Here's How Many Lawsuits Donald Trump Faced During His Presidency

Donald Trump has been involved in anywhere between 3,500 to over 4,000 lawsuits in his long career as a businessman, showman, and politician, according to a tally by USA Today. But here we focus on the plaintiff-in-chief — those suits levied at the man in the oval office, who, as Politico says, has a real relish for legal battles. He was sued at least 60 times in the first three weeks of his presidency, according to the Los Angeles Times — though many of those filings were frivolous and quite funny.

Litigation is quite a serious business for President Trump, however. Trump's mentor was allegedly the "ruthless prosecutor," Roy Cohn. As Trump rose to prominence in the absolutely cutthroat world of Manhattan real-estate, Cohh, then acting as Trump's attorney, was the "hidden hand" there to help with "shady tax abatements, the zoning variances, the sweetheart deals, and the threats to those who might stand in the project's way," according to Vanity Fair. 

The notoriously cantankerous Cohn and equally turbulent Trump eventually went separate ways, the future POTUS saying in 1980, "All I can tell you is he's been vicious to others in his protection of me. He's a genius. He's a lousy lawyer, but he's a genius." Cohn was the archetypal attorney-pugilist, and Trump purportedly made that philosophy his own, using "lawsuits as cudgels and prods and publicity stunts," claims Politico. And as president, the avalanche of often ludicrous litigation continues. Here are some of the most notable cases.

Famed Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll alleges Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in either 1995 or 1996. She claims in her misandrist memoir What Do We Need Men For: A Modest Proposal that she ran into Trump at Bergdorf Goodman. They recognized each other. Initially attracted, Carroll describes Trump as "prettier than ever." Trump was supposedly shopping for a lady friend and suggested Caroll try on some lingerie. She apparently agreed, and the pair headed for a dressing room. That's when she says Trump raped her in a violent exchange beginning, "The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips." Carroll further details the harrowing episode, excerpted for The Cut — where she lodges similar accusations at men throughout her life.

Trump flatly denied the allegations, quipping, "number one, she's not my type. Number two, it never happened." according to The Hill. Trump went on to say that Carroll was "totally lying," and "I have no idea who she is."

According to The New York Times, however, there is a photo of the two together from the 1980s. Carroll has now sued Trump for defamation, claiming by denying her rape allegation, he has damaged her reputation and career. Carroll says she is doing this for "every woman who has come forward and was dragged through the mud, ridiculed and called a liar."

Many of the lawsuits pursued against the rich and famous are obviously frivolous but none-the-less funny. A hallmark of the great yet labyrinthine American legal system is you really can sue anybody for anything. That doesn't mean you're going to win, or not go broke in the process, but it is a blunt way to get on the radar of your least favorite celebrity.

An Oregon inmate in a case dubbed McNair vs. Trump et al sued Trump and basically his entire cabinet in 2017 for being "illegally elected" and supposedly violating the Constitution's emoluments clause, according to the Los Angeles Times. This is part of a spate of suits from inmates and various eccentrics across the country and beyond.

Another man sued Trump in a "rambling, handwritten" filing accusing the president of a highly legalistic distinction this plaintiff no doubt developed himself: "rampant corruption." Another self-filed — and yet apparently pro-Trump suit — simply asks the president to employ "extreme vetting" on foreign travelers, and to punish "sanctuary" cities. Two other suits, from Illinois area prisoners, are described, perhaps generously, as "unintelligible," and "incomprehensible." A more peeved plaintiff sued Trump alleging the president used "Make America Great Again ... without permission." The same suit, Nanney vs. Bank of America, also claims the mega-bank failed to just straight-up give him $4 billion — many Americans have experienced this second crime first hand, so it may be worth investigating further. Much injustice.

