official to “find” him just enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state, may have violated both federal and state laws against election fraud. Such a case could be bolstered by additional actions taken by Trump — telling a state investigator he would be a “national hero” if he uncovered fraud in the Georgia vote, as the Washington Post has reported, and forcing the resignation of the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta for failing to aggressively pursue baseless election-fraud claims, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And then there's the Capitol riot. Trump gave an inflammatory speech to the crowd that then laid siege to the halls of Congress. While some legal experts say the president's exhortations may have been too vague for him to be charged with inciting the violence, any evidence that emerges of coordination between the White House and radical groups that participated in storming the Capitol could change the picture.

Perhaps more important, widespread outrage over the riot has scrambled the political calculations behind bringing any case against Trump. Where the Biden administration may have once preferred to move on, it may now face growing calls to hold a former President Trump accountable in one way or another.

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