Donald Trump on November 15, 2022 at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida (AFP / ALON SKUY)
America is suspended at the beginning of the week on the possible criminal indictment, even the very symbolic arrest in New York, of former President Donald Trump for a case of payment before his victory in November 2016 to an actress of pornographic films with whom he allegedly had an affair.
For an American president in office or having left the White House, such an indictment would be historic and unprecedented. The Republican billionaire denounces a “witch hunt” led by the Democrats, but his calls to “protest” failed on Monday.
The thunderclap of Donald Trump’s possible indictment, more than a year and a half before the 2024 presidential election he dreams of winning, sounded Saturday morning when he said on his Truth Social platform, in capital letters, that he would be “arrested” on Tuesday.
For what? Citing “leaks” from New York state justice, he expects to be charged with criminal charges following a years-long investigation by Manhattan district attorneys, leading them since January 2022. Magistrate Alvin Bragg.
But the New York prosecution has remained silent in recent days and nothing says that the possible indictment will be announced on Tuesday.
New York police officers set up barriers outside the offices of the New York State Attorney for the District of Manhattan on March 20, 2023, ahead of a possible criminal indictment and even symbolic arrest of former President Donald Trump ( AFP/Leonardo Munoz)
In support, around 30 young Trumpists gathered in the cold Monday evening outside the Manhattan courthouse. With more journalists and police, who have set up barriers, just like in front of the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.
– “Civil War 2.0” –
Stormy Daniels on May 23, 2018 in Hollywood, California (AFP/Robyn Beck)
A lawyer for Donald Trump, Alina Habba, warned on CNN on Sunday: “If they (the Democrats) choose to (indict him) for an offense that he frankly did not even commit, it will cause the mess”.
On social networks, anonymous Trumpists promise to prevent the legal questioning of their hero, in particular the group “The Donald” who wants to trigger a “national strike” or even a “civil war 2.0”, reported the media Rolling Stone and Daily Beast.
But we are far from the calls to pound the pavement after the 2020 presidential election that Donald Trump still considers “stolen” by Joe Biden.
The 76-year-old businessman, who had shattered the balance of power in the United States, attacked again on Monday the “corrupt” services of the prosecutor Bragg, an African-American magistrate, Democrat and elected – like most judges and prosecutors.
The case of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels is legally complex.
New York justice is seeking to determine whether Trump is guilty of misrepresentation, an offense, or breach of campaign finance laws, a criminal offense, by having paid $ 130,000 to this woman, whose real name Stephanie Clifford, in weeks leading up to the November 2016 election.
What purpose? For her to conceal a supposed extramarital relationship of the billionaire ten years earlier, according to the prosecution.
– The case is accelerating –
Supporters of US President Donald Trump gather outside the Capitol, January 6, 2021 in Washington (Getty/Samuel Corum)
“There is no crime,” Donald Trump defended himself again on Truth Social on Monday.
In any case, the investigation accelerated last week.
Michael Cohen, a former lawyer and now an enemy of Trump, who paid Stormy Daniels in 2016, testified last week before a grand jury, a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers and responsible for ratifying an indictment. The actress has, at the very least, cooperated with prosecutors and that same grand jury.
Donald Trump was also invited to speak before this panel, according to the American press, and one of his lawyers replied that he would “surrender” willingly to a summons from the New York justice.
Even if charged, Donald Trump, who lives in Palm Beach, Fla., and where everything was quiet on Monday, is likely to voluntarily surrender to court in Manhattan, according to former prosecutor Renato Mariotti.
He would very symbolically be placed there for a few moments under arrest, photographed, and his fingerprints would be taken.
He could even possibly be handcuffed for a few minutes.
But to avoid making it a “spectacle”, the real estate mogul “probably wouldn’t come to court (in Manhattan) through the front door”, in order to escape the cameras and for security reasons, according to Robert McDonald, professor of criminal law and former member of the Secret Service, the agency that protects American dignitaries.
The main fear of the authorities would be a repeat of the chaos of the storming of the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021, when Donald Trump, defeated at the polls, called on his supporters to challenge the results.
On Sunday, Republican caciques cautiously defended Trump, including his former Vice President Mike Pence.
