After saturation, stupefaction. In the past two weeks, Donald Trump had once again become the dark star of the American media, around which everything seemed to revolve. Tuesday, April 4, the law of judicial seriousness brought him back brutally among the common defendants. The gloomy look, the former president gave himself up for an hour in court in Manhattan, New York, to learn about the charges brought against him by the prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, who is playing his credibility on this case. debated and disputed.
Mr. Trump is being prosecuted for 34 times falsifying the accounting records of his group, the Trump Organization, “in order to conceal from American voters damaging information and illegal activity before and after the election [présidentielle] of 2016 », specifies a prosecutor’s statement. “Catch and Kill” (“catch and kill”): this is the name of the “stratagem” developed more than a year before this 2016 election by Donald Trump with relatives and advisers, in order to prevent any negative revelation about his private life. It was a question of buying the silence of the people concerned by obtaining the exclusivity of their testimonies, without publishing anything. In his press release, the prosecutor explains that between “August 2015 and December 2017”the ex-president had organized a series of payments to three people.
The first – 30,000 dollars (27,375 euros) – was made for the benefit of a doorman at Trump Tower, who “claimed to have information on a child born out of wedlock”, not subsequently confirmed. The second, for $150,000, was to buy the exclusivity of a sex affair involving Donald Trump with a star of the erotic magazine Playboy, Karen McDougal. Each time, it is the American Media Inc. group, controlling the tabloid The National Enquirer, who made the payments. The group was led by David Pecker, friend of Donald Trump. At a meeting in Trump Tower in August 2015, Mr. Pecker promised to be “eyes and ears” of the candidate, pledging to prevent bad shots and to publish stories unfavorable to other Republican candidates, specifies the summary of the instruction, published Tuesday.
It was Michael Cohen, lawyer and henchman of Donald Trump, who played a key role in the purchase of the silence – for 130,000 dollars – of Stormy Daniels, actress of porn movies, just twelve days before the election. presidential. Michael Cohen was reimbursed a few months after this victory by a series of eleven checks, nine of which were signed by the new president. Coming from a private account and the family trust, these payments, according to the prosecutor, were disguised as legal fees from the Trump Organization. Michael Cohen pleaded guilty and has already served a prison sentence for these facts.
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