Donald Trump has become the first former president in the history of the United States to be charged in a criminal case. A Manhattan grand jury accuses him of bribing porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign so that she would not air an extramarital affair they both had in 2006. This unprecedented accusation comes as the Republican politician tries to return to the White House in the 2024 election and faces other legal investigations. The impeachment will test an already divided Republican party on whether to support Trump as a candidate. The tycoon has denied the accusations and affirms that he is the victim of a “witch hunt” with the intention of preventing his return to power. These are the key points of the investigation.
The grand jury has been meeting secretly for weeks to investigate Trump’s involvement in a 2016 payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels intended to prevent her from going public with a sexual encounter she said she had with him while he was married to his current wife Melania. The amount was paid by then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company, and was later reimbursed by Trump through his company, the Trump Organization, which registered the transaction as legal expenses. In early 2016, Cohen also arranged for former Playboy model Karen McDougal to receive a $150,000 payment from the publisher of The National Enquirer tabloid. Trump denies having sex with either woman. Trump’s company “swelled” Cohen’s refund of Daniels’ payment to defray tax payments, according to federal prosecutors who filed criminal charges against the lawyer in connection with the payments in 2018. Cohen acknowledged that he had arranged clandestine payments to Daniels in 2016 and pleaded guilty to the corresponding federal crimes. This confession prompted the Manhattan district attorney’s office to open an investigation into whether the payments violated New York state law.
The specific charges against the former president are still unknown, so it is not entirely clear. Some experts have said they believe Trump could be charged with falsifying business records, which can be a misdemeanor or felony under New York law. To secure a conviction on the felony charge, prosecutors would have to prove that the records were falsified with the intent to commit or conceal a second crime. It is unclear what prosecutors are alleging as a second offense. Despite this, it is taken for granted that the prosecutor in the case, the Democrat Alvin Bragg, will start up the machinery that corresponds to a judicial accusation for acts of a criminal nature.
The possible arrest of Trump is a fact that has been speculating for weeks. Images created with Artificial Intelligence that recreated the moment have even circulated on social networks, with a Trump resisting and dragged by several police officers or running down the street to avoid his arrest. Despite the fact that they were completely false, sources close to the former president have assured that he would not mind starring in a scene and that he would have expressed his willingness to want to be handcuffed when the time came.
Security forces have been making preparations for days for the possibility of a court appearance. Trump is expected to turn himself in to authorities next week, although details are still being worked out, a person familiar with the AP agency has revealed. Once in the courts, his fingerprints will be taken, the required photos will be taken of him, frontal and profile, and his rights will be read to him, like any citizen.
Neither the indictment nor a hypothetical conviction will prevent Trump from running for president or from winning the election. Last week in Waco, Texas, Trump took a defiant stance against the prosecutors in the case: “The thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.” Before the charges were filed, many party leaders had already started defending the former president. Former Vice President Mike Pence called the idea of ​​impeaching a former president “deeply concerning.” Another of the Republican names that sound for 2024, the governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, affirmed that there is a feeling that the former president is being unfairly attacked. For her part, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, an outspoken candidate and former Trump ambassador to the UN, called Bragg’s case an attempt to score “political points.”
For his part, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who despite not having officially launched his candidacy sounds like Trump’s main Republican rival, said the investigation was politically motivated but also launched one of his first jabs at the former president in a joke that likely intensifies their rivalry by claiming to not “know what it goes into paying hush money to a porn star.”
No. The New York case is just one of many legal problems facing the billionaire. The Justice Department is also investigating the retention and concealment of top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago property after he left the White House. Separately, federal investigators are looking into his possible involvement in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claimed had been stolen. In Georgia, prosecutors are studying whether Trump and his allies tried to falsify the 2020 election results. The foreman of a special grand jury in the latest case, which heard from dozens of witnesses, said last month that the group had recommended indicting numerous people and hinted that Trump might be among them. Now it is the prosecution that must decide whether or not to go ahead.
