Former President Donald Trump has a busy agenda this Thursday on the numerous judicial fronts he has open. Specific,
key hearings in two criminal cases against him that will take place simultaneously and could help clarify part of his legal future.
In New York, Judge Juan Manuel Merchán will rule on pre-trial issues in the case of bribery of adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and will try to establish whether, as planned, it begins on March 25. If that happens, it will be the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial.
Separately, in Georgia, lawyers for Trump and some of his co-defendants will attempt to seek the disqualification of the top prosecutors overseeing his election interference case, after the relationship was exposed in court documents.
With the possibility that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could testify, Trump was considering attending the hearing, which would have been the former president’s first time appearing in court in Atlanta for that case.
But on Tuesday, Trump’s top lawyer in Georgia indicated he would instead attend the proceedings in New York, although the former president is known to have a tendency to change his plans at the last minute.
These are the details of the two hearings he will face this Thursday and what is expected in each of them:
The case in New York for irregular payments
Trump’s case in New York involves the bribes with which he sought to hide, in the midst of the 2016 election campaign, the news of alleged extramarital sexual encounters with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Trump last year of falsifying internal records kept by his company, the Trump Organization, to conceal the true nature of payments made to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to bury that news.
The case includes payments to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about the then-candidate and an alleged child out of wedlock. Trump says he did not have any of the alleged sexual encounters.
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Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000.
The Trump Organization then reimbursed Cohen an amount far greater than he had spent, prosecutors said. The company recorded the payments, delivered in monthly installments and a year-end bonus check, as legal expenses, prosecutors said. Over several months, Cohen said he received $420,000.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. The charge is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest level of felony charges in the state. He is punishable by up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee that a conviction will result in prison.
Because this is a state case, Trump would not be able to pardon himself if he were president again. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.
To convict Trump of a felony, prosecutors must show that he not only falsified or caused business records to be falsely entered, which would be a misdemeanor, but that he did so to conceal another crime.
The case in Georgia for trying to reverse the electoral results in 2020
The lawsuit alleges that they “unlawfully conspired” to cause certain individuals to falsely represent themselves as Georgia presidential electors, “with the intent to deceive” the president of the United States Senate, the archivist of the United States, the Georgia secretary of state, and the presiding judge of the US District Court to make them believe that they were such officials during the certification of the votes.
A Georgia judge who is deciding whether to expel Willis.
As soon as allegations of an inappropriate romantic relationship between Willis and attorney Nathan Wade surfaced last month, speculation began to swirl about the future of the case. Even if the prosecution is not derailed, the turmoil has certainly created an unwanted distraction for Willis and his team and could undermine public confidence in the case.
The defense attorney who first exposed the relationship says it creates a conflict of interest and is asking the judge to dismiss the indictment and bar Willis, Wade and their offices from further involvement in the case.
In a response filed earlier this month, Willis acknowledged a “personal relationship” but said it has no bearing on the serious criminal charges he is bringing and asked the judge to dismiss motions seeking his disqualification without a hearing.
The law says “disqualification may occur if evidence is presented demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing Monday. Because he believes that “it is possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could result in disqualification, I believe that an evidentiary hearing should be held to establish the record on those central allegations.”
The long-awaited hearing, like all court proceedings in the case, will be broadcast live on the judge’s YouTube channel, as well as by the media. McAfee has said she could continue until Friday.
As he runs for the White House again and faces three more criminal proceedings, the former president has exploited the revelation of the relationship, repeatedly referring to Wade as Willis’ “lover” or “boyfriend” to try to sow doubt about Wade’s motivations. Willis and the legitimacy of the case. Other Republicans have joined in, using the claims to justify calls for investigations or sanctions against Willis, an elected Democrat who is running for re-election this year.
Four of the defendants have already pleaded guilty after reaching agreements with prosecutors. Trump and the remaining 14 have pleaded not guilty.
2024-02-15 11:12:00
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