Prosecutor’s Office: Trump orchestrated a “criminal plan” to commit “electoral fraud” in 2016

donald trump orchestrated a “criminal plan“to commit a”electoral fraud” in 2016, the prosecutor’s office said this Monday in the first criminal trial of a former US president, who aspires to return to the White House in the November 5 elections.

The Republican magnateorchestrated a criminal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election″, said the prosecutor Matthew Colangelo in the oral presentation of the case in the Manhattan Supreme Court.

“It was electoral fraud, pure and simple.“, he told the 12 jurors – and six alternates – that at the end of about six weeks of trial they will have to issue a unanimous ruling that will seal the future of possibly the most controversial politician in the country’s modern history.

The 45th president, 77, is accused of 34 counts of accounting fraud to cover up the payment of US$130,000 to former porn film actress Stormy Daniels in order to silence an alleged sexual encounter that occurred a decade earlier, in the final stretch. of the 2016 campaign that surprisingly led him to the presidency.

If found guilty, trump He could be sentenced to up to four years in prison and even be stripped of his right to vote. If he were to win the November election against the Democratic challenger, current President Joe Biden, he could also become the first president to govern from prison.

“It was not a communications strategy, but a coordinated plan as part of a long conspiracy (…) to help elect Donald Trump“said the prosecutor.

“It is democracy”

For the defense attorney Todd Blanche“There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy”.

After directly telling jurors that Trump “He is a person like you and me“, he “president” this “clothed in innocence“, held.

The prosecutor Alvin Bragg of Manhattan, he said, “I should never have made this judgment.” and attacked the credibility of those who accuse him, particularly his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

The prosecution will have to prove that Trump orchestrated or at least authorized Cohen, the main witness in the case, to put the money for the former actress out of his pocket. Stormy Danielswhich was later returned to him in installment payments disguised as legal expenses, for which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 2018. He also lost his law license.

In the case, the prosecution also includes other agreements similar to Daniels’ to cover up other potential scandals such as that of a former Playboy magazine model and a janitor who said that Trump had had a child out of wedlock.

The first witness to take the stand before adjourning the trial until this Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. (local time) was David Pecker, former president of the publishing company of the National Enquirer tabloid, an old friend of Trump and now an enemy, who bought for bury them, stories that could affect the magnate during his electoral campaign.

“Sad day for America”

The Republican billionaire, who feels like a victim of a “Witch hunt” and calls the judgment “deception”, he laments that while his rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, campaigns, he must go to the old Manhattan courtroom every day.

Upon arrival at the court, trump called the trial “election interference”. “It’s a sad day for America”he added.

“It is going to be the most extraordinary trial probably in the history of the country. “What is at stake is almost infinite in terms of what the consequences could be” for the magnate, the former prosecutor and current law professor at Pace University in New York told AFP. Bennett Gershman.

trumpwho survived two impeachment attempts during his presidency, also faces three other criminal cases, two of them for much more serious charges, such as trying to annul his 2020 electoral defeat and for the management of secret documents after leaving the presidency. , which have been so delayed that they are unlikely to be held before the election.