Historic trial against Donald Trump begins in New York

The criminal trial against Donald Trump, the first former president in the history of the United States to sit in the dock, began this Monday in a New York court, in the midst of the 2024 presidential campaign.

The investigating judge Juan M. Merchanof Colombian origin, opened the trial and, once again, rejected the 77-year-old magnate’s request to withdraw from the case.

After a debate about the evidence to be presented, the magistrate addresses the accused to inform him that “you have the right to be present at the trial, do you understand?”, to which Trump nods his head.

He also warns him that he may be held in contempt and go to jail if he disrupts the debates.

For the Republican, his party’s virtual candidate for the November presidential election, the trial is a “political persecution” orchestrated by the Democrats to prevent him from achieving his long-awaited dream of returning to the White House.

“This is an assault on the United States. Nothing like this had ever happened“said the Republican upon his arrival at the court where he will be tried for hiding a payment of US$130,000 to the former porn actress. Stormy Daniels to buy his silence about an alleged extramarital affair and thus protect his 2016 campaign, which he ultimately won against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The billionaire is not accused of the payment itself to hide a sexual relationship that he has always denied, but for disguising it as legal expenses of the Trump Organization, the family business, which can lead to a sentence of up to four years in prison.

However, the sentence would not be an obstacle for him to run in the presidential elections on November 5, in which he will face Democrat Joe Biden for the second time, who defeated him in the elections four years ago. Not even for him to exercise the presidency.

Jury selection

The judge, the prosecution and the defense were going to proceed to select from among “500 potential candidates” the twelve jurors and six substitutes who will have the responsibility of unanimously declaring the tycoon “guilty” either “not guilty”, a process that can take several days.

The lottery candidates have to respond to a detailed questionnaire about their political sympathies in a city with a majority Democratic heart and, above all, about their impartiality and ability to define the fate of one of the most influential politicians of recent times, both in the United States as in the world.

The millionaire is accused of 34 falsifications of accounting documents of the Trump Organization to camouflage as “legal expenses” the payments made to Stormy Daniels, which were advanced out of his pocket by Trump’s then lawyer and trusted man, Michael Cohen, currently a sworn enemy and who will be one of the key witnesses for the prosecution.

The trial will have to demonstrate what Trump knew about these payments, for which Cohen has already been convicted.

“A lot at stake”

This is one of the many open fronts of the New York magnate who amassed his fortune in the real estate sector and the construction of golf courses that he claims to be a victim of ““a witch hunt”.

The Republican candidate is also accused of trying to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election and his management of classified documents that he took home when he left the White House.

“The stakes are high, because Trump and his lawyers have so far managed to delay the (other) trials.“Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, tells AFP.

“Our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away theirs.”he told his followers last Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Outside the court, cordoned off by the police, a handful of the magnate’s followers and detractors demonstrated for and against this politician whose legal problems, far from impacting his brilliant career for the presidency, seem to reinforce it among his unconditional supporters.