Which allegations involve alleged misconduct before his presidency versus during/after his presidency?
Executive summary
The record of allegations against Donald J. Trump falls into two broad buckets: a long-running set of sexual‑misconduct and assault claims tied to incidents that largely predate his presidency (spanning roughly the 1980s through 2013), and a second cluster of criminal and political‑conduct allegations and prosecutions that arise from actions during his campaigns, his presidency, or after he left office — including the 2016 campaign hush‑money matter, the handling of classified documents after 2021, and efforts to overturn the 2020 election tied to January 6, 2021. Reporting and court filings make these temporal distinctions clear even as debate continues about chronology, context and legal responsibility [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Pre‑presidency: decades of sexual‑misconduct and harassment allegations
A large set of allegations — described by outlets compiling lists and timelines — concern sexual harassment, groping, forcible kissing and assault dating from the 1980s through the early 2010s, with dozens of women publicly accusing Trump of inappropriate conduct that they say occurred before he was elected president; mainstream summaries and timelines place these incidents in that pre‑presidential window [1] [2] [5].
2. Pre‑election and campaign‑era legal claims: hush money and related civil suits
Some of the highest‑profile legal claims tied to campaign conduct concern the 2016 presidential campaign, most notably the Manhattan indictment alleging falsification of business records connected to a payment made in the final weeks of the 2016 race — a case prosecutors framed as election‑related concealment — and civil defamation or assault suits that originated from allegations publicized around the 2016 campaign cycle [3] [6].
3. During presidency: conduct, policy controversies, and immunity questions
While many of the sexual‑misconduct allegations predate Trump’s tenure, controversies and legal questions arose while he was president: for example, civil suits filed earlier (Summer Zervos’s defamation suit) had to be litigated against a sitting president and raised immunity and procedural issues that were addressed during and after his time in office [7] [6]. Reporting notes that some accusations were publicly discussed during his presidency even when the alleged acts occurred earlier [7].
4. Post‑presidency (and late‑presidency) criminal cases: documents, election interference and prosecutions
A distinctly post‑presidential cluster involves criminal prosecutions or investigations that relate to actions taken during or after his presidency: federal charges about mishandling classified records after January 2021 and the sprawling federal and state inquiries into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and January 6 are treated in reporting as alleged misconduct occurring during his post‑presidential period or in the transition — prosecutors frame some allegations as conduct after the 2020 vote and into the certification period [3] [4].
5. Allegations referenced but not substantiated: Epstein‑era tips and investigatory files
Media accounts of DOJ and FBI files tied to Jeffrey Epstein include tips or unverified allegations that reference Trump in contexts decades old; outlets stress many entries were deemed not credible by investigators and did not result in charges, and the public record available in those releases does not establish verified criminal conduct [8].
6. What reporting shows — and what it doesn’t
Synthesis of the cited reporting shows a clear temporal pattern: the many sexual‑misconduct allegations are overwhelmingly alleged to have happened before Trump became president, while the major criminal indictments and prosecutions in news coverage involve campaign‑era conduct (2016 hush‑money), actions tied to the 2020 election and January 6, and the classified‑documents matter that arose after he left office; however, courtroom strategy, claims of immunity, and overlapping timelines mean some cases straddle the transition points and political narratives often emphasize different timelines for different purposes [1] [3] [4] [8].