Donald Trump orchestrated a “criminal plan” to commit “electoral fraud” in 2016, the Prosecutor’s Office said this Monday in the first criminal trial of a former US president, who aspires to return to the White House in the November 5 elections.
The Republican magnate “orchestrated a criminal plan to influence the 2016 presidential election,” said prosecutor Matthew Colangelo in the oral presentation of the case in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“It was electoral fraud, pure and simple,” he told the 12 jurors – and six alternates – who at the end of about six weeks of trial will have to issue a unanimous ruling that will seal the future of possibly the most controversial politician in the modern history of the country.
The 45th president, 77, is accused of 34 counts of accounting fraud to cover up the payment of $130,000 to former porn actress Stormy Daniels in order to silence an alleged sexual encounter that occurred a decade earlier, in the final stretch. of the 2016 campaign that surprisingly led him to the presidency.
If convicted, Trump could be sentenced to up to four years in prison and even be stripped of his right to vote. If he were to win the November election against the Democratic challenger, current President Joe Biden, he could also become the first president to govern from prison.
“This was not a communications strategy, but rather a coordinated plan as part of a long conspiracy… to help elect Donald Trump,” the prosecutor said.
“It is democracy”
For defense attorney Todd Blanche, “there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.”
After directly telling jurors that Trump “is a person like you and me,” the “president” is “clad in innocence.”
The Prosecutor’s Office, he said, “should never have held this trial” and attacked the credibility of those who accuse him, particularly his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
The prosecution will have to prove that Trump orchestrated or at least authorized Cohen to put money out of his pocket for former actress Stormy Daniels, which was then returned to him in installment payments disguised as legal expenses, for which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 2018. He also lost his law license.
In the case, the Prosecutor’s Office also includes other agreements similar to that of Daniels to cover up other potential scandals such as that of a former Playboy magazine model and a janitor who said that Trump had had a child out of wedlock.
“Sad day for America”
The Republican billionaire, who feels like a victim of a “witch hunt” and calls the trial a “hoax,” laments that while his rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, campaigns, he must go to the ancient courtroom every day. of the Manhattan court.
Upon his arrival at the court, Trump called the trial “electoral interference.” “It’s a sad day for America,” he added.
“It is going to be the most extraordinary trial probably in the history of the country. The stakes are almost infinite in terms of what the consequences could be” for the tycoon, former prosecutor and current law professor at Pace University in New York, Bennett Gershman, told the AFP news agency.
In addition to Cohen, prosecutors will call other former Trump collaborators, and now enemies, to testify.
In addition to Cohen, prosecutors will call other former Trump collaborators, and now enemies, to testify.
The first to take the stand is David Pecker, former president of the publishing company of the National Enquirer tabloid, who bought to bury stories that could affect the magnate during his election campaign.
Trump, who survived two impeachment attempts during his presidency, also faces three other criminal cases, two of them for much more serious charges, such as trying to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat and for the management of secret documents after leaving the presidency. presidency, which have been so delayed that they are unlikely to be held before the elections.
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