The trial already promises to be historic. For the first time in the United States, a former president will be tried criminally. Donald Trump was notified, Thursday, February 15, of his appearance from March 25 in New York for having paid Stormy Daniels in exchange for his silence.
The Republican, candidate in the Republican primary and probable winner, is accumulating legal problems. We take stock.
Payments for the silence of a porn actress
In this case, judged in criminal court, Donald Trump is opposed to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. This pornographic actress says she met the former president in 2006, during a golf tournament organized between the states of California and Nevada. While married to Melania for a year, Donald Trump has a consensual sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels and makes her a promise – which he will not keep – to invite her on his show The Apprentice. Their relationship remained secret until 2018, the year when the X actress, then aged 39, told the story of this meeting during an interview with CBS. She reveals having been threatened by men of the former head of state so that she remains silent, which the main person denies.
Everything accelerated during the 2016 presidential campaign, won by Donald Trump. Stormy Daniels is invited to speak with Michael Cohen, the billionaire’s lawyer, who will pay some $130,000 against the actress’s silence on the extramarital affair. An agreement revealed by the Wall Street Journal, in January 2018. Following these revelations, Michael Cohen admitted, without revealing more, to having paid this sum into Stormy Daniels’ account. In March, the latter will file a complaint to try to revoke this confidentiality clause.
If Donald Trump initially denies having been informed of this transaction, Rudy Giuliani, another of his lawyers, undermines his version. He claims to have repaid this sum to Michael Cohen and ends up pleading guilty to, among other things, tax evasion and violation of campaign financing laws. Because it was with money from the Trump Organization that Stephanie Clifford was paid. For justice, this is a concealed donation to the president’s campaign, which thus violates electoral financing laws. In December 2018, Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison.
Officially, the expense was declared to cover legal fees, which on its face is not criminal, says John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University who specializes in financial crime. False declarations, according to justice, which qualifies this offense as a crime. But it could become a crime if prosecutors can convince a jury that the falsification took place “in an attempt to conceal another crime,” such as an illegal campaign donation. In this case, Donald Trump risks up to four years in prison.
Electoral pressures in 2020
More serious for the ex-president are his attempts to reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden. In this case, he is being prosecuted for “fraudulent conspiracy against the United States”, such as the dissemination of false information on fraud and voting machines, the designation of “fake electors” in states won by Joe Biden and pressure on the justice system and on the vice-president to encourage him to reject the votes in these same states. He is also charged with “conspiracy to disenfranchise voters,” “conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding,” and “obstructing an official proceeding,” namely the certification of Joe Biden’s victory by the Congress.
At the heart of the case is the attack on the seat of the US Congress by supporters of the Republican on January 6, 2021. If special prosecutor Jack Smith wanted Donald Trump to be tried on January 2, 2024, the latter’s lawyers had proposed April 2026, well after the presidential election. Ultimately, federal judge Tanya Chutkan ruled and chose March 4. A date which was postponed, time to rule on possible criminal immunity for the former president. His request is expected to be considered by the Supreme Court. In this case, the former head of state faces decades in prison.
Attempt to overturn results in Georgia
2020 presidential election, again. Donald Trump is accused of trying to overturn the results of the election in this state. He allegedly called a manager on January 2, 2021, asking them to “find” 12,000 ballots in his name.
In this case, 18 other people, including Rudy Giuliani, are charged in this case. The prosecutor used a law on organized crime to prosecute them, providing for sentences of five to twenty years in prison. Four of them pleaded guilty and were sentenced to reduced sentences, without prison time, in exchange for their testimony at a future trial.
But, at the beginning of February, Donald Trump requested that the charges be dropped. To motivate his request, the Republican highlighted the relationship that Fani Willis, the prosecutor responsible for investigating the case, had with a lawyer she had hired to work on this case. She has denied any conflict of interest, but, according to Donald Trump, Fani Willis is “discredited and finished”.
Endangerment of the United States
After leaving the White House, Donald Trump reportedly kept documents, including military plans and information on nuclear weapons, at his Florida residence, instead of handing them over to the National Archives, as required by law. In fact, the former president jeopardized the security of the United States. Another law, on espionage, prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
In this case, the billionaire’s residence was searched by the FBI in August 2022. Boxes of documents were then found in a bathroom or in storage rooms.
Trump is then targeted by 37 charges, including “illegal retention of national security information”, “obstruction of justice” and “false testimony”. Like his two assistants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, who are also being prosecuted, Donald Trump will be tried in May. As with previous cases, he pleaded not guilty.
But the Republican is also accused of trying to delete video surveillance images that interested investigators. With these same two assistants, he allegedly asked an employee of his residence to “delete video surveillance images of the Mar-a-Lago club to prevent these images from being handed over” to justice.
In order to prepare Donald Trump’s defense, his lawyers requested access to classified evidence in the hands of the prosecution. But the latter is opposed to it because of these documents considered too sensitive.
Civil trials in New York
The Republican is also being prosecuted in several civil cases. He is, among other things, accused of repeated fraud and of having colossally inflated the value of his real estate assets in the 2010s. Donald Trump and his two adult sons could have to pay $370 million in fines and be deprived of their rights. part of their real estate empire if a New York judge sentences them this Friday.
Donald Trump was also ordered to pay a whopping $83.3 million in damages to author E. Jean Carroll for defaming her, amid accusations of rape, in the 1990s.
2024-02-16 11:37:31
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