Criminally charged, Trump to appear in court, a first for a US president

Europe 1 with AFP 06:19, March 31, 2023

Donald Trump has been indicted in a case of buying the silence of a porn star in 2016 and is expected to appear Tuesday in the criminal justice of New York, an unprecedented historical fact for a former US president, who denounced Thursday a "political persecution". The former tenant of the White House, who dreams of winning it back in 2024, is officially indicted by the Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, dependent on the justice of the State of New York, for a case of payment and reimbursement, just before the presidential election of November 2016, of $ 130,000 to the actress and director of films X, Stormy Daniels.

"We expect the reading of the indictment to take place on Tuesday," his lawyer Susan Necheles told AFP in an email. A spokesman for the local prosecutor's office had previously indicated that he had organized with Donald Trump's defense "his surrender before the district attorney of the district of Manhattan for an indictment hearing before a supreme court", a court, according to a statement issued after the vote of a grand jury - a panel of citizens with investigative powers that works in concert with prosecutors - in favor of this indictment.

This act and the prosecution remain for the moment "under seal". CNN evokes about thirty charges revolving around fraud to hide the circulation and accounting at the end of 2016 of the $ 130,000. The 45th president of the United States mocked in a statement a "political persecution and interference in the election" presidential of 2024.

He denounced a "witch hunt" that "will turn against Biden", the Democratic president elected in November 2020 and whom Donald Trump has accused for more than two years of having "stolen" his victory.

'Contrary to America's values'

On his social network Truth Social, the billionaire, who has upset since 2015 the political system and the balance of power in the United States, torpedoed opponents he did not name: "They are suing me in a bogus and shameful way because they know that I stand with the American people and that I cannot benefit from a fair trial in New York!" his predominantly Democratic hometown.

One of Trump's Republican rivals for 2024, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, called the indictment "contrary to the values of America" and assured that his state, where the former president resides, would not respond favorably "to an extradition request" from the state of New York. The same unwavering support from the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, for whom "the American people will not tolerate this injustice" and an "unprecedented abuse of power" on the part of the prosecutor Bragg.

"No one above the law"

Stormy Daniels, Stephanie Clifford of her real name, who has collaborated with the justice for nearly six years, exclaimed on Twitter that she did not want to "spill her champagne". His lawyer Clark Brewster said: "No one is above the law." On the Democratic side, Congressman Adam Schiff said that "the indictment and arrest of a former president was unique in all of American history."

For years, the New York justice has sought to determine whether the 76-year-old former Republican president was guilty of false statements, a minor offense, or breach of election finance laws, a criminal offense, by paying money to Stormy Daniels, just before his victory in the presidential election of November 2016.

To what end? So that she keeps quiet about an alleged extramarital relationship dating from 2006. Donald Trump will therefore have to "go" to the Manhattan court for the reading of the indictment by a judge, be briefly and symbolically placed "under arrest", photographed and his fingerprints taken.

He will have to plead guilty or not guilty. The key man in the case is Michael Cohen: former lawyer of Donald Trump turned enemy, he had paid Stormy Daniels in 2016 and was reimbursed. After a prison sentence, he cooperated with the investigation from late 2018 and testified several times before the grand jury.

"Scam"

The press was buzzing with rumors in March of an indictment of the Republican billionaire, surrounded by other legal files. He had managed a political stunt on March 18, by claiming on his network Truth Social that he would be "arrested" and would appear in New York three days later. But nothing had happened.

After keeping America in suspense, all the newspapers in New York and Washington still said with one voice Wednesday that justice should not be pronounced before April 24. For his part, Donald Trump, who has always denied "any crime" and any affair with Stormy Daniels, had Sunday described the investigation of Alvin Bragg as "dead" and "scam" orchestrated by "thugs" before 2024.

Accused by the former president of being an "animal" and a "racist", prosecutor Bragg, an African-American magistrate classified on the left, in office since January 2022, had replied that he had "created a false expectation" media on his indictment and denounced "interference" in the investigation. In Manhattan, where the former populist president was able to rally only a few dozen supporters last week, the area around the courthouse and Trump Tower was very quiet Thursday night.