Donald Trump has once again been elected to the White House, becoming the first president to be seated in the Oval Office while several criminal cases against him are pending.

His ascent to the highest office in the US while facing dozens of criminal charges has taken the country in uncharted territory. It is also an extraordinarily unique position for Trump to be in: Never before has a criminal defendant been elected to the nation’s highest office, just as an ex-president had never been criminally charged until last year.

Trump is a convicted felon who is awaiting sentencing in a hush money case in New York and still working to stave off prosecution in other state and federal cases.

Here’s a look at legal challenges Trump faces

The former US president’s victory might lead to the dismissal of some of the most serious criminal charges against him, which also include federal cases.

The uncertainty that looms over the verdict in each of these charges — the New York hush money case, the classified documents case, and the election interference cases — has also been affected by the US Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity.

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New York hush money case

Donald Trump, 78, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in May in New York. A jury of New Yorkers found him guilty of all counts in connection with a hush-money payment made to an adult film star.

Judge Juan Merchan pushed back Trump’s sentencing from September to November 26, after the election.

The judge in New York is now set to sentence the former president later this month after holding off on handing down the punishment ahead of Election Day to avoid any appearance of affecting the outcome of the presidential race – though Trump’s lawyers are expected to ask the judge to put off the sentencing now that he’s the president-elect, CNN reported.

Whether that sentencing will happen at all now remains an open question.

January 6 case

Special counsel Jack Smith filed criminal charges against Trump last year over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. Trump pleaded not guilty.

The case has been in legal limbo since the Supreme Court ruled this summer that Trump was partially immune from criminal prosecution over official acts committed while in office.

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Smith has since refiled his case, arguing Trump’s attempts to overturn the election were not related to his official duties.

As president-elect, Trump’s criminal problems from the case now “go away”, according to former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, BBC reported.

“It’s well established that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, so the election fraud case in DC District Court will be dismissed,” he said.

Rahmani said that if Smith refuses to dismiss the case, Trump can simply get rid of him, which he has already pledged to do.

“I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump said during a radio interview in October, during his campaign, according to a report by BBC.

Classified documents case

Jack Smith is also leading a case against Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House, more charges that Trump denies.

He is accused of storing sensitive documents in his Mar-a-Lago home and obstructing Justice Department efforts to retrieve the files, BBC reports.

The judge assigned to the case, Trump-appointee Aileen Cannon, dismissed the charges in July, arguing Smith was improperly appointed by the Justice Department to lead the case.

Smith appealed the ruling, but with Trump set to take office, talks are now underway about ending the case.

Rahmani said he expects the classified documents case will meet the same fate as the election case. “The DOJ will abandon its Eleventh Circuit appeal of the dismissal of the classified documents case,” he told BBC.

Georgia election case

Donald Trump is also facing criminal charges in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state. That case has faced a number of hurdles, including efforts to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis over her relationship with a lawyer she hired to work on the case.

But now that Trump is the next president, the case could face even more delays, or possibly dismissal.

It is expected to be paused during Trump’s time in office, according to legal experts.

Civil suits against Trump

Apart from criminal suits, the former president is also defending himself in a litany of civil lawsuits, including ones concerning his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, two E. Jean Carroll defamation cases, and a civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general where Trump was ordered to pay nearly $454 million in damages.

Trump lost two defamation cases to Carroll in 2023 and 2024 in federal court after a jury found him liable for sexually abusing the onetime columnist and subsequently defaming her. Two juries awarded Carroll $5 million and $83 million.

A federal appeals court heard Trump’s appeal to dismiss the first Carroll verdict in September. The court has yet to issue a decision, CNN reported.

Trump is also still facing civil lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and others over his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.

It’s possible that all these cases continue to play out even as Trump serves his second term in the White House. In a 1997 Supreme Court ruling stemming from a civil lawsuit then-President Bill Clinton was involved in, the justices unanimously decided that sitting presidents could not invoke presidential immunity to avoid civil litigation while in office.