Personal and business legal affairs of Donald Trump
From 1973 and until he was elected president in 2016, Donald Trump and his businesses were involved in over 4,000 legal cases in United States federal and state courts, including battles with casino patrons, million-dollar real estate lawsuits, personal defamation lawsuits, and over 100 business tax disputes. He has also been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault, with one accusation resulting in him being held civilly liable.
In 2015, Trump's lawyer Alan Garten called Trump's legal entanglements "a natural part of doing business" in the US. While litigation is indeed common in the real estate industry, Trump has been involved in more legal cases than his fellow magnates Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., Donald Bren, Stephen M. Ross, Sam Zell, and Larry Silverstein combined. Many of the lawsuits were filed against patrons with debt to his casinos.
Numerous legal matters and investigations occurred during and after Trump's first presidency, some being of historical importance. Between October 2021 and July 2022 alone, the Republican National Committee paid more than US$2 million to attorneys representing Trump in his presidential, personal, and business capacities. In January 2023, a federal judge fined Trump and his attorney nearly $1 million, characterizing him as "a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries".
On December 6, 2022, the parent company of Trump's many businesses, the Trump Organization, was convicted on 17 criminal charges.
Trump has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and is appealing an order to pay more than $80 million in damages to the victim, E. Jean Carroll. Trump, together with his associates, has also been found liable for fraud regarding overvaluation of the Trump Organization and Trump's net worth, and is appealing a $364 million fine plus $100 million interest. In 2024, Trump was convicted on numerous counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, although his sentencing was indefinitely postponed following his second election to the presidency.
In 2024, before Trump's election, a judge dismissed the federal charges relating to Trump's handling of classified documents. After his election, the special counsel decided to abandon the federal charges related to the 2020 election and the appeal of the documents case dismissal, citing the Justice Department policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.
Lawsuits involving government entities
U.S. federal government
1973 federal housing suit
In 1973, Trump was accused by the Justice Department of violations of the Fair Housing Act in the operation of 39 buildings. The department said that black "testers" were sent to more than half a dozen buildings and were denied apartments, but a similar white tester would then be offered an apartment in the same building. The government alleged that Trump's corporation quoted different rental terms and conditions to blacks and made false "no vacancy" statements to blacks for apartments they managed in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.Representing Trump, Roy Cohn filed a counter-suit against the government for $100 million, asserting that the charges were irresponsible and baseless. A federal judge threw out the countersuit, calling it a waste of "time and paper". Trump settled the charges out of court in 1975 without admitting guilt, saying he was satisfied that the agreement did not "compel the Trump organization to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant".
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of Trump's book, The Art of the Deal, said that the housing case was "a classic example" of Trump being "a counterpuncher": someone accuses Trump of doing something horrible, and he "goes back at them with all guns blazing.... And admits nothing." If Trump loses, he will "declare victory".
The corporation was required to send a bi-weekly list of vacancies to the New York Urban League, a civil rights group, and give them priority for certain locations. In 1978 the Trump Organization again was in court for violating terms of the 1975 settlement; Trump denied the charges.
Other suits
In 1988, the Justice Department sued Trump for violating procedures related to public notifications when buying voting stock in a company related to his attempted takeovers of Holiday Corporation and Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1986. Trump agreed to pay $750,000 to settle the civil penalties of the antitrust lawsuit.In 2016, the American Bar Association commissioned a report to highlight Trump's excess litigation, entitled "Donald J. Trump is a Libel Bully but also a Libel Loser", but initially declined to publish it fearing being sued by Trump.
In 2001, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought a financial-reporting case against Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., alleging that the company had committed several "misleading statements in the company's third-quarter 1999 earnings release". Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. consented to the commission's cease-and-desist order, said the culprit had been dismissed, and that Trump had personally been unaware of the matter.
New York
In 1985, New York City brought a lawsuit against Trump for allegedly using tactics to force out tenants of 100 Central Park South, which he intended to demolish together with the building next door. After ten years in court, the two sides negotiated a deal allowing the building to stand as condominiums.In 2000, Donald Trump paid $250,000 to settle fines related to charges brought by New York State Lobbying Commission director David Grandeau. Trump was charged with circumventing state law to spend $150,000 lobbying against government approval of plans to construct an Indian-run casino in the Catskills, which would have diminished casino traffic to Trump's casinos in Atlantic City.
