(New York) Will Donald Trump be charged this week in New York in a case of purchase in 2016 of the silence of an actress of pornographic films? After claiming that he was going to be brought to justice, the ex-president assured this weekend that the criminal case would have been dropped.
Since Mr. Trump wrote on March 18 on his social network Truth Social that he was going to be “arrested” and appear in New York justice on March 21 to be charged, but nothing happened, New York is hanging on this hypothetical indictment.
That would be unprecedented against a former US president.
On Monday, according to the press, a grand jury – a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers that works with prosecutors – met again in Manhattan court to deliberate on the case which threatens Mr. Trump.
If a grand jury, whose hearings are confidential, votes for an indictment, a prosecutor must comply and announce it.
Donald Trump, 76-year-old former Republican president who dreams of “reclaiming” the White House in 2024, must answer before the justice of the State of New York and his attorney for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, for a payment of 130,000 dollars to porn actress and director Stormy Daniels.
PHOTO MARKUS SCHREIBER, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stormy Daniels
Justice seeks to determine if he was guilty of false declarations, an offense, or breach of the laws on electoral financing, a criminal offense, by having paid money to this woman, whose real name Stephanie Clifford, just before his presidential victory in November 2016.
What purpose ? For her to conceal a supposed extramarital relationship ten years earlier, according to the prosecution.
Accused by Donald Trump and Republican parliamentarians of having a “political motive”, prosecutor Bragg, an elected Democrat at the head of the Manhattan prosecution since 2022, replied Thursday by mail that the businessman had “created a false expectation” media on his indictment and denounced an “interference” in the investigation.
PHOTO AMANDA PEROBELLI, REUTERS
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
On Saturday, at a campaign rally in Texas, Mr. Trump, suspected by the Washington Post and the New York Times to sometimes flirt with incitement to violence, had denied “any crime” and any affair with Stormy Daniels.
On his return plane, he had been further according to the political media Axios: “I think they have already dropped the case […] It’s bogus business. The kind of phony business they have absolutely nothing on”.
PHOTO EVAN VUCCI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Donald Trump on his plane after his rally in Waco, Texas on Saturday
And the 45e President of the United States hit the nail on the head on Sunday on Truth Social: “The Manhattan District Attorney’s witch hunt against me is DEAD.”
