Trump’s indictment plunges the US into judicial and political uncertainty

The official indictment of Donald Trump has the entire United States wondering what now? The race for the White House in 2024 is more uncertain than ever and so is the judicial calendar of the former Republican president.

This while the other major contender, Democratic President Joe Biden, is taking his time announcing a candidacy that is taken for granted.

Before a New York judge, Donald Trump, the first former US president to be indicted, pleaded not guilty to having orchestrated payments to hush up issues damaging to him before the 2016 presidential elections.

It remains to be seen if this case, one of many that worries the billionaire, will go to trial.

Timing is critical to him as he hopes to win the Republican nomination for the November 2024 presidential election.

Justice is betting on a forthcoming appearance at the end of the year and a trial in January 2024, just before the primaries, but the former president’s lawyers disagree.

“We won’t go before a jury”, one of them, Joe Tacopina, told NBC on Wednesday, convinced that the case will fall under its own weight due to legal difficulties. He called it a case.”zombie”.

Meanwhile, Trump, who has been released, can campaign as he pleases on the condition that “refrain from comments that may incite violence” about his case, Judge Juan Merchán warned him on Tuesday, who did not impose the “gag law”, an absolute ban on mentioning the procedure in public.

But restraint is not the tycoon’s forte, who on Tuesday night tried to take advantage of the media attention his indictment brought.

The former president, who was tense throughout the day, described the accusation, detailed in 34 charges, as “insult to the nation”, from Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious residence in Florida. He estimated that the prosecutor himself should be “indicted” and said that the judge and his family “they hate”.

His speech, provocative and monotonous at times, was before supporters who came to listen to him dressed in the red caps typical of his rallies.

Justiciable

After a trip that he tried to make seem as presidential as possible, with a private plane and a security caravan through the streets of New York, Trump had to face two hours in a Manhattan courtroom.

The former president gave his name, age and profession, and submitted to fingerprinting, but avoided the humiliating mug shot.

The billionaire claims to be the victim of a “Witch hunt” promoted by the Democrats of President Biden, who according to him “heist” his presidential victory in 2020.

For his part, the Democrat considered that this appearance “it was not a priority” to him, according to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.

Trump is accused of “orchestrate” a series of payments to cover up three cases before the November 2016 elections. In particular the payment of US$ 130,000 to the porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had an extramarital relationship in 2006 that he flatly denies.

Donald Trump”he has not stopped lying”, affirmed the prosecutor of Manhattan Alvin Bragg, of the Democratic Party, who denounces a “serious criminal conduct”.

Biden has chosen to stay on the sidelines, refusing to comment on his potential rival’s legal woes in 2024. And he went about his agenda with near indifference.

But he hopes that in the long run it will benefit him, especially since Donald Trump has only just begun a series of appearances and court proceedings.

And it is that the former president is the subject of several investigations: for having allegedly tried to influence the results of the presidential elections in Georgia, for his alleged role in the assault of his supporters on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and for the management of confidential documents .