Donald Trump might need a bigger henhouse soon, as more and more of his legal chickens keep coming home to roost. After a very long two years of a whole lot of nothing happening (at least publicly), all of a sudden there is so much prosecutorial news it's hard to even keep track of it all. So I thought it'd be worth doing a rundown of all Trump's legal woes, as things stand right now (barring any further breaking news today).

The most recent news to break didn't directly impact Trump, as state-level charges were filed in Michigan against all 16 of the "fake electors" who tried to defraud their own state's citizens and the rest of the country by falsely claiming that Trump had won the state and faking an "official-looking" document that they wanted to file with the United States government in place of the actual electors' certification. This happened in seven states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), but so far the ones in Michigan have been the only ones charged with crimes. Each fake elector was charged with eight separate felonies, mostly dealing with forgery of official documents.

The case should be pretty open and shut. They signed their names to a forged document, with the intent to defraud the voters in order to steal a presidential election in their state. It ain't rocket science, in other words. One wonders why the electors in the other six states haven't been similarly charged, in fact, although in at least one (Georgia) they may be getting immunity deals from prosecutors in order to build a case against Donald Trump and/or his team of toadies. There also seems to be an investigation into the fake electors in Arizona, as well.

Trump is facing multiple civil trials, all of which will be taking place in tandem with his criminal cases. The most prominent of these is a second case filed by E. Jean Carroll which had been delayed by procedural motions up until now but which Trump stands a good chance of losing. He already lost the first such case and was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million. But none of these cases would result in any sort of jail time, being civil cases.

The first criminal indictment Trump faced was for the Stormy Daniels hush money, filed in a New York state court. Legally this is the least important of the criminal charges Trump is facing or is likely to be facing very soon, but because the case was filed first it already has a court date: March 25, 2024. This puts it right in the middle of primary season next year, it bears pointing out. There is another case in New York against Trump's namesake company, but it is merely a civil case, not criminal.

There was a hearing today in the second criminal case filed against Trump, the one charging him with various felonies over his retention of national security documents, his refusal to give them to the National Archives, and his blatant disregard for an official subpoena for the documents. The hearing today was ostensibly about how the classified documents in the case will be handled during the trial, but both sides are also pressing for a change in the pro forma trial schedule. The judge entered a trial date for next month, but even the prosecution is pushing for a trial starting this December. Trump's lawyers are arguing that no trial should take place until after the presidential election is over -- a somewhat indefinite delay. The federal judge in the case (filed in Florida) has already shown she leans towards giving Trump special consideration, so all eyes will be watching to see what she does next. No real news broke from the hearing today, as no decisions were announced.

The biggest breaking news today was Trump admitting that he got a "target letter" from the special counsel who is overseeing multiple federal investigations into him, but since Trump didn't actually release the letter nobody knows exactly what it says. Apparently Trump is being warned he is a target over the January 6th insurrection attempt, but without details it is impossible to predict what exact laws he may be charged under.

Trump's lawyers (at the time) have publicly stated that they have not gotten target letters as well, even though they were instrumental in the entire election-stealing scheme. But they could always be charged separately at a later date, so this may not be the end of their troubles.

Trump said he was given four days to respond to the letter, which would mean him voluntarily appearing before the grand jury investigating him to answer their questions by Thursday. This is not likely to happen -- it is a legal courtesy, to allow someone to give their side of the story to the grand jury, but defendants rarely do so since anything they say can (and will) be used against them when the case goes to trial.

Such letters are usually the final step before an indictment is handed down. So the grand jury could move to charge Trump as early as this Friday. Unlike the documents-handling case, this case was filed in Washington D.C., which means Trump could be facing a very different jury pool than he will in the first federal case against him, which will take place in South Florida.

No matter how fast the federal grand jury moves, there will also almost certainly be charges filed against Trump in Georgia during the first two weeks of August as well. The prosecutor telegraphed this move months ago, by clearing everyone's schedule for those two weeks.

The Georgia case, like the federal case where Trump just got a target letter, will also deal with Trump and his minions trying to overturn the election results, specifically what they all did in Georgia. This also involved fake electors, but we've already heard the most damning piece of evidence against Trump -- that phone call where he begs Georgia officials to "find 11,780 votes" for him, which would have given him a majority of one vote. This is blatant interference in an election, and the tape makes it painfully obvious to all exactly how Trump was trying to subvert American democracy.

However, Trump may get hit with even more charges in Georgia, since the prosecutor has hinted that she may be looking at bringing racketeering (RICO) charges against Trump and his henchmen as well. The state RICO law (like all RICO laws) was originally intended for use against organized crime figures, which seems entirely appropriate for Trump (since he sounds remarkably similar to a mobster on that phone call).

Trump filed various legal challenges to this investigation, trying to have the prosecutor removed and trying to bar any evidence (or the final report) from the previous grand jury investigation. The Georgia Supreme Court just turned Trump down cold on all these motions, however. This won't completely end his attempts to make the whole case just somehow go away (he has a few legal routes still left open), but it's a pretty clear signal that the highest court in Georgia isn't that interested in saving Trump's bacon.

It is perhaps fitting that the federal charges and the Georgia charges may be filed almost simultaneously. The other crimes Trump has been charged with are either of a minor nature (the hush money payoff) or not directly related to what he did has president (refusing to turn over documents after he left office). Trump's supporters have found it much easier to attempt to brush off the other charges as being politically-motivated or some sort of prosecutorial overreach, but the next charges to drop are all going to directly deal with the fact that a sitting president refused to accept the fact that he lost his re-election attempt, fraudulently claimed he had won, and directed or inspired others to commit fraud and forgery and even violence in a last-ditch effort to remain in power.

This isn't some minor thing, in other words. This isn't some technicality Trump will be charged with. Everything Trump did, from Election Day onwards, was a direct threat to American democracy. Allowing Trump to skate on the pornstar payoff is one thing, but allowing someone to get away scot-free with attempting to steal an American presidential election is unconscionable and unthinkable. There must be consequences for such dangerous and anti-American actions.

It has taken quite a while to get here, to the point where Trump's chickens truly are coming home to roost. If all of this had happened a year ago, then we wouldn't be already in the midst of a presidential primary race. The challenge now is going to be holding the trials long before next November's election. The American people need to know whether the Republican frontrunner is a felon or not before they vote, to state the obvious.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant