dispatches

A procession of witnesses begins on Tuesday in New York at the trial of Donald Trump for hidden payments to a former porn star, where the former president of the United States also faces the threat of conviction for contempt. after his invectives on the fringe debates.

After a long weekend, the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election is back in Manhattan court for the third week of his appearance in this trial that is scheduled to last between six and eight.

The first vice president in the history of the United States to be tried criminally, Donald Trump, 77, is at risk of conviction and, in theory, up to a prison sentence in this case, one of four in is he charged.

This may be the only one before the November 5 election, when he dreams of revenge on Joe Biden, after he leaves the White House in January 2021 in chaos.

Donald Trump is being sued for 34 falsifications of accounting documents that allegedly hid payments to cover up a possible sex scandal in the home stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The $130,000 was paid to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged sexual relationship she had with him in 2006, when he was already married to his wife Melania . A relationship he denies. The prosecutors are talking about a “conspiracy” to “kick” the election, when the defense of Donald Trump sees it as a normal operation of democracy.

As with his other legal troubles, Donald Trump is denying a “witch hunt” and a lawsuit that will make him appear in a “frozen” courtroom rather than campaign.

An empty shell

After the first week dedicated to jury selection, the debates focused for four days on the long testimony of a former tabloid boss, who set the tone of the case. David Pecker, owner of “The National Enquirer”, reported how he helped Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016 by buying exclusive rights to two other potentially scandalous testimonials.

All after a meeting in the summer of 2015 with Donald Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen. But David Pecker, who was not paid back, refused to pay Stormy Daniels when his case arose.

On Tuesday, the hearings are expected to begin with testimony from Michael Cohen’s former banker. He has already started saying that his client asked him to open an account for a new company, in fact an empty shell that was used to pay Stormy Daniels.

The lawyer was then reimbursed, in 2017, by Donald Trump’s group of companies, the Trump Organization, for costs recorded as “legal costs”, and thus the prosecutor for falsifications accounting.

40 potential witnesses

At the start of the trial, Judge Juan Merchan listed the names of around forty witnesses, including Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, but also one of Donald’s political strategists Trump before, Steve Bannon, or a former director of communications at the White House, Hope Hicks.

Prosecutors are refusing to release the witnesses in advance, arguing that Donald Trump is trying to intimidate them and jurors through his posts on his Truth Social network. Last week, they already asked the judge to sentence him for contempt to a fine of $1,000 per published publication, the maximum, and to remind him that imprisonment is still “is an option if necessary.”

Even before the judge ruled, prosecutors raised three new attacks from Donald Trump, including one on the jurors, who he described as “95% Democrats” meaning they would not be impartial. . A new hearing will be organized to this point on Thursday on the sidelines of the debates.