The moment that many Democratic Party voters dreamed of has arrived: seeing Donald Trump sitting in the dock in a criminal case. Never before had a former president been criminally prosecuted. The tycoon once again makes history with his irreverence to what is established and is preparing to measure his political popularity over the next six or eight weeks.
Colombian-born judge Juan Merchán will kick things off this Monday in Lower Manhattan state court with jury selection. It is about finding, among the million and a half American adults who live on the island of skyscrapers, twelve fair men or women who can be impartial when judging someone who leaves no one indifferent.
Since before he was sworn into office in 2017, Trump was preceded by his reputation as a dirty and ruthless businessman who had learned the real estate trade between casino roulette tables and golf courses. It is these practices, amplified by the spotlight, that have landed him in court multiple times in the last two years. First, with the civil lawsuit for sexual abuse and defamation filed by 'Vanity Fair' journalist Jean Caroll. Then, to face accusations of tax fraud for inflating and devaluing his property at will to obtain advantageous loans and cheap policies.
In all of these cases, reparations for damages were sought, but the trial that begins this Monday is much more serious, because it cannot be resolved with money. At 77 years old, Trump faces the possibility of ending up in jail, although no one believes it will happen, since he has no criminal record and it is not a violent crime. What is clear is that the process opens a particular and totally unprecedented phase in the country's political history.
The former president, who according to polls could return to the White House as of January, is accused of having camouflaged the payments he made twelve days before the 2016 elections to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. Instead of reporting them as campaign expenses, he entered them in the accounting books as fees from his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who acted as intermediary. In total there were 150,000 dollars, but since he deferred them in different deliveries, each of the checks he signed and the subsequent entries in the balance sheets represent a crime. In total, 34 charges that each carry a maximum of four years in prison.
“Manhattan is home to the most significant business market in the country,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg explained in announcing the indictment. “We cannot allow New York companies to manipulate their accounting to cover up criminal conduct.” Over six weeks he will have to prove not only that Trump falsified the accounting, but that he did so with the intention of defrauding American voters, from whom he withheld the information.
Stormy Daniels
There is no doubt that the money with which he paid Cohen was intended to buy Stormy Daniels' silence, because Cohen himself and the media company that alerted Trump that the actress was looking to sell her story have confessed it. There is also nothing illegal about paying someone to keep an inconvenient secret. What is illegal for an electoral candidate is to hide it on the books, something that in the State of New York would be a minor crime, unless it is done with the intention of hiding another major one. That is where the prosecutor has forced the rope.
Legal experts critical of Trump recognize that if it were not for his prominence, this minor offense, which could be settled with a fine, would hardly have been elevated to a serious crime that carries a prison sentence. The prosecutor is not required to prove that Trump committed a crime of violating electoral laws, but he will need to prove that he intended to do so. That will have to be decided by the twelve members of the jury who, starting this week, will lose their identity and become a number. His name will not be mentioned again. Their lives are about to change drastically.
Trump already knows the facilities on the 15th floor of 100 Center St., where he entered for the first time last year surrounded by a media circus and protesters for and against his impeachment. Starting today he will have to sit in that court from Monday to Friday, from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, except on Wednesdays.
No one doubts that no matter how uncomfortable it may be, he will take advantage of the situation to attract the attention of the cameras and raise funds from his followers. After his first appearance last year, his followers donated four million dollars to him, according to his campaign statements, a figure that increased to 7.1 in the four days that followed his indictment in Georgia.
In total, the president is accused of 88 serious crimes in four different jurisdictions, but everything indicates that the only case that will be tried before the elections is the one that will have him sitting in front of Judge Merchán today. It will be up to him to dictate a sentence that may or may not lead to jail time depending on his personal discretion. It would seem that someone who has his fate in the hands of a magistrate would do everything possible not to irritate him, but the former president has publicly accused him of being part of a political campaign to clear the way for Biden.
It is based on the fact that his daughter, Loren Merchán, works for an advertising firm that has had the president and other prominent Democrats among its digital clients, which is why she has asked that she remove herself from the case. Merchán also presided over the case against his financial boss, Alan Weisselberg, whom he sentenced to only five months in prison for having agreed to make a statement with the prosecution, otherwise he says he would have imposed a harsher sentence.
Jury
When giving instructions this Monday to the candidates to be part of the jury, the judge will offer to excuse themselves if they do not consider them suitable, although they will have to explain it to them. It will not help to allege the possibility of religious holidays, because Merchán says that he will accommodate their schedules so that this is not an impediment, but judging by the 42 questions on the questionnaire that they will have to fill out, many will be disqualified.
Being affiliated with the Republican or Democratic Party will not be a valid argument either, but being a follower of or belonging to one of the main far-right groups associated with the storming of the Capitol on January 6 will be: Qanon, Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, Three Percenters and Boogaloo Boys, to which Trump's lawyers have added the bête noire of the left, the anarchist group Antifa.
Is it possible to find one to a dozen adults in Manhattan who don't have a formed opinion about Trump? That is so difficult that it is not even aspired to. It will be enough that they do not have “a strong or firmly held opinion” about him, his presidential candidacy or his indictment. Willing to read bias into their behavior, lawyers have included questions such as “do you have any opinions on the limits of government political contributions?”, “have you read or listened to any of the books or podcasts by Michael Cohen or Mark Pomerantz ?”, and “Can you promise that you will set aside anything you have heard or read about this case and render your verdict based only on the evidence presented in this court?”
Thousands of journalists are vying for the 58 seats reserved for the union that will carefully scrutinize Trump's expressions and those of the jury members. Those occupying the 114 seats in the adjacent room will not be able to see their faces nor will they hear their names again. A group of five photographers and three television cameras will rotate to immortalize you in the minutes prior to the session. The process will not be televised, but it will keep the entire country in suspense and will make it difficult for Trump to attend campaign events.
The most anticipated moment will be when he sees face to face with his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who worked for him for more than a decade until he felt that his boss was abandoning him when the legal fence closed around him. Cohen, 57, had said that he “would have eaten a bullet for Trump.” Instead he has become the witness who can put him in jail. The highlight moment for a court series like no other.
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