Donald Trump is facing a legal week from hell

Donald Trump is facing a difficult legal week: three of his children must testify in his New York fraud trial and there are two challenges to his inclusion on the ballot for the next presidential election.

Lawyer and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote on Substack that this was just “the tip of the iceberg” of legal trouble brewing for the former president.

A trial begins this week in Denver, Colorado, to decide whether Trump should be barred from Colorado’s 2024 presidential election because the 14th Amendment prohibits insurrectionists from running for office. A similar case will also begin in Minnesota on Thursday.

Trump was not accused of insurrection.

In the Colorado case, six Republican and independent voters argue that Trump is barred from running for president again because of his alleged role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Pretrial motions by Trump to dismiss the case were rejected.

The case is based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that U.S. officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution will be disqualified from holding future office if they have “participated in insurrection” or “assisted” insurrectionists or “consolation”.

Vance said on her Substack blog, Civil Discourse, that the Denver court needs to consider whether the Insurrection Clause still applies.

“Section 3 contains no language limiting it in this way,” Vance wrote.

Consideration also needs to be given to “whether the president is an ‘officer of the United States’ such that the law includes him within its scope.”

“The harder question is whether Trump needs to be criminally convicted or at least charged with insurrection to be disqualified under Section 3,” she said, noting that a similar case is being heard by the Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday.

“Both the Colorado and Minnesota cases were not filed until September 2023, but the ballots must be approved far enough in advance so that their printing can be completed in time for the start of the primary election. Both the Colorado and Minnesota courts are moving quickly,” Vance wrote .

Newsweek emailed Donald Trump’s lawyer for comment.

Much more media attention is likely to be focused on New York, where Trump’s children are expected to testify Wednesday through Friday in the civil fraud trial against the former president and the Trump Organization.

The lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses the former president and other defendants, including his companies and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, of fraudulently inflating the value of assets to obtain cheap loans and insurance contracts.

Before the trial, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and the other defendants were liable for fraud and that he would decide on the fine at a later date.

As a result, Engoron revoked the business licenses that allowed Trump to operate his companies in New York, but an appeals court stayed that part of the judge’s order.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case.

This week, James plans to call Trump’s sons and daughter Ivanka to the witness stand. Donald Trump Jr. is expected to testify on Wednesday, Eric Trump on Thursday and Ivanka Trump on Friday.

All are expected to face a rigorous investigation by lawyers in the New York attorney general’s office into the inner workings of the Trump empire.

Trump himself is expected to take the stand the following Monday, November 6th.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Vance wrote. “There are applications in all cases against Trump that are currently being examined. The Manhattan District Attorney’s prosecution of Trump in connection with the Stormy Daniels payments has flown under the radar for some time, and there is a problem brewing. And still no word on a new trial date in Fulton County, Georgia. So expect more to come.

Trump is facing trial in New York over alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, an alleged violation of campaign finance laws. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. He also pleaded not guilty in Georgia to charges he allegedly rigged the 2020 presidential election.