Trump now confronts a legal onslaught on multiple fronts, each case feeding into the next. The federal indictment over January 6 strikes at the heart of his presidency, alleging he conspired to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. His not guilty plea sets the stage for a historic courtroom clash over accountability at the highest level of government.

In New York, the stakes are more intimate and more humiliating. The E. Jean Carroll verdict, finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation, has already cost him $5 million—and his recorded testimony may soon be replayed before another jury in the hush-money trial. There, prosecutors say he falsified records to bury a damaging story about Stormy Daniels. Trump insists it is all political persecution. Yet as evidence piles up, the real question becomes whether the legal system, for once, can move faster than the spin.