Domain 02
Civil Fraud and Business Deception
Civil judgments, settlements, and findings related to fraudulent business practices.
33 entries
The CBS News Lawsuit: Trump Sued for $10 Billion Over a 60 Minutes Interview, Then Collected $16 Million in Settlement
2024 - 2025
On October 31, 2024, five days before the presidential election, Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS News and its parent company Paramount Global, demanding $10 billion in damages. The lawsuit al...
Weaponizing Defamation Lawsuits from the Oval Office: The ABC, CBS, Des Moines Register, and Pulitzer Board Cases of 2024 and 2025
2024 - 2026
Beginning in 2024 and continuing into his second term as president, Donald Trump filed or pursued a series of defamation lawsuits against major news organizations, a national pollster, and the Pulitze...
E. Jean Carroll Defamation Verdict: $83.3 Million Jury Award for 'Remarkably Reprehensible' Conduct
2022 - 2025
On January 26, 2024, a federal jury in Manhattan awarded E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages after finding that Donald Trump had defamed her by repeatedly denying her allegation that he sexually ...
Giuliani's $148 Million Defamation Verdict: Consequences for Spreading Trump's Election Fraud Claims Against Georgia Election Workers
2020 - 2024
On December 15, 2023, a federal jury in Washington, D.C. awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss a total of $148,169,000 in compensatory and punitive damages after finding that Rudy...
Election Technology Defamation: Trump's Amplification of False Claims About Dominion Voting Systems and the Resulting Legal Fallout
2020 - 2026
Following the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and his allies launched a sustained campaign of false claims alleging that Dominion Voting Systems and other election technology compani...
Fox News Dominion Voting Systems Settlement: $787.5 Million Resolution Exposing Trump's Election Lies as Source Material
2020 - 2023
On April 18, 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit, the largest publicly known defamation settlement in American media history. While Fox N...
Post-Election Litigation Campaign: 62 Lawsuits Filed to Overturn the 2020 Election Results, Nearly All Dismissed
2020 - 2021
Following the November 3, 2020, presidential election, the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and Trump allies filed 62 lawsuits in nine states and the District of Columbia challenging...
Newsmax Defamation Settlements: $40 Million to Smartmatic and $67 Million to Dominion for Amplifying False Election Fraud Claims
2020 - 2025
Newsmax Media, a conservative cable news network that amplified Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 presidential election, paid a combined $107 million in defamation settlements to two voting t...
New York AG Investigation into Trump Organization Insurance Practices: Inflated Assets in Applications to Insurers
2019 - 2024
In February 2019, former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress that Donald Trump had routinely inflated the value of his assets when seeking favorable insurance terms. Repres...
Unpaid Campaign Rally Bills: Trump's Refusal to Pay the City of El Paso and a Pattern of Unpaid Municipal Security Costs
2019 - 2026
On February 11, 2019, Donald Trump held a campaign rally at the El Paso County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas. The event required significant municipal resources, including police overtime, traffic manage...
Summer Zervos Defamation Lawsuit: Presidential Immunity Challenge and Withdrawal Without Compensation
2017 - 2021
Summer Zervos, a contestant on Season 5 of The Apprentice, accused Donald Trump of sexual assault in October 2016, alleging that Trump groped and kissed her without consent during a 2007 meeting at th...
Jacobus v. Trump: Defamation Lawsuit by Republican Consultant over Twitter Attacks
2016 - 2017
In 2016, Republican political consultant and television commentator Cheryl Jacobus filed a $4 million defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump in New York State court after Trump attacked her on Twitte...
Bondi Donation: $25,000 Trump Foundation Gift to Florida Attorney General While Trump University Investigation Was Under Consideration
2013 - 2019
On September 17, 2013, the Donald J. Trump Foundation made a $25,000 donation to And Justice for All, a political committee supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. The donation was made during ...
Florida Regulatory Record: Hundreds of Health Code Violations at Trump Doral and Mar-a-Lago
2013 - 2019
Florida state regulatory records document a sustained pattern of health code violations at two of Donald Trump's most prominent properties: Trump National Doral Miami and the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm B...
Trump SoHo: Buyer Fraud Settlement and Abandoned Criminal Investigation After Attorney Donations to DA
2008 - 2012
Trump SoHo was a 46-story hotel-condominium tower at 246 Spring Street in Manhattan, developed through a partnership between the Trump Organization and the Bayrock Group. Beginning in 2008, Trump Orga...
Silencing Accusers: The Catch-and-Kill System, NDAs, and Legal Threats Used to Suppress Sexual Misconduct Allegations
2007 - 2022
Over a period of more than a decade, Donald Trump and his associates employed a system of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), legal threats, defamation of accusers, and a "catch-and-kill" arrangement wit...
