Donald Trump may face a jail sentence for the United States. About this in the broadcast channel CBS said a member of the Congress of the Democratic Party, Adam Schiff, who is tipped to the seat of the parliamentary committee on intelligence.
“It is very likely that when Donald Trump leaves the presidency, the Ministry of Justice may bring charges against him. He could be the first president in a long time to face a real prison sentence, ”Schiff told the Face The Nation program on CBS.
Adam Schiff made such a comment after prosecutors from the team of Robert Muller sent another piece of documents to the court on the so-called “Russian case”.
However, the reason for the statements about the prison term on the part of a Democrat were not at all evidence of Trump's ties with Russia. According to the publication of The Hill, the documents submitted to the court indicated that Trump allegedly personally supervised the actions of his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid for silence to the porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy magazine models Karen McDougal, who before the presidential election threatened to make his intimate relationship with Donald Trump.
At the same time, The Hill notes that Trump himself in these documents is not named by name, but investigators point to a certain "Person-1", which in January 2017 "became President of the United States" and for which Cohen worked as a lawyer.
Internal political struggle in the United States will continue and will be quite serious, explained the expert of the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, Vladimir Bruter. Therefore, the main task of the investigation of the Muller Commission is to search for any compromising materials on Trump, which will be issued under the sign of the “Russian case”.
“This will continue until the next presidential primaries begin. Those who are behind the investigation of Muller, it is advantageous to keep this issue in limbo. Trump will try to catch perjury, as Bill Clinton used to be, is a natural approach for such cases. This is a game against Trump’s image, ”he said.
Silence fee
Michael Cohen has already testified about Trump’s involvement in the payment of porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy magazine model Karen McDougall when he pleaded guilty in August of violations of political campaign funding, as well as banking and tax fraud. However, according to The Hill, the documents received by the court on December 8, allegedly for the first time directly pointed to the involvement in these actions of Trump.
In the case file, prosecutors indicated that in August 2016, Cohen persuaded American Media Inc., which runs the national tabloid National Enquirer in the United States, to buy the rights to the history of Karen McDougal for $ 150,000, which he promised to refund. The transfer of exclusive rights implies a ban on communication on this topic with other media, and this actually means that McDougal cannot publicly voice his version of events through the American mass media.
- Tabloid National Enquirer at the direction of a lawyer Trump bought exclusive rights to the story of Karen McDougal for $ 150 thousand.
- globallookpress.com
- © karenmcdougal / Instagram.com
The publisher did not publish her story, and this gave prosecutors reason to believe that McDougal's fee for exclusive rights was paid in order to prevent this information from being disseminated so that compromising Trump would not affect the election.
According to The Hill, the money for the silence for a porn star Stormy Daniels, Trump's lawyer allegedly handed to her directly, then asking to refund the amount spent from the budget of the election campaign of the billionaire Republican.
At the mercy of the president
The American media has repeatedly raised the issue that Trump, by presidential decree, can pardon former employees of the White House and his electoral headquarters, whose crimes were discovered during the investigation of Muller. However, Congressman Adam Schiff believes that Trump himself will need to think about whether the next president of the United States will grant him pardon.
“We discussed the issue of pardons that the president can promise these people,” said the congressman. “But the question of the most important pardon may arise later when the next president decides whether to grant him to Donald Trump.” I think that the prosecutors in New York will have strong arguments against this. All the arguments that they put forward against Michael Cohen can also be put forward with the same success against Persona 1, who is the president of the United States, ”the congressman said.
- Michael cohen
- Reuters
The first and only time the American president was pardoned by the next head of state during the Watergate scandal. President Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment, and then in September 1974, the next US President Gerald Ford granted Nixon a "complete and unconditional" pardon for all the crimes committed as head of the United States.
"Air fluctuations"
Considering such statements seriously is not worth it, as they are made by people whose place in the US political system is not very high, said political scientist Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak.
“Congressman Schiff has no influence on US political life. In addition, he did not say what is the crime itself, which allegedly was committed by Trump. Under what legislation — federal or state — are these crimes a crime? Even assuming that payments to these women have occurred, they fit into the framework of a regular business agreement, ”explained the expert in a conversation with RT.
To isolate from this corpus delicti in which Trump is allegedly guilty is very difficult, Sinelnikov-Orishak added.
“I believe that behind these statements is the desire to threaten Trump, but in reality it’s all very far from reality. This is nothing more than air fluctuations from both a practical and a legal point of view. Members of the US House of Representatives are not the people whose opinion is decisive for the American establishment, ”said Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak.
Law and morality
Trump will remain in the position of president for two years, and after that no one will put him in jail, says Vladimir Bruter. All Schiff's conversations on the subject of a prison sentence are nothing more than an attempt to give what is desired for the real, the expert stressed.
“As for the prospects for Trump after the presidency, far fewer people will really love him than Bush Sr. It is still unknown how much this worries Trump himself and makes the position of the Democrats stronger. When Democrats voice such opinions, they bluff, ”explained Bruter.
The investigation has been going on for two years now - a record time for such procedures, but Trump is not going to give up, the expert said.
“If Muller had something against Trump, it would have been made public for a long time. So far these are rumors of rumors. When they say something like “14 Russians were in contact with people close to Trump,” we need to understand that this is not a legal wording, ”Bruter emphasized.
“Russians” and “people close to Trump,” according to the expert, are free to contact, there are no such categories in the criminal code. Therefore, Trump does not threaten such accusations, as do Michael Cohen’s stories about giving women money for silence.
“Cohen has no evidence, and breaking the law is his own choice. From a moral point of view, this discredits Trump, but there is no corpus delicti here, ”concluded Vladimir Bruter.