– On Tuesday April 4, Donald Trump was able to leave, without any conditions or measures of judicial review, the Criminal Court in Manhattan, New York, where he was formally charged in a case of fraud related to money paid in 2016 to former pornstar Stormy Daniels.
The former tenant of the White House (2017-2021) and candidate for a new presidential term had gone before a judge in the early afternoon local time for a historic hearing during which he pleaded no guilty.
The former president, the first to suffer such a legal fate, could therefore have to face a trial, possibly in January 2024, even if he will try everything to avoid this ordeal. One of his lawyers lamented a ” sad “ charge and promised to fight it.
A doorman, a former mistress and a porn actress
“It sounds so SURREALIST – WOW they’re going to ARREST ME. I can’t believe this is happening in America”he wrote on his Truth Social platform as he made his way to court, as news channels around the country looked on.
After a Monday under extraordinary media tension, New York justice banned television cameras and any other mode of transmission inside the courtroom. A single camera positioned in a corridor of the courthouse captured the first images of the former president of the United States, who did not speak when he arrived.
With a closed face, Donald Trump entered a courtroom where he sat surrounded by his lawyers, according to a photo showing him silent. He is targeted by 34 counts, which were to be made public by the Manhattan prosecutor who is prosecuting him, Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.
The latter announced in a press release that Donald Trump was charged by the New York justice system because he “orchestrated” a series of payments to cover up three embarrassing cases ahead of the 2016 presidential election. A Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have information about a hidden child was paid $30,000 to remain silent; a woman who presented herself as a former mistress received $ 150,000 to be discreet while a pornographic actress, most likely Storym Daniels, received $ 130,000 to conceal an alleged extramarital relationship, detailed prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
No handcuffs or incarceration
During his appearance, Donald Trump was supposed to submit to the ritual imposed on any defendant: give his name, age, profession, take a fingerprint and have his photo taken, the famous mugshotthe source of so much public humiliation for stars in the United States.
But his status as a high American dignitary protected by the Secret Service, an agency dedicated to the protection of public figures, offered him some accommodations. He did not appear handcuffed. He should then be released, possibly subject to conditions, pending the organization of his trial at a later date.
The New York businessman, who made his fortune in real estate and television, met his followers and his tens of millions of voters for a press conference from his residence Mar-a- Lago, Florida, at 8:15 p.m. (after midnight in mainland France).
A possible electoral violation
This case goes back to porn actress Stormy Daniels. From her real name Stephanie Clifford, this woman, who has been working with the justice system for five years, was supposed to silence a supposed and very brief extramarital relationship in 2006 with Donald Trump.
The $130,000 she received from Michael Cohen, a former lawyer and handyman for the former president, who served time in prison and turned against his boss in 2018, had not been declared in the 2016 presidential candidate Trump’s campaign accounts.
This is a possible violation of New York State election laws: the amount was recorded, potentially illegally, as “legal fees” in the accounts of his company Trump Organization, already condemned in December and January to a civil fine of 1.6 million dollars for fraud.
Beyond this affair, Donald Trump, who has upset the political system and society in the United States in less than ten years, is the target of other investigations, in particular on his role in the attack on the Capitol, the January 6, 2021, his management of the presidential archives or the pressure exerted on electoral officials in Georgia to contest his defeat in the presidential election of 2020.
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