Fact check: What are the felony charges against Donald Trump?

1. The headline felony at the center: 34 counts of falsifying business records — what prosecutors allege and what verdicts show

Prosecutors charged Donald Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, alleging those records concealed reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen and were intended to aid the campaign. That indictment and the related trial were reported as originating in March 2023 and culminated, according to later reportage, in a guilty verdict on all 34 counts, marking a notable first in U.S. history for a former president ^{[1] [3]}. Coverage emphasizes the nexus between bookkeeping entries and an asserted campaign benefit.

2. Election-related felony allegations in Georgia: racketeering and coordinated pressure on officials

In Georgia, prosecutors indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants on charges tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 result, invoking the state’s RICO statute alongside counts such as solicitation of violation of oath and false statements and writings. The Georgia indictment names high-profile co-defendants — Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and Sidney Powell — and frames the alleged conduct as a coordinated attempt to subvert certification processes, with state-level criminal law at the core of the allegations ^[2]. Reporting treats this as a distinct legal track from New York and federal cases.

3. Federal charges and unsealed evidence: a broader canvas of alleged election interference

Federal prosecutors have pursued a separate criminal case concerning efforts to overturn the 2020 election, with unsealed evidence disclosed in late September 2025 outlining alleged conspiratorial conduct. That evidence, as reported, provides detailed descriptions of communications and plans that federal authorities say demonstrate a coordinated strategy to subvert lawful results, and serves as the backbone of federal felony charges focused on obstruction and conspiracy theories distinct from state RICO claims ^[4]. The federal docket thus reflects a different statutory framework and evidentiary emphasis.

4. How the cases differ: charges, legal theories, and potential punishments

The New York falsifying-business-records case rests on state bookkeeping statutes and the theory that false corporate or personal records were used to conceal other crimes; the Georgia indictment employs RICO and related statutes to treat multiple actors and acts as part of a broader criminal enterprise; the federal case centers on statutes criminalizing obstruction, conspiracy, and similar nationwide threats to election administration. These differences matter legally because each track carries distinct elements prosecutors must prove and separate sentencing regimes should convictions obtain ^{[1] [2] [4]}.

5. Verdicts, appeals, and the timeline: what the public record shows through early 2026 reporting

Available analyses indicate a guilty verdict on the 34 New York counts was reached, reported in January 2026 as making Trump the first former U.S. president to be convicted of felony crimes. Other cases in Georgia and federal court remained in active litigation with indictments and unsealed evidence disclosed in late 2025; those matters were reported as ongoing and involving multiple co-defendants. The temporal spread — indictments in 2023 for New York, Georgia filings in 2025, and unsealed federal evidence in September 2025 — shows a staggered, jurisdictionally diverse legal landscape ^{[1] [2] [4] [3]}.

6. Who else is charged and why co-defendants matter to understanding the allegations

The Georgia indictment’s list of 18 co-defendants, including well-known Trump allies, frames the matter as an alleged group enterprise rather than isolated conduct by one individual; prosecutors used the presence of co-defendants to support the RICO theory that distinct acts were coordinated. In New York, the falsifying-business-records theory centers more narrowly on the relationship between Trump, Michael Cohen, and the record-keeping that allegedly masked campaign-related payments. The presence or absence of co-defendants reflects prosecutorial strategy and the legal theory underlying each charge ^{[2] [1]}.

7. Media and legal accounts diverge in emphasis — assessing the differences in coverage

Reporting sources emphasize different aspects: some coverage foregrounds the legal novelty and historic nature of a conviction, while other reports concentrate on the details of the alleged schemes and the multiplicity of charges across jurisdictions. Accounts from September 2025 detail unsealed federal evidence, while January 2026 pieces report the New York verdict. The variety of emphases illustrates how the same underlying investigations produce distinct narratives depending on whether the outlet focuses on verdicts, evidentiary disclosures, or prosecutorial strategy ^{[4] [5] [3]}.

8. The big picture: multiple felony tracks with overlapping facts but separate legal outcomes

Taken together, the sources depict a legal landscape in which Donald Trump faced multiple felony allegations across at least three tracks: New York falsifying business records culminating in reported convictions, Georgia racketeering and related state charges tied to alleged election subversion, and federal obstruction/conspiracy allegations supported by unsealed evidence. Each track uses overlapping factual touchpoints — campaign-era conduct and post-2020 actions — but distinct statutes and procedural timelines, meaning outcomes in one jurisdiction do not automatically resolve the others ^{[1] [2] [4]}.