The depth and breadth of the looming legal problems facing former President Trump are on full display this week after a rapid series of developments in various cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past few days alone, one of Trump\u2019s top lawyers departed, citing internal friction, the special counsel has intensified his investigation into the former president\u2019s conduct and writer E. Jean Carroll\u2002<\/a>has filed for more damages after Trump mocked her sexual assault allegations at a CNN town hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, a New York judge called a hearing Tuesday to reiterate to Trump that rules surrounding his hush money prosecution bar him from using evidence in the case to attack any witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The specter of legal trouble is nothing new for Trump. Jack Smith,<\/a> a Justice Department special counsel, is investigating his handling of classified information and his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. A Georgia prosecutor is probing attempts to overturn the state\u2019s election results in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump was indicted earlier this year on charges related to an alleged hush money scheme to keep an affair quiet during the 2016 campaign, and he was recently found liable for defamation and sexual abuse of Carroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the latest developments come as the 2024 GOP primary field takes shape, with Trump\u2019s chief rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2002<\/a>(R), set to enter the race this week, just days after Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) jumped in the contest Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The steady stream of news began in recent days when Timothy Parlatore, one of Trump\u2019s attorneys handling the document case, resigned and went public with some of his concerns about the influence of some in the former president\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt had nothing to do with the case itself or the client,\u201d Parlatore told CNN\u2019s Paula Reid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe real reason is because there are certain individuals that made defending the president much harder than it needed to be. In particular, there is one individual who works for him, Boris Epshteyn, who had really done everything he could to try to block us \u2014 to prevent us from doing what we could to defend the president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parlatore said Epshteyn \u201cserved as kind of a filter to prevent us from getting information to the client. \u2026 In my opinion, he was not very honest with us or with the client on certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes major events in the case, including subsequent searches of Trump properties to assure there were no remaining classified records on the premises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere were certain things, like the searches, that he attempted to interfere with,\u201d Parlatore said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith\u2019s case against Trump, especially on the Mar-a-Lago front, appears to be accelerating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Parlatore told The Hill last week that Smith appeared to be wrapping up his presentation to the grand jury assembled in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that they\u2019re just about done with all the grand jury witnesses at this point. And moving into the report writing phase,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that they\u2019re going to spend the next month writing up a several-hundred-page report \u2026and present it to [Attorney General Merrick Garland in the] beginning of June.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 14, 2023. (AP Photo\/Susan Walsh)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The investigation has expanded to also include some of the Trump organization\u2019s business dealings while the former president was still in office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Smith issued a subpoena for records of business deals that former President Trump\u2019s company made with seven countries since he took office in 2017: China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis signaled in recent days that charges in her investigation could come in early August. That case is focused on a \u201cfake electors\u201d scheme hatched by Trump allies after the 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As those investigations play out, others are already expected to follow him into presidential primary season next spring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Attorneys for Carroll on Monday amended a complaint to seek additional damages from Trump after he called her a \u201cwhack job\u201d and mocked her allegation that he raped her in an encounter in the 1990s. He made the comments during a CNN town hall earlier this month, the day after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The civil case will likely loom over the former president for months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n