Trump is suing the town of Ossining, New York, over the property tax valuation on his Trump National Golf Club Westchester, located in Briarcliff Manor's portion of the town, which Trump purchased for around $8 million at a foreclosure sale in the 1990s and to which he claimed, at the club's opening, to have added $45 million in facility improvements. Although Trump stated in his 2015 FEC filing that the property was worth at least $50 million, his lawsuit seeks a $1.4 million valuation on the property, which includes a clubhouse, five overnight suites, and permission to build 71 condominium units, in an effort to shave $424,176 from his annual local property tax obligations. Trump filed the action after separately being sued by Briarcliff Manor for "intentional and illegal modifications" to a drainage system that caused more than $238,000 in damage to the village's library, public pool, and park facilities during a 2011 storm.
New York Attorney General lawsuits
On December 20, 2021, Trump filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York over her ongoing civil investigation into potentially unlawful inflation and deflation of property values where it was best suited to avoid tax liability and gain other financial benefits by the Trump Organization. Trump sought a permanent suspension of the investigation, which has been proceeding for over three years, because he alleged it was being used as a political tool to harass and intimidate him, his business, and his family through unwarranted subpoenas and aggressive public statements made by James both in her official capacity and personal capacity. James' office denied these claims, and in a separate statement accused Trump of using "over two years of delay tactics" through the courts to obstruct the investigation's progress. On January 10, 2022, Trump filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the New York Attorney General from continuing her investigation until a final judgement on his complaint had been made, arguing her inquiry was entirely baseless. James moved to dismiss the suit on January 26, stating that Trump is a "state-court loser" seeking to bypass the legal process in the state through federal court. On January 20, 2023, Trump's lawyers withdrew the suit. The same judge, Donald M. Middlebrooks, had just fined Trump and his attorneys almost $1 million for filing a "frivolous" defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.James has subpoenaed Trump to produce documents in connection with her investigation into the Trump Organization. On April 25, 2022, New York Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump did not comply with the subpoena and declared him to be in civil contempt of court. He said Trump would be fined $10,000 per day until he complies.
In November 2022, Trump sued James in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to block her access to the records of the trust he set up to hold his companies when he became president, the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. Judge Donald Middlebrooks denied his emergency motion for a preliminary injunction. On January 20, 2023, Trump withdrew the lawsuit. The same judge had just fined Trump and his lawyer almost $1 million for filing a racketeering lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
Trump University litigation
In 2013, in a lawsuit filed by New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, Trump was accused of defrauding more than 5,000 people of $40 million for the opportunity to learn Trump's real estate investment techniques in a for-profit training program, Trump University, which operated from 2005 to 2011. Trump ultimately stopped using the term "University" following a 2010 order from New York regulators, who called Trump's use of the word "misleading and even illegal"; the state had previously warned Trump in 2005 to drop the term or not offer seminars in New York. Although Trump has claimed a 98% approval rating on course evaluations, former students recounted high-pressure tactics from instructors seeking the highest possible ratings, including threats of withholding graduation certificates. In addition, the high reviews were solicited before the courses ended, when the students still anticipated receiving benefits that ultimately never materialized. Subsequently, more than 2,000 students sought and received course refunds before the end of their paid seminars.In a separate class action civil suit against Trump University in mid-February 2014, a San Diego federal judge allowed claimants in California, Florida, and New York to proceed; a Trump counterclaim, alleging that the state attorney general's investigation was accompanied by a campaign donation shakedown, was investigated by a New York ethics board and dismissed in August 2015. Trump filed a $1 million defamation suit against former Trump University student Tarla Makaeff, who had spent about $37,000 on seminars, after she joined the class action lawsuit and publicized her classroom experiences on social media. Trump University was later ordered by a U.S. district judge in April 2015 to pay Makaeff and her lawyers $798,774.24 in legal fees and costs. Donald Trump was found to have defrauded students, and was forced to pay $25 million in restitution.