Donald Trump was indicted Thursday (30) by the New York State Attorney’s Office for alleged bribery to buy a porn actress’ silence in 2016, making him the first former United States president to sit on the defendants’ bench.
After a grand jury selected by the prosecution voted to criminally indict the former president, prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s office contacted defense counsel “to coordinate his surrender” at a date to be determined.
“We have reached out to Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan district attorney’s office for a reading of the indictments,” Bragg’s office said, noting that the indictment remains “sealed.” .
Trump could face up to 30 charges related to business fraud, according to CNN. The former US president, who wants to run for the White House again in 2024, is due to be charged in the New York State Court in the coming days for paying $ 130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
“This is political persecution and interference at the highest level in election history,” Trump said.in a statement accusing “radical left-wing Democrats” of “witch-hunting to destroy the Make America Great Again movement” (Maga), which he represents.
Attorney Susan Necheles confirmed to AFP that Trump is likely to appear at a hearing next Tuesday.
“We hope the indictment reading will take place on Tuesday,” Necheles said in an email, without releasing further details.
Dirty work
In a statement, Trump, 76, called Alvin Bragg, who is in charge of the case, a “disgrace”, accusing him of doing “the dirty work” of President Joe Biden, whose victory in the 2020 election he never has acknowledged. On his Truth Social platform, after characterizing the accusation as “false, corrupt and shameful,” Trump assured “they know I can’t get a fair trial in New York,” a traditionally Democratic state and city.
Along the same lines, his son Eric Trump, who viewed his father’s indictment as “a bad third world procedural practice” and an “opportunistic target against a political opponent a year removed from the campaign.”
“No one is above the law,” said Clark Brewster, attorney for porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an extramarital relationship with Donald Trump, which he has always denied.
Reactions on the Republican side were not long in coming. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the Manhattan prosecutor has “irreparably tarnished the country’s image” in an attempt to interfere in the presidential election, which he said represented “an unprecedented abuse of power.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a likely rival to Trump in the Republican primary, also criticized the attempt to “tool the justice system” to, he says, advance the Democrats’ political agenda.
In the Democratic camp, Congressman Adam Schiff classified Trump’s indictment as a “worrying and unprecedented” fact.
The police mobilized in Manhattan to prevent disturbances, but both in Trump Tower on 5th Avenue and in front of the prosecutor’s office there were more journalists than supporters of the Republican.
Rumors of a possible indictment against Trump, who had already begun his campaign in the party’s primary, had been circulating in the press since the beginning of the month. However, on the 18th, the candidate managed to get all the attention when he declared on the Truth Social platform that he would be “detained” the following Tuesday and that he would have to appear before a judge three days later. However, none of this happened.
The US press reported yesterday that the grand jury analyzing the evidence against Donald Trump planned to suspend hearings for the next few weeks due to school holidays and other religious festivities, so before the end of April, the unexpected decision came out this Thursday.
Photography and fingerprints
The grand jury had to decide for or against the ex-president’s indictment. Once indicted, Trump will now have to appear in a courtroom in Manhattan for a judge to notify him of the charges while briefly “in custody” to be photographed and fingerprinted. He would then have to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges for which he is being investigated.
The New York court is trying to clarify whether Trump is guilty of making a false statement, an offense or violating the election financing law, a criminal offense.
Trump’s then-lawyer and now-enemy Michael Cohen, who was heard by the Manhattan grand jury, said he presided over the payment to Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf, who later repaid him.
Failure to properly credit payment may result in a misdemeanor felony for forgery. However, there is also the possibility of breaking the election campaign financing law, an offense punishable by four years in prison.
According to legal experts, it will not be easy to prove these allegations in court, so it is not certain that the former president can be sentenced to prison.
A possible conviction in the New York state court would not prevent Trump from running for president of the United States, says Professor John Coffee. “However, it would have a stigmatizing effect,” he added.
The magnate is the subject of several criminal investigations, both at the state and federal levels, for alleged irregularities that could threaten his race for the White House, including efforts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 Georgia state election.
Source: DN
