(Updated throughout with audience)
by Karen Freifeld and Jody Godoy
NEW YORK, 4 avril (Reuters) –
Former US President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan, New York, court on Tuesday to 34 counts of tampering with records following an investigation into a payment made to a former porn actress during the 2016 election campaign.
Dressed in a dark blue suit and a red tie, Donald Trump, 76, was not very expressive before entering the court, soberly waving to the crowd, while hundreds of supporters and detractors of the ex- Republican tenant of the White House had gathered near the building’s entrance.
Arriving in New York on Monday from Florida, the businessman was escorted to court by a convoy of vehicles that left from Trump Tower.
“Not guilty,” he replied during the hearing when asked how he was pleading.
This is the first time that a US president, incumbent or not, has been the subject of a criminal indictment.
A declared candidate for next year’s presidential election and current favorite in the race for the Republican Party nomination, Donald Trump faces a maximum total sentence of 136 years in prison, in view of the charges against him. .
However, it is likely that a possible conviction will lead to a much shorter prison sentence.
Donald Trump, who denounces political maneuvers against him, was indicted last week by a Manhattan grand jury in connection with a case involving a payment made to former porn actress Stormy Daniels, without specified the charges.
Television cameras were prohibited in the courtroom, Donald Trump’s lawyers having asked the judge for this measure in order to avoid amplifying “an atmosphere that already almost resembles a circus”.
A photo taken by one of the few photographers allowed to be present in the courtroom shows Donald Trump sitting at the defense table, surrounded by his lawyers, looking sober.
Speaking earlier via his social network Truth, while on his way to court, the former president described the situation as “surreal”, saying he could not believe “this is happening in America”.
Via social networks, Donald Trump had previously multiplied the attacks against the prosecutor at the head of the investigation and the judge presiding over the hearing.
He had assured in the past that he would continue his electoral campaign even in the event of indictment, as the law authorizes it. He announced last November that he wanted to return to the presidency, thus preventing Democrat Joe Biden, who beat him in November 2020, from obtaining a second term.
In Washington, the White House remained silent on the case.
“The American people should feel reassured that, when there is a case like this, we simply do not comment,” said the spokeswoman for the American presidency, Karine Jean-Pierre, in front of reporters.
(Report Karen Freifeld and Jody Godoy, with Julia Harte, Tyler Clifford, Jonathan Allen, Jeenah Moon and David Dee Delgado, Nathan Layne, Doina Chiacu and Richard Cowan; French version Jean Terzian)
