President-elect Trump has named several people his next government who have faced legal problems, including Trump himself, who was convicted in a New York hush money trial during his 2024 campaign.
Some of his appointees served prison sentences, including cases involving protecting Trump on Jan. 6 during his first term. Other convictions and allegations relate to individual business relationships, allegations of foreign lobbying and failure to respond to allegations of sexual abuse.
Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended all of the president-elect’s agency leadership, ambassadorial and White House decisions.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by an overwhelming margin, giving him a mandate to follow through on the promises he made during the campaign – and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority of putting America first,” Leavitt said. “President Trump will continue to appoint highly qualified men and women who have the talent, experience and skills necessary to Make America Great Again.”
Here are Trump appointees who have faced a number of legal problems of their own over the years.
Trump
Trump was sentenced in May 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to an adult film star to cover up allegations of an affair during his 2016 election campaign.
That was one of four criminal charges Trump faced during his 2024 campaign is moving towards dismissal or they are in various stages of settlement before Inauguration Day.
Two of those cases, one federal and one in Georgia, involved allegations related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. In another federal case, Trump was charged with alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office.
The special prosecutor in the two federal cases, Jack Smith, has agreed to be fired and plans to resign if Trump takes office again. Trump also fought two civil cases – one in which he was found liable for sexual violence against columnist E. Jean Carroll and another in which a judge denounced Trump and his business conspired to commit trade tax fraud by increasing the net value of several of his properties.
The legal problems have hardly affected Trump’s election prospects. He clearly won the presidential contest in November.
Charles Kushner
Kushner is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and founder of the real estate company Kushner Companies. The elder Kushner was selected to be U.S. ambassador to France, a position that requires Senate confirmation.
Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to several counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness – his brother-in-law – and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and providing illegal campaign contributions.
William Schulder, his sister’s husband and a former employee of Kushner’s company, was a witness for the prosecution. Prosecutors said Kushner launched an unsuccessful revenge plot that involved hiring a prostitute to seduce Schulder in a hotel room that had a hidden camera – a plan that ultimately backfired.
Kushner reached a plea agreement with then-New Jersey U.S. Attorney Chris Christie and served a 14-month sentence in an Alabama prison before being released in 2006. Charles Kushner was one of them several pardons Trump enacted in the final days of his presidency in 2021.
Peter Navarro
Navarro, a Trump loyalist who served as a White House trade adviser during Trump’s first term, was tapped to serve as senior adviser on trade and manufacturing for the novel White House. The position does not require Senate confirmation.
Navarro served a four-month prison sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol in his capacity as then-Trump adviser.
He was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress – one for failing to produce documents related to the Jan. 6 investigation and the other for failing to testify before the now-dissolved House of Representatives committee that investigated who were investigating the insurrection at the Capitol that day.
He was released from prison in July and a few hours later received a rapturous reception from Republicans for his speech at the Republican National Convention.
Tom Barrack
Barrack, a longtime friend of Trump, was named ambassador to Turkey in the next administration. Senate confirmation is required for this role.
He was accused in 2021 of working as an unregistered lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates. The private equity manager was accused of using his influence in the Trump campaign and in the Trump White House to advance Emirati interests. He was also charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal agents.
Then the barracks were found not guilty On all counts, a jury will reach a verdict that favors Trump in 2022 called at that time a setback for the “radical left”. His former employee Matthew Grimes, who was also accused of acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist, was also acquitted.
Linda McMahon
McMahon was chosen to be secretary of the Education Department after previously leading the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. She must be confirmed for the position by the Senate.
McMahon, who co-chairs Trump’s transition team, was named alongside her husband Vince McMahon in a lawsuit last month accusing World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) leaders of allowing years of sexual abuse of boys by a ring announcer in the 1980s have . She co-founded WWE with her husband and left the company in 2009 to run for a Senate seat in Connecticut.
Maryland Federal District Court Judge James Bredar this week stayed the lawsuit until the Maryland Supreme Court can hear arguments in the case in September. Maryland lifted the statute of limitations for allegations of sexual abuse of minors in 2023, triggering the lawsuit over allegations dating back to the 1980s.
McMahon denies the allegations and the pause will delay the case as she faces Senate confirmation proceedings.
