President-elect Trump has named several people to his next administration who have faced legal troubles, including Trump himself who was convicted in a New York hush money case during his 2024 campaign.
Some of his appointees have served jail time, including cases that involve protecting Trump on Jan. 6 during his first administration. Other convictions and allegations revolve around individual business dealings, foreign lobbying charges and failing to act on sexual abuse allegations.
Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended all of the president-elect’s choices to lead agencies, for ambassador posts and for White House jobs.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail — and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First,” Leavitt said. “President Trump will continue to appoint highly-qualified men and women who have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again.”
Here are Trump appointees who have faced their own host of legal problems over the years.
Trump
Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to an adult film star to cover-up allegations of an affair during his 2016 campaign.
That was among four criminal indictments Trump was facing during his 2024 campaign, all of which are being moved toward dismissal or are in various stages of winding down ahead of Inauguration Day.
Two of those cases, one federal and one based out of Georgia, involved charges related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Another federal case charged Trump with allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
The special prosecutor in the two federal cases, Jack Smith, has moved toward dismissing them and is planning to step down from his position when Trump again takes office. Trump also battled two civil cases – one in which he was found liable for sexual battery against columnist E. Jean Carroll and another in which a judge found Trump and his business conspired to commit business tax fraud by inflating the net worth of several of his properties.
The legal troubles did little to deter Trump’s election prospects. He won decisively in November’s presidential contest.
Charles Kushner
Kushner is the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and is the founder of the real estate firm Kushner Companies. The elder Kushner was picked to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France, a role that requires Senate confirmation.
Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to several counts of assisting with filing false tax returns, retaliating against a cooperating witness – which was his brother-in-law – and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission as well as making illegal campaign contributions.
William Schulder, his sister’s husband and a former employee of Kushner’s company, was a witness for prosecutors. Prosecutors said Kushner launched an unsuccessful revenge plot that involved hiring a prostitute to seduce Schulder in a hotel room where there was a hidden camera – a scheme that ended up backfiring.
Kushner reached a plea agreement with then-U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Chris Christie and served a 14-month sentence in an Alabama prison before being released in 2006. Charles Kushner was among several pardons Trump issued in the last days of his presidency in 2021.
Peter Navarro
Navarro, a Trump loyalist who served as White House trade advisor in Trump’s first term, was tapped to serve as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to the incoming White House. The role does not require Senate confirmation.
Navarro served a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in his capacity a Trump adviser at the time.
He was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the Jan. 6 probe and another for skipping his deposition before the now-defunct House committee that was investigating the riot at the Capitol that day.
He was released from prison in July and hours later, received a roaring reception by 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. This role does require Senate confirmation.
He was charged in 2021 for acting as an unregistered lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates. The private equity executive was accused of using his influence on the Trump campaign and in the Trump White House to further Emirati interests and was also charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal agents.
Barrack was then found not guilty on all counts by a jury in 2022, a verdict that Trump at the time called a setback for the “radical left.” His former employee Matthew Grimes, who was charged for acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist as well, was also acquitted.
Linda McMahon
McMahon was tapped to serve as secretary of the Education Department after she previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. The job will require her to be confirmed by the Senate.
McMahon, who is co-leading Trump’s transition team, was named in a lawsuit last month along with her husband, Vince McMahon, accusing World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) leaders of allowing years of sexual abuse of young boys by a ringside announcer in the 1980s. She co-founded WWE with her husband and left the company in 2009 to run for a Senate seat in Connecticut.
Judge James Bredar in Maryland’s federal district court this week paused the lawsuit until the Maryland Supreme Court can hear arguments on the case in September. Maryland lifted the statute of limitations for sex abuse of minors allegations in 2023, which sparked the lawsuit over allegations from the 1980s.
McMahon denies the allegations and the pause will delay the case while she faces the confirmation proceedings in the Senate.
