What criminal cases against Trump (state and federal) proceeded through 2025 and what were their outcomes?
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Executive summary
Between 2023 and 2025 four separate criminal prosecutions were brought against Donald J. Trump: a New York state hush‑money case that produced a jury conviction on 34 felony counts in May 2024 and an unconditional discharge at sentencing on January 10, 2025 (conviction retained but no jail/fine) [1] [2]. Two federal prosecutions — the classified‑documents case and the federal January‑6 election‑obstruction case pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith — were dismissed after Trump won the 2024 election and returned to the White House, consistent with Justice Department practice not to prosecute a sitting president [3] [4]. The Georgia state racketeering/election interference case was dismissed in November 2025, ending what many outlets called the last unresolved criminal case against Trump [5] [6].
1. The New York “hush‑money” conviction: what happened and what it means
The Manhattan trial over payments made during the 2016 campaign resulted in a jury finding Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records on May 30, 2024; Judge Juan Merchan later imposed an unconditional discharge on January 10, 2025 — a sentence that leaves the conviction on the record but imposes no jail time, fines or probation [1] [2]. Reuters and Lawfare report the conviction stood through sentencing and remained on his record even as the court opted not to impose punishment, and Trump has pursued appeals [7] [1].
2. The two federal Smith prosecutions: dismissal after reelection
Special Counsel Jack Smith brought two federal indictments — one alleging illegal retention of classified documents at Mar‑a‑Lago and the other alleging attempts to obstruct the 2020 election — but after Trump won the 2024 election Smith moved to dismiss the cases without prejudice, invoking DOJ policy against indicting a sitting president; those federal matters were dropped as Trump returned to the White House, and commentators note the policy and subsequent Supreme Court immunity ruling reshaped prospects for future prosecution while leaving the underlying evidence publicly discussed in Smith’s report [4] [3] [8].
3. The Georgia racketeering/election‑interference case: procedural collapse to dismissal
Fulton County charged Trump and others in 2023 in a RICO‑style prosecution tied to attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 result. The case encountered repeated procedural hurdles — counts struck, the district attorney disqualified by Georgia courts, a special prosecutor appointment and finally a November 26, 2025 ruling by Judge Scott McAfee dismissing the case “in its entirety,” which outlets portrayed as closing the last active criminal prosecution against Trump [5] [6] [9]. Reporting emphasizes the combination of legal rules, appellate intervention and prosecutorial withdrawals that produced the dismissal [10] [11].
4. How many criminal counts were filed, convicted or dismissed by late 2025
Compilations by Ballotpedia and other trackers count 88 criminal counts across the four indictments from 2023–2025: 34 resulted in conviction in New York (though with unconditional discharge), while the remainder were dismissed across the federal and Georgia prosecutions as of November 26, 2025 [9] [12]. Multiple outlets report that after the Georgia dismissal Trump “had no criminal cases pending” stemming from those prosecutions [5] [13].
5. Competing perspectives and legal aftermath
Prosecutors and many legal observers argued the documentary and testimonial evidence in the federal January‑6 and Georgia matters was sufficient to sustain convictions had those cases proceeded to trial; Special Counsel Smith’s report stated the admissible evidence could have led to conviction [4] [14]. Defense and some courts, however, focused on constitutional protections for presidents and conflicts or prosecutorial errors — the Georgia disqualification of Fulton County’s DA, the DOJ policy against indicting a sitting president, and a Supreme Court immunity ruling — all of which were decisive in halting prosecutions [6] [3] [11].
6. Unresolved questions and limits of available reporting
Available sources document outcomes (conviction with discharge in New York; dismissals of the two federal cases and the Georgia case) and enumerate counts, but they do not provide exhaustive detail on every co‑defendant’s legal fate or the status of all appeals and post‑conviction motions as of late 2025 — for example, the specific outcomes of all appeals of the New York conviction beyond sentencing reviews are noted in some outlets but not fully detailed in this set of sources (available sources do not mention full appellate disposition of each New York appeal) [7] [8].
7. Why the mix of conviction + dismissals matters politically and legally
Journalists and analysts stress that the combination — a rare criminal conviction left unpunished plus the collapse of high‑profile prosecutions on procedural and constitutional grounds — created a paradox: courts found criminal liability in one instance while institutional rules and timing shielded the president from federal or state punishments in other matters [1] [3] [6]. This produced both claims that the legal system held a president to account and competing claims that presidential power and timing prevented accountability, a tension repeatedly noted in Reuters, AP and other reporting [7] [13].
If you want, I can produce a concise table mapping each case to indictment date, main charges, outcome and citation.