The news is resounding. On Thursday, Republican billionaire Donald Trump was indicted in a 2016 porn star silence-buying case and is scheduled to appear next week, Tuesday, in New York criminal court.
An unprecedented historical fact for a former American president, who denounced “political persecution”. After having held America in suspense for ten days, this historic indictment still seemed Thursday not to have to occur before the end of April. Here’s what we know this Friday.
Why this indictment?
The former tenant of the White House, who dreams of winning it back in 2024, is officially charged by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, dependent on the justice of the State of New York, for a case of payment and reimbursement, just before the November 2016 presidential election, 130,000 dollars to the actress and director of porn movies, Stormy Daniels. The sum had not been declared in the Republican candidate’s campaign accounts in violation of state election laws, and recorded as “legal fees” in the accounts of his company, whose headquarters is in New York.
For years, New York justice has sought to determine whether the 76-year-old former Republican president was guilty of misrepresentation, a minor offense, or breach of campaign finance laws, a criminal offense, in having paid money to Stormy Daniels, just before her presidential victory in November 2016, for her to conceal an alleged extramarital relationship dating from 2006.
The key man in the file is called Michael Cohen: former lawyer for Donald Trump who became his enemy, he had paid Stormy Daniels in 2016 and had been reimbursed. After a prison sentence, he collaborated in the investigation from the end of 2018 and testified several times before the grand jury
CNN mentions around thirty charges once morest Donald Trump and revolving around fraud to conceal the circulation and accounting at the end of 2016 of the 130,000 dollars. This act and the lawsuits remain “under seal” for the time being.
How was the indictment voted?
In January, the Democratic prosecutor of Manhattan Alvin Bragg had entrusted this case to a grand jury. In the United States, a grand jury is made up of randomly selected citizens who are tasked with conducting a confidential investigation to determine if there is enough evidence to bring formal charges once morest a suspect.
After hearing several witnesses, the grand jury invited Donald Trump to speak in mid-March, which indicated that he was preparing to complete his work. The ex-president had refused, while calling on his supporters to demonstrate once morest his next “arrest”.
On Thursday, the grand jury met at 2 p.m. (6 p.m. GMT) in the presence of three prosecutors in charge of the case, according to the New York Times. After three hours of discussions behind closed doors, he adopted an indictment, the charges of which have not been made public.
What is the next step ?
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.
“We expect the reading of the indictment to take place on Tuesday,” his lawyer Susan Necheles said in an email to AFP. A spokesperson for the local prosecutor’s office had previously indicated that he had organized with the defense of Donald Trump “his surrender before the Manhattan District Attorney for a arraignment hearing before a Supreme Court”, a court, according to a statement released following the vote. of a grand jury – a panel of citizens with investigative powers that works in concert with prosecutors – in favor of this indictment.
If he refused to appear, he might be arrested and it would then be necessary to “extradite” him from Florida, where he lives, to New York, each state having its own judicial system.
A step closer to a trial?
It is likely that Donald Trump’s lawyers will engage in a legal guerrilla warfare to try to have his indictment invalidated, perhaps by arguing that the investigation was incriminating or a formality defect.
If they fail to do so, the normal course of justice provides for three scenarios following an indictment: Either the charges are dropped, or the accused can make a deal with prosecutors and agree to plead guilty to avoid a trial. and obtain a lighter sentence, or the justice organizes a trial, but must first respect several procedures, with various preliminary hearings. Again, it is likely that Donald Trump’s lawyers will use all possible levers to delay this deadline.
How did Trump react?
The 45th President of the United States derided in a press release “political persecution and interference in the 2024 presidential election”. He denounced a “witch hunt” which “will turn once morest Biden”, the Democratic president elected in November 2020 and whom Donald Trump has accused for more than two years of having “stolen” his victory.
On his social network Truth Social, the billionaire, who has upset the political system and the balance of power in the United States since 2015, torpedoed opponents he did not name: “They are chasing me in a bogus way and shameful because they know I stand with the American people and cannot get a fair trial in New York! “, his majority Democratic hometown.
And his field?
One of Trump’s 2024 Republican rivals, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, called the indictment “contrary to America’s values” and assured that his state, where the former president resides, would not respond favorably “to an extradition request” from the State of New York. 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” by Prosecutor Bragg.
“Let’s be clear guys. It’s a communist thing. It’s something that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot blush, ”stormed his eldest son Donald Trump junior in his streaming show.
This indictment is “worthy of the Third World”, “an opportunistic act targeting a political opponent in the middle of an election campaign”, added his brother Eric Trump in a tweet.
And on the side of his opponents?
Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, who has worked with justice for almost six years, exclaimed on Twitter that she did not want “to spill her champagne”. His attorney Clark Brewster said, “No one is above the law.”
On the side of the Democrats, parliamentarian Adam Schiff, judged that “the indictment and arrest of a former president was unique in all of American history”.
Is this indictment a surprise?
The press was buzzing with rumors in March of an indictment of the Republican billionaire, also surrounded by other legal files. He had pulled off a political coup on March 18, saying on his Truth Social network that he would be “arrested” and appear in New York three days later. But nothing had happened.
After having held America in suspense, all the newspapers in New York and Washington still affirmed with one voice on Wednesday that justice should not decide before April 24. For his part, Donald Trump, who has always denied “any crime” and any connection with Stormy Daniels, had described Mr. Bragg’s investigation on Sunday as “dead” and a “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 to him that he had “created a false expectation media on his charge and denounced an “interference” in the investigation.
In Manhattan, where the populist former president was only able to rally a few dozen supporters last week, the area around the courthouse and Trump Tower were very quiet Thursday evening.
Does that prevent him from running for a second term?
Absolutely not. In the United States, a criminally charged or convicted person can run for any office and be elected. The Constitution provides only one exception to the exercise of an official function: having participated in an “insurrection” or a “rebellion” once morest the United States.
Donald Trump, who launched last November in the presidential race of 2024, is the subject of a federal justice investigation for his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but no charge has not been held once morest him at this stage.
