The US presidential election will take place in six months and the first criminal trial opened against former President Donald Trump between this Monday in its fourth week and its 12th day of hearings. The candidate for a new term at the White House faces justice in New York for having circumvented the commercial laws governing his real estate empire, in order to conceal the bribe paid to porn actress and producer Stormy Daniels to silence a former adulterous relationship which would have damaged the image of the tycoon.
Since the trial opened, prosecutors have not revealed in advance the names of the people they will call to testify. We therefore do not know when Stéphanie Clifford – the real name of Stormy Daniels – will appear at the bar, as will lawyer Michael Cohen, who made the payment of $130,000 from his personal funds before being reimbursed by the Trump Organization. Damned soul of Trump for years, who called him “my pitbull”, personal lawyer and friend, Cohen agreed to collaborate with the courts to avoid too heavy prosecutions, and reduced his prison sentence for tax evasion. The two men severed all ties. Cohen has already testified against Trump in court in the fall, on the falsification of his company’s accounts. His questioning should anger Trump, who is struggling to respect his injunction to silence.
Because the New York Supreme Court judge Juan Merchan , who is overseeing the trial in Manhattan, forced the defendant to remain silent during interrogations and cross-examinations. But the eruptive Trump sometimes comes out of his sleepy posture – which cannot be said whether it is genuine or overplayed – and has repeatedly violated the order. Last Tuesday and Thursday, Judge Merchan held two parallel hearings on recent alleged violations, either in the courtroom, in his posts on his Truth Social network or in his campaign materials. The defendant has already settled$9,000 fine
for nine breaches of silence, but Judge Merchan also warned the tycoon’s lawyers that he could go to prison if he continued to break court rules.
On Friday he reminded Donald Trump that this injunction did not silence him, as he claims during a meeting. “The order restricting out-of-court statements in no way prevents you from testifying, it does not prohibit you from speaking, and it does not limit or minimize what you can say,” he reminded her.
Trump accuses Biden of running the ‘Gestapo administration’
The magistrate also warned Cohen and Daniels that he could apply the same order to them if they continued to publicly criticize Trump, particularly during interviews. Last week ended with the testimony of Hope Hicks, press secretary for the candidate during the 2016 campaign and then director of communications at the White House.until February 2018 . Forced to appear in court by a subpoena, the former close collaborator showed through her responses how much Trump feared that old stories concerning women would anger his wife Melania
and does not dissuade Republican voters from voting for him.
She notably mentioned the affair of the “Access Hollywood” recording revealed in 2016 but dating from 2005, during which Trump flaunted to a television presenter about his attempts to seduce married women, to kiss them , affirming: “I’m not even waiting for (their agreement, Editor’s note). When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the pussy… You can do anything.” According to Hicks, when the recording was authenticated, candidate Trump seemed surprised that people were surprised at a typical conversation between two men together.
2024 Getty Images Proof that the trial does not tarnish Donald Trump’s image among his supporters, his campaign manager Chris LaCivita and the Republican National Committee announced on Saturday that they had collected more than 76 million dollars in April, ten million better than the$65.6 million raised in March
. “With half of the funds raised coming from small donors, it’s clear that our base is energized. The Republican Party is united and voters across the country are ready to fire Joe Biden and elect Donald J. Trump,” they rejoiced. Democrat Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has regularly surpassed Donald Trump’s in fundraising, but the gap is tending to narrow.
Privately, the Republican candidate continues to accuse Democrats and the American media of a plot to prevent his re-election. On Saturday, at a private donor event in Florida, he even accused the White House and President Biden of being Nazis. “These people are running a Gestapo administration,” he charged, according to an audio recording heard by the New York Times and the Washington Post. “And that’s the only thing they have.” And this is the only way for them to win,” he criticized.
Unlike the United States Supreme Court, the highest court and final resort for deciding disputes, the New York State Supreme Court is a trial court. It has the greatest criminal and civil jurisdiction in the state, and all important cases are decided by the judges who sit there. Its decisions are subject to appeal.
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