Thunderbolt
Prosecutor Bragg, an elected Democrat at the head of the Manhattan prosecution since 2022 and who inherited the Stormy Daniels case, remained silent.
But in a letter dated Thursday and addressed to three Republican parliamentarians, his services denounced the media and political thunderbolt caused by Mr. Trump on Saturday.
In this letter consulted by AFP, the Manhattan prosecution responds to these three elected members of the House of Representatives who had summoned, in a letter of March 20, the prosecutor Bragg to testify before Congress.
They accused the left-ranked magistrate of carrying out “politically motivated prosecutions”.
“Your letter,” retorts Mr Bragg’s general secretary, Leslie Dubeck, “is an unprecedented interference in an ongoing local investigation.”
And it “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day, and after his lawyers apparently pressed you to intervene.”
“No fact offers a legitimate basis for a Congressional investigation,” she sweeps.
Indictment dismissed
According to several media such as the Washington Post, New York justice has again postponed, until next week, the possible indictment of Donald Trump.
This decision must be voted on by a grand jury, a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers that works with the prosecutor, who must comply and formally indict.
This grand jury did not seem to meet on this file on Thursday, the last day of the judicial week.
Even charged, Mr. Trump would not be “arrested” immediately anyway.
It would take several days for him to appear in Manhattan, in what would doubtless be an indescribable mess.
All week, authorities in New York have had barriers erected in front of the courthouse and Trump Tower in Manhattan. To prevent any risk of clashes in a city with a history of violence, the municipal police (NYPD) have boosted “the presence of police officers in uniform”.
January 6, 2021
Mr. Trump had called on his supporters on Saturday to “protest”, recalling what he had done in December 2020 and on January 6, 2021, the day of his supporters’ assault on the Capitol in Washington, to contest a presidential election without proof “ stolen”, according to him, by Democrat Joe Biden.
But there were only a few dozen protesters this week outside the courthouse and Trump Tower in New York, and outside Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a final post on Thursday on Truth Social, the former president reiterated that he was “100% innocent,” being pursued by “radical left crazies” and warning, “Our country is being destroyed and they tell us to stay peaceful”.
On the merits, the Stormy Daniels case is complex.
Justice seeks to determine whether Mr. Trump was guilty of misrepresentation, an offense, or breach of the laws on campaign financing, a criminal offense, by having paid money to this actress of pornographic films, her real name Stephanie Clifford, just before her presidential victory in November 2016.
What purpose? For her to conceal a supposed extramarital relationship ten years earlier, according to the prosecution.
