For the first time in history, a former US president will have to answer for his actions before a criminal court: Donald Trump has been indicted by the Manhattan prosecutor’s office for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000, money which according to the prosecution is served to “buy” his silence on the relationship that the two had during the election campaign for the White House in 2016. An act in itself not illegal, except that Trump justified the payment report as “legal expenses”. Prosecutors say this amounts to forging company documents.
The case had returned to the news recently, when the tycoon had summoned his own assuming his imminent arrest. The former president has always proclaimed himself innocent of the affair, and – upon hearing the news – immediately spoke of “political persecution”, of “electoral interference” and of “a witch hunt that will turn against Biden”. The grand jury’s decision risks having repercussions on the next race at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, for which Trump was once again a candidate.
In the United States, the indictment does not prevent becoming president, Trump could have been banned from political activity only in case of guilt in the two impeachment proceedings from which he was acquitted instead. The precise allegations have not yet been disclosed, so it is not clear when the tycoon will have to appear in the prosecutor’s office: the details must be defined by the Secret Service with the New York authorities, the city where the trial will take place and in which the crime would have occurred.
The former president also had some against the Manhattan prosecutor: “Alvin Bragg was chosen and paid by George Soros and it is shameful. Instead of stopping the unprecedented crime wave that has engulfed New York, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work.” His lawyers have assured him that he will present himself spontaneously, trying to avoid the arrest procedure. The process requires that he be fingerprinted and subjected to a mugshot. Then he should appear before the judge to plead guilty or innocence, thanks to the bail he should finally leave the court.
No comments for now from the White House, nor from the Justice Department, which in turn is investigating the former president for the events related to the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 and for the top secret documents found in Mar- a-Lake. The Daniels case could only be the first in a long list for the former president.
