THE HISTORICAL RECORD

On December 14, 2020, the duly appointed presidential electors met in states across the country. Joe Biden had won the certified results in seven contested states, but groups of Trump supporters also assembled and signed documents purporting to cast electoral votes for Donald Trump.

As Congress prepared to count electoral votes on January 6, 2021, President Donald Trump and allies insisted that Vice President Mike Pence could intervene to change the result. Pence’s constitutional role was to preside over the joint session, not independently choose the winner of the election.

The House January 6 committee used the phrase “187 minutes” to describe the period between the end of Donald Trump’s speech near the White House and his later video message telling supporters at the Capitol to go home. The phrase became central to the committee’s examination of presidential conduct during the attack.

On January 2, 2021, President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other officials about the state’s presidential election result. Georgia had certified Joe Biden’s narrow victory following recounts and reviews.

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack gathered testimony, documents, recordings, and video over an extended inquiry. Its final report, released in December 2022, presented the attack as the culmination of a larger effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Federal prosecutors in South Florida negotiated a non-prosecution agreement with Jeffrey Epstein in 2007, after investigators had examined allegations involving the sexual abuse of underage girls. The arrangement became one of the most heavily criticized decisions in the case.

Alexander Acosta served as the United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida when federal prosecutors reached a controversial non-prosecution agreement with Jeffrey Epstein. That agreement resolved a federal investigation while Epstein later pleaded guilty to state offenses in 2008.

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein moved in overlapping social circles in New York and Palm Beach during the 1990s and early 2000s. Photographs and contemporary reporting document that they knew one another. Trump publicly commented favorably about Epstein in a 2002 magazine profile, years before Epstein’s 2019 federal indictment.

The public record of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse is not only a story about powerful acquaintances and prosecutors. It is also the record of girls and young women who reported exploitation, endured years of litigation, and pressed institutions to respond.

The phrase “Epstein files” is often used as though it refers to one definitive list. In reality, records associated with Jeffrey Epstein come from different sources: criminal case filings, civil litigation, investigative material, contact books, flight logs, and government disclosures. They differ greatly in reliability and meaning.

On July 25, 2019, President Donald Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A White House memorandum of the conversation, subsequently released publicly, records Trump asking Zelenskyy to examine matters involving the 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden. The memorandum was not a verbatim transcript; it was a contemporaneous account prepared from notes and listening devices.

In the summer of 2019, the Trump administration placed a hold on congressionally appropriated security assistance to Ukraine. Officials testified that the delay caused concern inside the national security bureaucracy, particularly because Ukraine faced continuing Russian aggression.

A complaint from an intelligence-community whistleblower drew congressional attention to President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. The complaint described information received from multiple officials about a July 2019 call and associated efforts to influence Ukrainian officials.

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The first concerned the administration’s dealings with Ukraine; the second concerned the White House’s resistance to the House investigation.

The Senate concluded Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial on February 5, 2020. Senators voted 48 guilty to 52 not guilty on abuse of power and 47 guilty to 53 not guilty on obstruction of Congress. Neither article reached the two-thirds threshold required for conviction.

On January 6, 2021, a crowd breached the U.S. Capitol while Congress met to count electoral votes. The attack forced the suspension of the joint session and the evacuation or sheltering of lawmakers. The House moved rapidly to consider impeachment of President Donald Trump.

The second impeachment article accused Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection following the January 6 attack. It referred to his statements about the 2020 election, his efforts to challenge the result, and his remarks to supporters before Congress met.

By the time Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial began, he had left office. Senators therefore debated whether the Constitution allowed the Senate to try a former president for acts committed while in office.

House impeachment managers presented video, public statements, and a chronology of January 6 to support the charge that Trump incited insurrection. Their case connected the president’s efforts to challenge the election with the crowd’s movement toward the Capitol and the interruption of Congress.

On February 13, 2021, the Senate voted 57 guilty to 43 not guilty on the single impeachment article against former President Donald Trump. Seven Republican senators joined all 50 Democratic and independent senators voting to convict.

Following the November 3, 2020 presidential election, states canvassed results, conducted required audits and recounts, and certified their presidential electors under state law. Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 232.

After the 2020 election, the Trump campaign and allied plaintiffs filed numerous lawsuits concerning ballots, election administration, and certification. The cases differed in their allegations, defendants, and requested remedies.

On December 14, 2020, groups of Trump supporters met in several states that had certified Biden victories and signed documents purporting to cast electoral votes for Trump. The documents were sent to federal recipients despite lacking the certification required for official electoral votes.

On January 2, 2021, President Trump spoke with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other officials about Georgia’s certified election result. During the recorded conversation, Trump urged officials to find 11,780 votes, one more than Biden’s margin.

Congress convened on January 6, 2021 to count the electoral votes. Objections to some state returns were debated, but the proceedings were interrupted when rioters breached the Capitol.

The Presidential Records Act governs ownership and preservation of official presidential records. When a president leaves office, the National Archives and Records Administration assumes custody of records covered by the law.

In January 2022, the National Archives recovered 15 boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago. The agency later said that some material contained classified national-security information.

On August 8, 2022, FBI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. The search followed months of communications and legal process concerning presidential records and documents bearing classification markings.

A federal grand jury indicted Donald Trump in June 2023 over allegations concerning retained national-defense information and obstruction-related conduct. Prosecutors alleged that documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago and that steps were taken to impede their recovery.

In July 2024, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified-documents prosecution on the ground that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unlawful. The ruling concerned the authority of the special counsel; it was not a trial acquittal on the factual allegations.

On May 30, 2024, a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges concerned records connected to reimbursements for a payment made before the 2016 election.

New York’s attorney general brought a civil action concerning financial statements used by the Trump Organization and related defendants. The trial court found liability for persistent fraud and imposed substantial financial remedies in February 2024.

Writer E. Jean Carroll brought civil claims against Donald Trump concerning sexual abuse and defamation. In May 2023, a federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded damages. A separate jury awarded additional defamation damages in January 2024.

On July 1, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Trump v. United States, addressing criminal immunity for a former president. The majority held that former presidents have absolute immunity for conduct within their exclusive constitutional authority, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts.

In August 2023, federal prosecutors charged Donald Trump with offenses arising from efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The indictment described alleged conspiracies involving the electoral count and the certification of results.