What documented investigations and convictions involve Donald Trump and his businesses?
Executive summary
Donald Trump and entities tied to him have been the subject of multiple high-profile criminal investigations and civil cases in state and federal courts; the most consequential documented criminal conviction was his 34-count New York conviction for falsifying business records tied to hush‑money payments [1] [2]. Separate probes — including federal classified‑documents and election‑interference inquiries, a long-running New York civil fraud suit against the Trump Organization, and earlier business‑practice settlements such as Trump University — round out a complex public record of investigations, indictments, convictions, civil judgments and settlements [3] [4] [5].
1. Major criminal indictments and the New York conviction
The landmark criminal outcome in the public record is New York’s prosecution that produced a 34-count conviction for falsifying business records related to alleged hush‑money payments tied to the 2016 campaign; jurors found Trump guilty on all counts in May 2024, making him the first former U.S. president to be criminally convicted at trial [1] [2]. That New York case grew out of testimony and documentary evidence tied to payments arranged by Michael Cohen and reported as legal expenses, and prosecutors argued the falsified records were intended to conceal other unlawful activity; the defense disputed witness credibility and framed the transactions as ordinary business decisions [6] [1]. Coverage notes that appeals and legal maneuvers followed the verdict; reporting also records judicial questions about sentencing and post‑conviction procedures [1] [3].
2. Federal special‑counsel probes: documents and January 6
Federal investigations overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith produced separate criminal matters: a federal indictment concerning classified documents recovered from Mar‑a‑Lago and a federal probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in charges tied to January 6; those federal matters proceeded along procedures distinct from New York and involved complex immunity and jurisdictional arguments reported through 2024–2025 [3] [7]. Media reporting highlights that the Supreme Court and lower courts were drawn into disputes over presidential immunity and prosecutorial authority in those federal matters, producing outcomes that affected how or whether certain charges proceeded [7].
3. New York Attorney General civil fraud case and corporate convictions
New York civil litigation by the state attorney general accused Trump and the Trump Organization of inflating asset values for loans and insurance while understating values for taxes; a judge ordered nearly $355 million in fines against Trump and related entities after finding fraud in business valuations, and the Trump Organization itself faced earlier corporate convictions related to tax schemes in a separate criminal trial in late 2022 involving 17 counts for tax‑related offenses [3] [4]. Those corporate findings underscore that some legal consequences were assessed against business entities rather than only against Trump personally, and appeals and challenges to remedies have been a continuing feature of the record [3] [4].
4. Civil settlements and other business‑related litigation
Beyond criminal prosecutions, Trump’s business history includes long‑running civil suits and settlements: the widely reported Trump University litigation resulted in a roughly $25 million settlement to resolve allegations of deceptive practices, and numerous other civil suits have been filed over contracts, labor and finance that together create a voluminous litigation record compared with many peers in real estate [5] [8]. Reporting cautions that litigation frequency in real estate is common, but the scale and political overlay of Trump’s matters — from commercial disputes to politically charged prosecutions — amplify public attention [8].
5. Scope, counts and contested numbers
Trackers maintained by news organizations and watchdog groups documented dozens of indictments and scores of individual counts: one tally put Trump’s personal criminal charges in the dozens — for example, an organization reported 88 charges across four criminal cases as of March 2024 — while other outlets catalog civil suits and corporate counts separately, underscoring that “how many” depends on whether one counts individual counts, separate indictments, corporate convictions, or civil judgments [9] [2]. Sources do not uniformly agree on finer points of chronology and legal posture, and public reporting shows ongoing appeals, stays, and political developments that affected prosecutorial posture [7] [3].
6. What this record does and does not prove
The documented record shows convictions, indictments, civil judgments and settlements involving Donald Trump and entities tied to him; sources make clear which outcomes were convictions (for example, the New York 34‑count verdict and corporate tax convictions), which were indictments or ongoing investigations, and where appellate or constitutional disputes altered case trajectories [1] [4] [7]. Reporting limitations in the supplied sources mean some questions — such as unresolved appeals, internal corporate compliance practices, or unverifiable allegations not litigated in public filings — cannot be adjudicated here without additional documents or court records beyond those cited [3] [8].