United States: Former US President Donald Trump appears in criminal court

Matthieu Bock, with AFP 20:20 pm, April 04, 2023

Donald Trump lives Tuesday in New York a historic judicial event for a former American president. He is appearing in criminal court to be served with his indictment in a fraud case related to money paid in 2016 to a porn star. The former tenant of the White House (2017-2021), who aims to return in 2024, arrived around 13:20 p.m. (17:20 p.m. local time) at the Manhattan courthouse for his formal indictment by a criminal court judge, around 14:15 p.m. (18:15 p.m. local time). He is expected to plead "not guilty," according to his lawyers.

After a Monday under extraordinary media tension, the New York justice has banned television cameras and any mode of transmission inside the courtroom. A single camera positioned in a corridor of the courthouse will be able to film the former president of the United States, who should then say a few words. Authorities, concerned about security around the Manhattan courthouse, have placed the NYPD "on alert" and Mayor Eric Adams warned Monday the "troublemakers".

Pro- and anti-Trump protests

When he arrived, hundreds of supporters and opponents of Donald Trump faced each other in court, under tension and invective, even kept at a distance. His critics had unfurled a huge "Trump lies all the time" banner. The billionaire claims his innocence and claims to be the victim of a "witch hunt" orchestrated by President Joe Biden's Democrats, who would have "stolen" his victory in the 2020 presidential election. "The far-left democrats have criminalized the judicial system," he denounced Tuesday, all in capital letters, on his platform Truth Social, castigating a "phony court" and a judge "very biased".

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A New Yorker by birth, he spent the night in his luxurious "Trump Tower" and will submit, in court, to the ritual imposed on any defendant: to disclose his name, age and profession, to take a fingerprint and perhaps to be photographed -- the famous "mugshot", source of so much public humiliation for stars in the United States. But his status as a senior American dignitary protected by the Secret Service, police for the protection of personalities, may require some adjustments.

No handcuffs

According to his lawyer Joe Tacopina, he will not be handcuffed. He should then be released, possibly conditionally, pending his trial at a later date. The New York businessman, who made his fortune in real estate and television, met his faithful and tens of millions of voters for a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida at 20:15 p.m. (00:15 a.m. local time Wednesday).

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The charges, about thirty according to CNN, have not yet been made public and should be made public by the Manhattan prosecutor who is prosecuting him, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat. They are believed to be linked to accounting fraud during the legal payment in October 2016 and the subsequent reimbursement of $ 130,000 to the actress of pornographic films Stormy Daniels.

Targeted by several other investigations

Her real name is Stephanie Clifford, this woman, who has been collaborating with the law for five years, was supposed to keep quiet about a supposed and very brief extramarital relationship in 2006 with Donald Trump. The $130,000 she received from a former lawyer and handyman of former President Michael Cohen -- who went to jail and turned on his boss in 2018 -- had not been reported in Trump presidential candidate Trump's 2016 campaign accounts. A possible violation of New York State election laws. This sum had been recorded, potentially illegally, as "legal fees" in the accounts of his company Trump Organization, already sentenced in December and January to a civil fine of $ 1.6 million for fraud.

Beyond this case, Donald Trump -- who has shaken up the political system and society in the United States in less than ten years -- is the target of several other investigations, including his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, his management of presidential archives or pressure on election officials in Georgia to contest his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.