Trump becomes the first US president to be indicted.
A grand jury in a New York court voted to criminally indict Donald Trump for hush-buying a porn actress in 2016, becoming the first president or former president to be indicted.
Source: AFP
The former US president, who aspires to compete again for the White House in 2024, He will probably be indicted in the coming days by the New York State court for the payment of $130,000 to the actress and director of porn films Stormy Daniels, say media such as The New York Times and CNN, citing sources close to the case.
“This is political persecution and interference at the highest level in history in an election,” the 45th president of the United States said in a statement, accusing “radical left-wing Democrats” of a “witch hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement, which he represents.
The 76-year-old billionaire calls Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, on whom his indictment depends, a “disgrace” and for doing “the dirty work” of President Joe Biden, whose victory in the 2020 election he never acknowledged.
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In the same sense, his son manifested Eric Trump, who considers his father’s impeachment “third world malpractice” and an “opportunistic target against a political opponent in a campaign year.”
It is the first time in the country’s history that a former president or an acting president has to sit on the bench of justice.
“No one is above the law” said Clark Brewster, lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an extramarital affair with Donald Trump, which he has always denied.
The press was abuzz with rumors since the beginning of March about the probable indictment of the Republican, who has already started his campaign for the party’s primaries.
But on March 18, the candidate managed to capture all the attention by assuring on his Truth Social platform that he would be “arrested” last Tuesday and that three days later he would have to appear in court. But nothing happened.
The press assured the day before that the grand jury studying the evidence against Donald Trump planned to suspend the hearings in the coming weeks due to school holidays and other religious festivities, so the decision that came this Thursday was not expected before the end of April.
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The grand jury had to decide for or against indicting the billionaire.
Once charged, Trump will have to appear in court in Manhattan for a judge to notify him of the accusation, briefly being “under arrest” to be photographed and fingerprinted. He would then have to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges for which he has been investigated.
New York justice is trying to clarify whether Trump is guilty of false statement, an infraction, or of violating the electoral financing law, a criminal offense.
Then-Trump lawyer and now enemy Michael Cohen, testifying before the Manhattan grand jury, said he was in charge of making the payment to Stormy Daniels on behalf of her then-boss and later reimbursed her.
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If the payment had not been duly accreditedcould result in a misdemeanor for accounting falsification, although at the same time, he could have violated the electoral campaign finance law, which can carry four years in jail.
According to legal experts, it will not be easy to prove those accusations in court, so it is uncertain that the former president can be sentenced to jail.
An eventual conviction by the New York state court would not prevent him from legally running for president of the United States, according to law professor John Coffee, although, he says, “it would have a “stigmatizing” effect.
The tycoon is the subject of several criminal investigations at both the state and federal levels for alleged wrongdoing that could threaten his new run for the White House, including attempts to reverse his loss in the 2020 election in the state of Georgia.