In more professional and far less fun legal wrangling, the great state of California has basically been suing Donald Trump and his administration since day one. At issue are a variety of federal policies for which the Golden State has spent $43 million in litigation costs in the first four years of Trump's administration, according to The Sacramento Bee.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra claims, however, the suits have saved his state billions. They cover three main areas of dispute. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Trump administration wants to weaken California laws on higher fuel efficiency standards and take away the state's ability to set its own emission standards. That second part of the overall environmental case is set to hit the Supreme Court. California has further moved to block Trump's border wall and an attempt to undo DACA, the Obama-era carve-out that was created to allow children of immigrants who arrived illegally to stay in the US. Thirdly, California is suing to prevent Republicans from rescinding another Obama-era law, the Affordable Care Act, which allows in part, patients with pre-existing medical conditions to buy healthcare at reduced prices.

"Every single case is based on Donald Trump and his administration doing something against the law," claims the California Attorney General. "We didn't wake up in the morning and say, 'Wouldn't it be fun to sue Donald Trump again?" California has now filed over 90 lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Twitter announced in 2020 that it would begin fact-checking tweets about COVID-19 — including dubious links between 5G technology and the coronavirus pandemic, according to Business Insider. Donald Trump soon ran afoul of Twitter's more aggressive editorial attitude in a tweet about mail-in ballots, which he contends are a potential source of election fraud. Twitter marked his tweets with a label reading, "get the facts about mail-in ballots," which links to a blurb sourced to CNN disputing his claim.

The president found all this quite partisan on Twitter's part and signed an executive action that could "open the door for the U.S. government to assume oversight of political speech on the Internet," according to The Washington Post. Trump, however, contends censorship is already afoot, "Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen," he tweeted. 

That's when Silicon Valley rallied. A group representing Google, Facebook, and Twitter called the Center for Democracy and Technology brought suit against the executive action. But it's a tricky case. Social media companies have avoided being regulated as publishers and thus liable for much of their content. The move to add editorializing on political tweets seems to run counter to their strategy of avoiding governmental oversight. Thus this legal clash with Trump is more like an initial volley in the deep quandary of what role powerful tech companies play in American democracy.

In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, protestors, then arguably rioters, stormed Washington DC's iconic St. John's Church in Lafayette Park where every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, besides Richard Nixon, has attended services on inauguration day. Roosevelt, of the legendary, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," speech, at the time, tried to buck up a frightened nation facing The Great Depression.

Never have similar words of national encouragement felt more needed than in 2020 when Donald Trump, with an escort of the federal police, appeared to tear gas protestors to make way for a photo op at the iconic church, according to The Washington Post. Three protestors then sued the POTUS, claiming they were peaceful, and that officers used rubber bullets and pepper spray, according to TMZ. They are further suing Attorney General Bill Barr, who was present, for violating their rights, and are seeking damages. 

Barr bit back, however, telling Face The Nation the gatherings were anything but peaceful. He points out protestors had injured over 150 police officers in DC — some pummeled with bricks and incendiaries. St. John's Church itself was set ablaze the night before Trump's photo op. Barr says given the brazen attempts to destroy a national landmark, the action against protestors was merely an operation to establish a perimeter around the church to protect a historic site from further desecration. The protestors suing Trump, however, are also citing this very perimeter as unconstitutional.

Porn star Stormy Daniels claims she met Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. She says they hit it off and had sex, kiss and telling In Touch in 2011, "I can definitely describe his junk perfectly." The interview, though, didn't drop until 2018 because Trump allegedly had his former attorney Micheal Cohen give Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election to keep quiet, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Daniels, however, told 60 Minutes that just after she'd done the tell-all with In Touch, a strange man approached her and her infant daughter in a parking lot. The man allegedly threatened, "leave Trump alone, forget the story," and then added ominously, "that's a beautiful little girl, it'd be a shame if something happened to her mom."

Daniels claimed she'd never forget the face and turned to her infamous attorney, Michael Avenatti, for help. Avenatti was sentenced to prison in 2020 for attempting to extort $25 million from Nike — and faces charges he defrauded Daniels too, according to The Washington Post. But in 2018, the brazenly criminal, comma, lawyer dropped a sketchy sketch of the supposed suspect, which Trump retweeted next to a photo of Daniel's also-estranged husband, adding, "A sketch years later about a nonexistent man!" The resemblance between the sketch and her ex is hilariously uncanny, but Daniels sued for defamation. The judge even ordered Daniels to pay Trump's legal fees, according to The New York Times.