Donald Trump, former president and favorite to be the Republican candidate in 2024, will be photographed and fingerprinted for a mugshot, will appear before a judge after being charged in an investigation into paying a porn actress money to keep her silent , in an unprecedented event in the United States.
The potential spectacle of Trump’s appearance before a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday will make him the first sitting or out-of-office president to face criminal charges and could further divide the world’s most powerful country.
Trump is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year. Even before news of the indictment broke, he had been trying to use legal threats to raise money and harangue his most loyal supporters.
The first US president to try to shut down an election, whose false accusations of voter fraud inspired the deadly storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has said he will continue to campaign even if he faces charges.
The specific allegations have not yet been made public, but CNN said Thursday that Trump faced more than 30 charges related to business fraud.
Although Trump had claimed in a social media post on March 18 that he would be arrested in a matter of days, his first reaction to the news was “shockone of his lawyers, Joe Tacopina, said in an interview Friday on ABC.
“We’ll go and proceed to see a judge at some point, we’ll plead not guilty, we’ll start talking about filing motions, which we’ll do immediately and very aggressively.Tacopin said.
Trump, 76, said he was “completely innocent” and accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who led the investigation, of trying to hurt his electoral chances.
“This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.”Trump said in a statement.
Trump alleges political motivations in all four known criminal investigations of him, including federal inquiries into his withholding of classified documents and attempts to overturn his election loss, and another in Georgia into his attempt to overturn his election loss.
He has also accused Bragg, who is black, of racial bias.
“Let the process take its course”
Shortly after the news of his indictment broke, Trump appealed to his supporters to contribute money for his legal defense.
Trump this month called for protests across the country, recalling his strong rhetoric before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
Neither the White House nor Biden, a Democrat expected to seek re-election, had comment.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, called for calm: “I encourage both Mr. Trump’s critics and supporters to let the process proceed peacefully and in accordance with the law.”.
delivery on tuesday
The charges in Manhattan will likely be unsealed by a judge in the coming days and Trump will have to travel there to be photographed, fingerprinted and appear in court, something a judicial official said was expected on Tuesday.
Trump’s attorney, Susan Necheles, confirmed the Tuesday delivery date and said she did not expect the charges to be made public until that day.
The grand jury indictment follows months of hearing evidence about an alleged $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. But any potential trial is still at least more than a year away. , according to legal experts, which means it could happen during or after the presidential campaign.
Necheles said that Trump “will fight vigorouslyagainst the charges.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received money in exchange for keeping quiet about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.
Former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen has said he arranged with the former president to make payments to Daniels and another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also said she had a sexual relationship with him.
Trump has denied having affairs with either.
Source: Gestion
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