All updates in Central European Time (CET)
06:26 | ‘Abuse of power’: Republicans unite in defense of Trump
Donald Trump’s main Republican allies and rivals on Thursday denounced the criminal indictment against the former US president as an attempt to derail his new 2024 White House bid.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives and second in line for the presidency, as well as other co-religionists, lashed out at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who launched the criminal investigation against Trump.
“Bragg has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our presidential election,” McCarthy said.
Environment outside the Manhattan District Attorney’s office this Thursday, March 30, 2023, in New York in the United States. A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges related to payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to hush up allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter.
05:37 | López Obrador considers a trial of Trump “undemocratic”
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, considered “undemocratic” the possible arrest this Tuesday of former US president Donald Trump (2017-2021) for paying money to silence the porn film actress Stormy Daniels.
“President Trump, former President Trump, is declaring that they are going to arrest him, I think today, for an allegedly love affair. If that were the case, then everyone would know, because we are not sucking our thumbs, which is so that it does not appear on the electoral ballot,” said the Mexican president in his daily press conference.
05:15 | Trump expects to be arraigned on Tuesday, April 4
Former US President Donald Trump will be indicted on Tuesday, his lawyer Susan Necheles told AFP, after a grand jury indicted the Republican billionaire for making surreptitious money payments to a porn actress.
“We expect the appearance to take place on Tuesday,” Necheles said in an email, without elaborating. At an arraignment, the defendant is presented with the charges against him and usually pleads guilty. A judge then decides whether he should be released on bail or detained.
04:31 | Mike Pence: “it smells like political persecution”
The former vice president of the United States and probable candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential elections Mike Pence referred on Thursday to the indictment of former president Donald Trump (2017-2021) by a New York grand jury as a “political persecution”.
In an interview on CNN, Pence, a vice president in the Trump administration, said that “the idea of a former president being indicted for the first time in the history of the United States in a campaign finance case smacks of political persecution.”
“I think the vast majority of the American people will see it that way,” he added.
04:05 | Bukele says that the US will not be able to condemn “political persecution”
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said Thursday that the United States could not condemn “political persecution” in other countries after a jury’s decision to indict former US President Donald Trump.
“Unfortunately, it will be very difficult for US foreign policy to use arguments like ‘democracy’ and ‘free and fair elections’, or to try to condemn ‘political persecution’ in other countries, from now on,” the post published. president on Twitter.
03:44 | Will the impeachment ruin the Trump campaign?
This first accusation could open the door to others: Trump is also the subject of an investigation for the way in which he managed the files in the White House and for allegedly having exerted electoral pressure on the state of Georgia. In the latter case, the prosecutor promised an “imminent” decision.
But the indictment could also benefit the candidate at a time when he lacks the campaign dynamics of years ago.
Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University, acknowledges that any other presidential candidate would be “terrified” by such accusations, but “one of Trump’s greatest talents is to capitalize on attacks against him.”
03:01 | Trump, first US president indicted by justice
Donald Trump was indicted this Thursday by the New York Prosecutor for a black payment to buy the silence of a porn actress in 2016, becoming the first president or former president of the United States who will have to sit on the bench of justice.
After a grand jury set up by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg voted to criminally indict the former president, the prosecution contacted his attorney “to coordinate his delivery” on a date to be determined.
The prosecution’s charges remain “sealed” for the moment, the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. According to CNN, he could face up to 30 charges related to business fraud.
02:39 | Republicans say they will not tolerate a “witch hunt”
A large number of Republican Party officials considered this Thursday that the impeachment of former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) is a “witch hunt” and warned that the US population “will not tolerate it”.
“The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold (Prosecutor) Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said.
02:30 | Trump says he “can’t get a fair trial” in New York
Former President Donald Trump said he cannot have a fair trial in New York, hours after his indictment for irregular payment of $130,000 to a porn actress in 2016 was revealed.
On his Truth Social network, Trump, who had previously charged against the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden, attacked the impartiality of the New York court that has to judge him. “They have only brought this false, corrupt and disgraceful accusation against me because I stand with the American People,” he wrote, “and they know I cannot have a fair trial in New York,” he wrote.
01:47 | Florida won’t hear Trump extradition request: DeSantis
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, facing Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024, announced that the state will not honor an extradition request for the former president, who has been indicted by a New York grand jury.
In a brief message on Twitter, DeSantis said that “weaponizing the legal system to advance the political agenda turns the rule of law upside down.” Trump’s address is in a mansion and private club by the name of Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach (eastern Florida).
01:22 | Stormy Daniels, from porn actress to Trump’s legal nightmare
Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who flirted with the idea of entering politics, is waging a legal and media battle against Donald Trump, which has earned the ex-president an unprecedented indictment in the history of the United States.
Ambitious and with a strong personality, this 44-year-old woman has also paid the price of fame, with endless derogatory comments on social networks against her. The most notorious of hers was the one that Trump, then head of state, dedicated to her in 2018: “Horse face”.
Stephanie Clifford, her real name, was born in 1979 in Baton Rouge, in the southern state of Louisiana. Raised by her mother after her parents divorced her, she recounts in her book that her family neglected her and that when she was nine years old an older man sexually abused her.
01:00 | Prosecutor Confirms Indictment, Says He Arranged Trump “Handover”
A New York prosecutor on Thursday confirmed the indictment of former US President Donald Trump, and his office said it is organizing the “turnover” of the magnate, after a grand jury decided to indict him for paying $130,000 to a porn actress in 2016.
“Tonight we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his delivery to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for arraignment,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement, noting that the indictment remains sealed.
gs (efe, afp, ap, reuters)
