TRUMP VS. JUSTICE
The judge in charge of the 'Stormy Daniels' case against Donald Trump, for an alleged irregular payment, ruled on March 25 that the trial, the first criminal trial against a former president of the United States, will begin on April 15. The decision was received personally by the former president who attended the court in New York. Furthermore, in the last few hours, an appeals court in the same city accepted the former head of state's request to delay the execution of a sentence for exaggerating his net worth, which forced him to pay a fine of 454 million dollars, whose deadline expired this Monday. The magistrate ruled that that sentence for civil fraud, ruled last February, is suspended if the Republican leader pays 175 million dollars within a period of 10 days.
The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, faced this Monday, March 25 two legal disputes in New York.
In the last hours, Judge Juan Merchán determined that the criminal trial against Donald Trump for charges derived from money paid to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, known as 'Stormy Daniels', will begin on April 15.
The decision It paves the way for the Republican candidate to be convicted or acquitted by this process before the presidential elections on November 5.
The measure was received personally by the former president, who arrived at the court, where his lawyers asked the magistrate to delay or dismiss that trial. According to the case, the objective of the payment was to buy the woman's silence, during the 2016 presidential campaign, about a sexual encounter that she claims she had a decade earlier with Trump. However, the former head of state has denied having had such an encounter with the woman.
He shouldn't have to stand trial now because (prosecutors) decided to bring this case a year ago and not three years ago.
This is a historic case for payments investigated as irregular, since it is the first criminal trial against a former president of the United States.
For this process alone, Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the $130,000 payment from his former lawyer. to allegedly silence the adult film actress, prior to the elections eight years ago.
Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, asserted that it is “unfair” that Trump, who served in the Executive between 2017 and 2021, is being tried while he is running again to occupy the White House.
“I shouldn't have to go to trial now because (prosecutors) decided to bring this case a year ago and not three years ago,” Blanche argued in court after Merchan set the date.
The defense argued that a delay was necessary because prosecutors turned over thousands of pages of possible evidence about witness Michael Cohen just weeks ago.
Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, made a $130,000 payment to silence the porn actress before the 2016 election.
Trump's lawyers accuse the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the criminal charges, of trying to bury documents that could help them question Cohen's credibility.
The documents come from the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, which previously investigated the payment but did not charge Trump. Cohen testified that Trump ordered him to make the payment and he went to prison after pleading guilty to violating campaign finance laws.
Trump's trial was initially scheduled to begin this Monday, March 25, But prosecutors agreed to a delay to give the political leader's team of lawyers time to review the new documents.
Trump, the Republican candidate who will challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in this year's elections He pleaded not guilty and called the case a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Trump obtains new deadline to pay bail for $175 million in civil fraud case
This Monday, in his case for business fraud, also in a New York court, Donald Trump's lawyers managed to have his sentence suspended, issued last February for civil fraud, which required him to pay a bail of 454 million dollars, the deadline for which expired today.
An appeals court ruled in the last few hours that This measure is suspended if the former president pays a bail of 175 million dollars, within a period of 10 days.
This is a victory for the former president, since it stops the seizure of some of his assets that he faced if he did not pay the bail initially issued.
Judge Arthur Engoron had imposed the higher fine after finding Trump and his two adult children guilty in a bench trial, of manipulate his net worth and the property values of his family real estate business to deceive lenders and insurers.
If Trump did not provide the payment, “his image would change dramatically for many people, because he has said that he is a billionaire and very successful (…) And if he cannot pay bail for any amount, obviously it is a big problem,” he stressed to the AFP news agency Andrew Weissmann, former federal prosecutor and author of the book “The Trump Indictments”, just before the new decision was announced.
It should be zero. I didn't do anything wrong!
In the morning hours of March 25, through his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that the figure Engoron set was “fraudulent.”
“It should be zero. I didn't do anything wrong!” said the former head of state.
The Trump campaign last week called for donations from “one million pro-Trump patriots,” saying the “iconic Trump Tower” was among its properties at risk of seizure.
The ruling in the case was handed down in Manhattan, where Trump properties such as Trump Tower or 40 Wall Street could be in the crosshairs of New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who filed the civil case in 2022.
With Reuters and AFP
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