Former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) has to answer in court over allegations of undeclared payments to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, beginning March 25, as confirmed by a New York judge. Judge Juan Mercan rejected Trump and his legal team's request to dismiss the charges during a hearing in Manhattan attended by Trump in person.
Trump is accused of 34 counts related to a $130,000 payment to Daniels during the 2016 campaign to cover up an extramarital affair that took place a decade earlier. Although this case of falsifying business records to pay Daniels is not the most serious case the former US president has faced, it is the first time he is facing trial, coinciding with his campaign for the presidential nomination the Republican.
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The first criminal trial against Trump
This trial is the first criminal trial against Trump card in the middle of the election campaign. The former president defended his innocence, claiming on social networks and upon his arrival in court that this was a political persecution without criminal basis promoted by Joe Biden's administration and criticizing what he sees as attempts at election interference . However, according to CNN reports, he has minimized the potential impact of this and other cases on his campaign, citing his lead in the polls.
The hearing on Thursday, February 15, 2024 in Manhattan, presided over by Judge Juan Merchan, revealed that the trial will begin on March 25 with jury selection, which will judge whether Trump card Crimes committed over payments to Clifford before the 2016 election. Trump, who is accused of hiding the payments through his corporate accounts with the help of his lawyer Michael Cohen, has pleaded not guilty. Although the payments are not illegal per se, the method used to make them could constitute a violation, especially given the context of the election that Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
Analysts question prosecutors' ability to prove the allegations against former President Donald Trump, making his possible prison sentence uncertain. This Friday, February 16, 2024, Judge Arthur F. Engoron, who is handling a tax fraud case against Trump, is expected to announce a fine of up to $370 million, as requested by prosecutors. This sum would be in addition to the more than $80 million that Trump had to pay in the 1990s for defaming a writer who had accused him of sexual assault.
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A total of 91 charges have been brought against Trump in four different criminal proceedings
Trump card A total of 91 charges have been brought against him in four different criminal proceedings, including attempts to overturn the election victory Joe Biden, the misuse of classified documents while leaving the White House and questionable payments to silence an adult film actress. In one of the most serious cases, he is accused of conspiring to defraud the United States and of obstructing the certification of Biden's victory in Congress on January 6, 2021, and of obstructing the certification of the election results until the final eviction.
Recently, Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that denied him criminal immunity, which would allow him to be tried in Washington over his alleged interference in the 2020 election results, where he was defeated by the Democrat Joe Biden. An appeals court's Feb. 6 refusal to recognize Trump's criminal immunity opens the door to his prosecution and leaves his future in the hands of the Supreme Court just nine months before the next election, in which he is likely to face Biden again.