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# Why Trump's Prosecutions Are Happening All At Once
August 17 2023
Written by Zachary Basu.
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INDICTMENT WATCH - [Four indictments](https://www.axios.com/2023/08/15/trump-indictments-charges-counts) in four months. And most of the alleged crimes happened two-plus years ago.
**Why it matters:** Democrats want to know why it took so long. Republicans are suspicious: Why did prosecutors "wait" until the 2024 campaign was heating up, and [former President Trump](https://www.axios.com/politics-policy/donald-trump) was the runaway (early) favorite for the Republican nomination?
**The big picture:** These investigations were all happening in separate orbits. Now they've collided in the mind-blowing spectacle of a quadruply indicted former president — who'll spend the next year juggling [constant court dates with a campaign](https://www.axios.com/2023/08/16/trump-indictments-charges-campaign-schedule-2023-2024) to get his old job back.
**Here's how (and why) it took so long**, as pieced together from public reporting, court documents and the obvious sensitivities surrounding the historic prosecution of a former president.
**State of play:** The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel [has long held](https://www.justice.gov/olc/opinion/sitting-president%E2%80%99s-amenability-indictment-and-criminal-prosecution) that sitting presidents cannot be indicted, effectively granting Trump immunity while he was in the White House.
- Trump didn't face consequences in 2018 when he was [named "Individual 1"](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/12/cohen-sentencing-donald-trump-co-conspirator-222938/)in the case against his former fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to paying hush money to women who allegedly had affairs with Trump.
- Former special counsel Robert Mueller also [cited the OLC opinion](https://time.com/5573289/robert-mueller-trump-obstruction-charges/) when he declined to indict Trump in 2019, despite finding evidence that the then-president may have obstructed justice in the Russia investigation.
**Between the lines:** The OLC opinion does not prevent ex-presidents from being prosecuted for crimes they're accused of committing while in office — such as Trump's alleged hush money payments or his scheme to overturn the 2020 election.
- Well aware of his legal exposure, given that the FBI had executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Trump [launched his 2024 campaign](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/16/donald-trump-2024-president-run) last Nov. 16 — far earlier than any of his GOP rivals and nearly two years before the election. That move set up Trump's often-repeated claim that he was being targeted by Democrats because he was a presidential candidate.
- Three days later, Attorney General Merrick Garland [appointed special counsel Jack Smith](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/18/doj-merrick-garland-donald-trump-criminal-probe) to take over the investigations into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents.
**Zoom in:** Major criminal investigations — especially those involving powerful politicians — take serious time and resources, as the risk of botching a prosecution can undermine public faith in the justice system.
- **In Manhattan,** District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to seek a Trump indictment in spring 2022 after years of investigation by his predecessor — [only to resurrect the probe](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/nyregion/alvin-bragg-trump-investigation.html) and bring the hush-money charges this March. Republicans have assailed Bragg's indictment as overtly political, and [polling suggests](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/29/new-poll-shows-skepticism-manhattan-das-case-against-trump/) the public is also skeptical.
- **In Florida,** Trump [engaged in a year-long](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/27/trump-archives-records-war/) feud with the National Archives over government documents he had taken and allegedly tried to conceal. He [was indicted in June](https://www.axios.com/2023/06/09/trump-indictment-unsealed-charges) after his attorney Evan Corcoran was [forced to testify](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-evan-corcoran-testifies-grand-jury/) to a grand jury in March, providing key evidence about Trump's alleged obstruction.
- **In D.C.,** top DOJ and FBI officials resisted opening a probe into Trump's role in Jan. 6 for more than a year, wary of appearing partisan, the Washington Post [reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/). Even after Smith took over as special counsel, legal battles involving the testimony of key figures such as [former Vice President Mike Pence](https://apnews.com/article/pence-trump-grand-jury-2020-jan-6-9dac6db37ab8923ff1b0f09f3a9a32c8) led to further delays.
- **In Georgia,** where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis just unveiled a [sprawling racketeering indictment](https://www.axios.com/2023/08/15/trump-indictment-georgia-election-probe-latest-news) against Trump and 18 allies, the [sheer scale and complexity](https://www.axios.com/2023/08/15/georgia-indictment-fani-willis-trump-rico) of the two-and-a-half year election interference probe helps explain the timing.
**The big picture:** Investigations into candidates have long had a fraught relationship with the political calendar, especially in a country with seemingly never-ending election cycles.
- The Justice Department has an [unwritten rule](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/27/us/politics/what-is-60-day-rule.html#:~:text=The%20department%20has%20an%20unwritten,enforcement%20power%20to%20affect%20democracy.) not to take investigative steps against candidates within 60 days of an election.
- But it doesn't always work out that way: In October 2016, then-FBI director James Comey [dropped the bombshell revelation](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/) that the FBI had reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.
- 11 days later, Trump was elected president.
*(Zachary Basu is a writer for [AXIOS ](https://www.axios.com/2023/08/17/trump-prosecutions-timeline-republicans-democrats)where this article was first featured.).*
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