March 31, 2023, 2:05 PM
March 31, 2023, 2:05 PM
donald trump prepares to be arrested on Tuesday and experience what no other former president of the United States: have your fingerprints taken and take a photo for the mug shot. But he, true to himself, will “fight” the charges on his way to the 2024 presidential elections.
A New York grand jury indicted Trump on criminal charges over a $130,000 cash payment to a porn actress to buy her silence during the 2016 presidential campaign.
He former president He denies breaking the law and accuses the Manhattan district attorney who brought the charges, Democrat Alvin Bragg, of waging a “political witch hunt.”
The goal, according to him, is prevent the Republican Party from nominating you for the White House at a time when he is the clear favorite although he seems to have lost the ability to mobilize and the luster of yesteryear.
According to his lawyers, the former president, who is at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, will turn himself in to New York authorities on Tuesday to face charges, which are being kept secret.
“The president will not be handcuffed”, said Joe Tacopina, one of the lawyers, who nevertheless fears that his adversaries will delight in “parading him.”
Trump will plead not guilty and there is “zero” chance he will accept a plea deal, Tacopina said. “That’s not going to happen. There’s no crime.”
The indictment on Thursday left Trump “shocked,” his lawyer said, but he is now “willing to fight.”
Trump himself predicted his indictment days ago and called protests warning that they could lead to “potential death and destruction” in the country.
For now, security has been tightened at the downtown Manhattan courthouse where Trump is expected to stand trial.
“They only brought this false, corrupt and shameful charge against me because I support the American people and they know I can’t get a fair trial in New York!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media platform.
Trump knows he is a born political survivor. He has passed two political trials while he was in the White House and seems to avoid other cases in which he is involved, such as the attack on Congress by a mob of supporters in January 2021, the disappearance of White House files or the alleged pressure on a Georgia state official during the 2020 election.
Of the tangle of cases that pursued him, it was finally the sexual scandal with the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, 44, the one that ended up taking its toll on him.
His party, on which has never ceased to have influenceHe seems to sympathize with him.
Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives, estimated that the impeachment has “irreparably damaged” the country and his former vice president and possible opponent for 2024, Mike Pence, called it an “outrage” that “will further divide” the United States.
It is “un-American,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another possible rival.
The country’s president, Democrat Joe Biden, who defeated him at the polls in 2020, opted for caution: “I have no comment on Trump,” he said. But the former president of House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi was reminded that “no one is above the law”.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen He testified in 2019 that he made the payment to Daniels on Trump’s behalf to hide an extramarital affair from 2006 and that the money was later returned to him.
He new york grand jury he had to rule on whether he believes this cover-up was intended to benefit his campaign. After deliberation he decided to frame him.
An impeachment like this could ruin any career and demoralize any other politician, but in the case of Trump the effects are unpredictable and it is not at all clear that it will harm him.
Even his detractors fear that if he is acquitted, this will affect other accusations on more serious issues, such as his alleged role in the attempt to annul the results of the elections in the state of Georgia, where Biden then obtained a slim majority, or the riots of the January 6 at the Capitol.
In addition, the criminal charges against him are likely to energize his campaign by bolstering his base for the Republican primary.
