On March 30, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict former US President Donald Trump for financial fraud in his Trump Organization, as well as to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for keeping quiet about their alleged romance. The former US leader is expected to be asked to voluntarily surrender to authorities and stand trial on April 4. Read more about the case in RTVI hardware.
The gist of the charges
Trump’s indictment has yet to be made public. By data from CNN , it consists of over 30 points and centers on a $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) during the 2016 presidential campaign. Prosecutors say the attorney of ex-president Michael Cohen’s staff paid her to remain silent about her alleged sexual relationship with Trump.
The hill Remarks that the silent payment itself is legal. Legal experts interviewed by the publication suggested the indictment would focus on allegations of falsifying business documents. This carries up to a year in prison for each count.
The $130,000 payment could be seen as an illegal contribution to Trump’s presidential campaign: the money silenced Stormy Daniels, so it benefited the ex-president’s candidacy. writing The New York Times (NYT). At the same time, the publication notes that sending Trump to jail “can be a difficult task.”
The New York District Attorney’s Office has never combined a charge of falsifying business records with a violation of state election law in a case involving a presidential election or any federal campaign, experts quoted by the newspaper as saying.
“Because this is uncharted territory, the judge may dismiss this case or reduce the charge to an administrative violation instead of a criminal offense,” the NYT writes.
Even if the charge remains in force, it amounts to a minor criminal offense. If Trump is ultimately found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of four years, with no mandatory jail time, the newspaper explains.
Will Trump be arrested?
When Trump appears in court, he will supposedly be fingerprinted and photographed, according to the NYT. The defendants are usually handcuffed, but it is unclear whether such measures will be taken against the former head of state, the newspaper noted.
Presumably, Trump will be accompanied every step of the way by armed US Secret Service agents, who are required to protect him. After the hearing, he will “almost certainly” be released on bail, according to the NYT.
The indictment will likely only contain charges of non-violent criminal offenses, the publication explains. Under New York State law, the district attorney’s office cannot seek bail in such cases.
Who is Stormy Daniels
In 2018, porn actress Stormy Daniels published a book called Full Disclosure, in which she describes meeting Trump at a golf club on Lake Tahoe in 2006, as well as having sexual contact with him. Daniels was then 27 years old, Trump was 60. He was already married to Melania Trump, but she was not at the golf tournament, because she had just given birth to her son Barron.
According to Daniels, Trump invited her to dinner, and then they had sex in his hotel room. The actress claims they continued to date for a while, as Trump promised to put her on his reality show, but they no longer had sex. Daniels never got on the reality show and, according to the actress, her contacts with Trump.
In 2011, Daniels attempted to sell her story about her relationship with Trump to the weekly In Touch for $15,000, but the article was never published. Daniels said she received threats in front of her young daughter to “get over Trump.”
In 2018, The Wall Street Journal published an article alleging Daniels received the money in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election under a nondisclosure agreement regarding his ties to Trump. The actress sued, demanding that the contract be declared invalid because Trump had not signed it, but lost the case.
The ex-president himself and his aides claimed that attorney Michael Cohen paid the actress on his own initiative, which Trump reportedly did not immediately find out. Cohen acknowledged the fact of the payments to the porn actress but said neither Trump nor his structures were involved in the deal.
In late 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and fined on several counts, including unlawful silence payments to women who claimed to be linked to Trump.
“I don’t want to spill my champagne.” Daniels reaction
In mid-March 2023, Daniels met with prosecutors, answered their questions, and agreed to testify. Actress Clark Brewster’s attorney, commenting on the grand jury’s decision to indict Trump, tweeted that it was “no cause for joy.”
“The hard work and integrity of the jury deserve respect. Now let truth and justice prevail. No one is above the law,” he said.
Daniels took to Twitter to thank her attorney for the comment and also expressed her gratitude to her followers for their support and love.
“I get so many messages that I can’t respond to…And I don’t want to spill my champagne either,” she wrote.
“Completely innocent.” Trump’s reaction
Trump attorney Chris Kise called the indictment against the former president “the lowest point in the history of the American criminal justice system.”
“The complete lack of a legal framework, combined with the political nature of the accusation, should strike fear into every citizen of this country, regardless of their opinion of President Trump,” declared He.
The ex-president himself published a statement on the social network Social truth . He lashed out at his Democratic political opponents and called the grand jury’s decision “political harassment and election interference at the highest level in history.”
“The Democrats did the unthinkable by indicting a completely innocent person for an act of flagrant election interference. This has never happened before in the history of our country. » estimate Trump Fox News article.
The politician also said the ‘witch hunt’ will hit current US President Joe Biden.
Prospects for Trump’s participation in the 2024 election
In November 2022, Donald Trump announced his intention to run for president again in 2024. Grand jury charges will not be an obstacle, write the American media.
The US Constitution requires a presidential candidate to be at least 35 years old, a natural-born citizen and a permanent resident of the United States for at least 14 years.
Politically, an indicted candidate may have a harder time garnering votes, CNN notes. But that does not prevent him from running or being elected.
Politics too writing that there are no legal obstacles to Trump continuing his presidential campaign – even if he were sent to prison.
The publication considers it “unlikely” that Trump’s prosecutors will attempt to detain the former president or restrict his travel to the United States while the case is ongoing.
Trump himself has not ruled out his arrest and urged his supporters to protest.