The Trump Network and ACN: Endorsing Multi-Level Marketing Schemes for Millions in Undisclosed Payments
2006 - 2024
Over roughly a decade, Donald Trump lent his name, image, and personal endorsement to at least two multi-level marketing operations: ACN Opportunity, LLC, a telecommunications MLM selling video phones...
Trump University: $25 Million Settlement for Fraud and Misrepresentation
2005 - 2018
Trump University was a for-profit enterprise launched in 2005 that marketed real estate seminars as a path to learning Trump's personal investment strategies. Despite its name, it was not an accredite...
Trump Institute: Fraudulent Seminars Using Plagiarized Materials and Deceptive Marketing
2005 - 2010
The Trump Institute was a seminar operation that launched in 2005, licensing the Trump name and image to market real estate investment courses to the public. The business was owned and operated by Ire...
The Apprentice NDAs: Non-Disclosure Agreements Used to Suppress Information About Trump's Conduct on the Set of His Television Show
2004 - 2024
Contestants, crew members, and staff who participated in "The Apprentice" and "The Celebrity Apprentice," the NBC reality television shows hosted by Donald Trump from 2004 to 2015, were required to si...
Doe v. Trump: Anonymous Federal Lawsuit Alleging Sexual Assault of a Minor at a Party Hosted by Jeffrey Epstein
1994 - 2016
In April 2016, a woman using the pseudonym "Katie Johnson" filed a federal civil lawsuit in the Central District of California against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. The complaint alleged that Trum...
Trump Village Rent Overcharge Scheme: Tenants Sued Over Decades of Fraudulently Inflated Rents at Fred Trump's Brooklyn Properties
1992 - 2020
In December 2020, tenants of rent-regulated apartments in more than 30 buildings previously owned by the Trump family filed a class-action lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. The laws...
Atlantic City Casino Regulatory Violations: Fines, Discrimination Citations, and Anti-Money Laundering Failures
1990 - 2015
Donald Trump's Atlantic City casino operations accumulated a significant record of regulatory violations, fines, and citations from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and federal regulators over...
USFL v. NFL: $1 Antitrust Verdict After Trump-Led Strategy Collapsed the League
1984 - 1990
Donald Trump purchased a majority stake in the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League in August 1983. The USFL had been founded in 1982 as a spring professional football league and i...
SLAPP Litigation: Pattern of Strategic Lawsuits to Silence Journalists, Critics, and Political Opponents
1984 - 2025
Over the course of his career, Donald Trump has filed or threatened thousands of lawsuits. Legal scholars, press freedom organizations, and investigative journalists have documented a pattern in which...
USFL v. NFL: Trump's Role in the Fall Schedule Gamble That Destroyed a Professional Football League
1984 - 1986
The United States Football League was founded in 1982 as a spring professional football league designed to avoid direct competition with the NFL. The league launched its first season in March 1983 wit...
Frivolous Litigation as Intimidation: Trump's Pattern of Using Defamation Lawsuits to Silence Critics and Journalists
1984 - 2024
Over a period spanning four decades, Donald Trump has filed or threatened lawsuits against journalists, authors, media organizations, and critics who published unflattering information about his wealt...
Bankrupting Small Businesses Through Non-Payment: The Edward Friel Jr. Cabinet Company and Trump's Pattern of Stiffing Contractors
1984 - 1989
Edward Friel Jr. operated the Edward J. Friel Co., a family-owned cabinet-making business in Philadelphia that had been founded by his father in the 1940s. During the Atlantic City casino construction...
Suing Journalists Who Question His Wealth: Trump's Decades-Long Pattern of Using Litigation to Suppress Unfavorable Press Coverage
1984 - 2025
Donald Trump has used litigation against journalists and news organizations as a tool to suppress reporting about his finances and business conduct. This pattern spans more than four decades, predates...
New Jersey Casino Regulatory History: Anti-Money Laundering Violations, FinCEN Penalties, and Organized Crime Associations
1982 - 2015
Donald Trump's casino operations in Atlantic City were subject to regulatory oversight by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and the Division of Gaming Enforcement from the time Trump received h...
Squeezing Tenants: Trump's Pattern of Using Lease Terms, Harassment, and Litigation to Force Out Renters and Commercial Occupants
1981 - 2020
Over several decades, Donald Trump and entities controlled by him engaged in a documented pattern of using aggressive lease enforcement, building-condition manipulation, and litigation to pressure ten...
The Bonwit Teller Art Destruction: Trump Promised Art Deco Treasures to the Metropolitan Museum, Then Had Them Jackhammered
1980 - 1980
In 1980, Donald Trump promised to donate historically significant Art Deco architectural elements from the Bonwit Teller building in Manhattan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then ordered the artwo...
Over 500 Shell Companies and LLCs: How the Trump Organization Used Corporate Structures to Obscure Ownership, Shield Liability, and Complicate Investigations
1980 - 2026
The Trump Organization is not a single company but a conglomerate of more than 500 separate entities, most of them limited liability companies. When Trump filed his Federal Election Commission financi...