Donald Trump criminally charged: "There is little doubt that his base will be remobilized"

Former US President Donald Trump has been criminally charged in New York, a first for a former US president. REUTERS - Carlos Barria

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3 min

Donald Trump was indicted on Thursday, March 30, 2023, in a case of buying the silence of an actress of pornographic films in 2016 and should appear on Tuesday, April 4 before the criminal court of New York. An unprecedented historical fact for a former American president, who denounces "political persecution". Decryption of this indictment, and its consequences with Julien Tourreille, researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

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At the origin of the indictment, the former American president is implicated in the case of Stormy Daniels. She is a pornographic actress whose silence he is suspected of having bought for $ 130,000. What exactly is he accused of?

We do not yet have very precise the indictment and the crimes for which he will be charged. But what Donald Trump is essentially accused of in what we know is not only to have falsified business documents; since he reimbursed his lawyer who had paid the sum to Stormy Daniels by falsifying the accounts of one of his companies. And this falsification, according to Manhattan prosecutors, would have resulted in a violation of campaign finance laws in the United States. It would be the two crimes, so to speak, that would be charged against him.

What will happen now? Will Donald Trump respond to the injunction of the New York justice?

What we know from the outset, his lawyers and his entourage have been very clear, we know that he will respond favorably to the summons of justice in Manhattan. He will likely surrender early next week, probably Tuesday, to authorities in Manhattan. If he had refused, we could possibly have had a legal debate, or even a legal conflict, against the jurisdiction of Manhattan and that of Florida where the former President of the United States currently resides - at Mar-a-Lago. And on this issue, moreover, the governor of Florida, and likely opponent of Donald Trump in the context of the Republican Party primary for the 2024 election, had announced very early Thursday that he would not collaborate with the authorities of Manhattan and that he would finally refuse to deliver the former president to the justice of New York. It is true that we can expect a very long legal battle that, obviously, will ensure that the case will not be decided before the presidential election of 2024. It should lead to something significant.

READ ALSO: United States: in meeting in Texas, Donald Trump denounces a "witch hunt"

Can the indictment of Donald Trump prevent him from running in this presidential election?

Not at all. There is nothing in the law, in the American Constitution, that prevents a person who has been impeached, or even charged - and this is one of the voids in the American Constitution - from running. And beyond that, we note in fact that, for ten days, while Donald Trump had already announced on social networks his arrest in a way, his impeachment, that he benefits politically, at least in the short term in the perspective of the Republican primary of this case. He benefits by raising money to finance his campaign. He must have already raised about $2 million, if not more. He benefits from it in the voting intentions of the Republican electorate. He has gained points, especially over his putative opponent Ron DeSantis and there is little doubt that his base will be remobilized and, more broadly, the Republican Party elite will be forced to support the former president of the United States in this affair.

READ ALSO: After the indictment of Trump, the Republicans are united, the Democrats welcome this decision

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  • United States
  • Donald Trump
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