April 05, 202305:35
During the hearing, the judge read 34 charges: the former US president is accused of having paid two women, but pleads “not guilty”. The White House: “We condemn any attack against judges”
Donald Trump has pleaded “not guilty” to the 34 countsincluding the conspiracy, for which he appeared in court in New York for the preliminary hearing within the scope of the process on case of Stormy Daniels. “My only crime was to stand up for America. Nothing was done illegally. A great day, the investigation is a farce“, declared the tycoon once he returned to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Trump, first former US president to be under criminal investigation and under arrest, was indicted for the payment of $130,000 made from his campaign funds in 2016 to the former porn star, in order to cover up an extramarital affair. the former president, released without restrictionsis also accused of having also paid for another woman and an usher. The new hearing will be held on December 4ththe start of the trial in 2024.
Photogallery – Trump in court in Manhattan
The prosecutor asked the
witness protection. Among the accusations made against the former tenant of the White House there is also that of having participated in one
conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election, including through
a series of payments to stifle three “embarrassing affairs” before the presidential campaign.
Photogallery – Trump returns to Mar-a-Lago after the hearing and addresses his supporters
Trump’s speech Trump devoted much of his post-hearing speech, which lasted about 25 minutes and deemed “short and underwhelming” by many analysts, to attacking his political opponents and challenging other investigations involving him on election interference in Georgia in 2020 to the classified documents found by the FBI in Mar-a-Lago, in the summer of 2022. “I never thought something like this could happen in America. The only crime I’ve committed was defending America from those who wants to destroy it,” Trump thundered amid cheers of support from his supporters.
The attack on Joe Biden: “He wants World War III” On this last point, Trump also attacked President Joe Biden, reiterating once again that he had declassified all the documents found in his private residence by the authorities. “Biden wants to start the Third World War. He did it all when he was a senator”, underlined the tycoon in reference to the issue of top secret papers found in his offices. Referring then to the classified papers, found in recent months inside structures used by Biden during his terms as vice president and senator, Trump stated that “a vice president, like a senator, cannot declassify anything: it is unacceptable behavior, yet it doesn’t seem to me that they are persecuting him as they are doing with those who work for me”. Trump then attacked the federal government, accusing the Biden administration of “exploiting the US judicial system, now outlawed, to win elections”.
Trump against everyone After reiterating that all the investigations against him are “political persecutions”, the tycoon covered the prosecutors involved with insults one by one: from Bragg, “paid by George Soros”, to Letitia James to Jack Smith, engaged in the investigation into the top secret papers brought from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, which he called a “crazy”. All, according to the former American president, are tools of the “radical left” who aim to “stop it at any cost”. The investigation by the Atlanta, Georgia prosecutor’s office is also “a false case of interfering in the 2024 election and should be dismissed immediately” for Trump, who called the phone call in which he lobbied to overturn the 2020 vote “perfect” in that state. Before taking the stage at his resort, the Republican accused Bragg “of shutting down New York, mobilizing 38,000 agents and spending $200,000 of city funds on a $130,000 legal non-disclosure agreement.”
The hearing and the charges During a hearing on the 15th floor of the Manhattan Criminal Court, Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of false accounting against him. In the indictment, declassified before Judge Juan Merchan at the end of the hearing, there is no reference to the crime of conspiracy. According to the text, signed by the District Attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, the crime of forgery of documents would have been perpetrated “to hide a criminal conduct aimed at covering up information that could have damaged the image” of Trump, in the context of the electoral campaign for the 2016 presidential elections. The document does not clarify what “criminal conduct” the former president and his staff would have tried to hide by falsifying documents (a necessary condition for false accounting to constitute a criminal offense ), and Bragg said in a press conference that the judicial authorities are not required to specify it for the moment.
Photogallery – Trump supporters take to the streets in New York and Mar-a-Lago
The 130,000 dollars in the sights of the prosecutor Speaking to reporters, Bragg merely said Trump would have violated New York state electoral law, according to which the falsification of corporate documents is a criminal offense in the presence of a desire to hide or cover up other criminal conduct. The Manhattan prosecutor’s investigation focuses on the 130,000 dollars that would have been paid in 2016 to porn star Stephanie Clifford, known by the stage name of Stormy Daniels. The sum would have been paid so that the woman would keep silent about a relationship she had ten years earlier with Trump, whose lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, admitted to personally handling the transaction. The money, the indictment claims, would later be recorded as “legal expenses” for the Trump Organization. According to the court documents, the allegations concern a total of three payments made by Trump’s staff to as many women, including Daniels, whom the judicial authorities would like to call as a witness at the next hearing, set for next December 4th. The payments were allegedly made to Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy magazine model, and a woman employed at Trump Tower, whose name was not specified. The three women would have received 130,000, 150,000 and 30,000 dollars respectively.
White House: “We condemn any attack against judges” In a press briefing, responding to a question about former President Donald Trump’s rants against prosecutors and judges, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We condemn any attacks against judges or the justice system.”
