Republican is the first former US president to be charged with a felony. The fraud charges involve a payment for keeping quiet about a porn actress with whom he was allegedly involved. Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be charged with a felony, at the culmination of a scandal-defined political dispute Without precedents. Manhattan grand jury vote to indict Republican on corporate fraud charges related to secret payments to two women made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign puts current candidate Trump into a new era of legal jeopardy and complicates his bid to return to the White House.
Here are the main points of the indictment and the case:
Can Trump already be arrested?
YES. Trump is now threatened with arrest after decades of investigations that have never led to serious consequences. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Thursday (3/30) that prosecutors have approached Trump’s attorneys to arrange for the former president to appear in court, which is expected early next week. If he doesn’t show up voluntarily, there is a threat that he will be arrested.
The expectation, however, is that he will voluntarily present himself to the Public Prosecutor, where he will be formally tried, leave his fingerprints and be photographed. Often on these occasions the accused is placed in handcuffs, but there is no information as to whether this would happen in Trump’s case. Analysts believe not, because he is a former president.
He is also expected to appear in court, when a judge will list the charges and Trump’s defense will appeal them. It is considered almost certain that Trump will be able to go home after completing these formalities.
Can Trump still run for president?
If Trump pleads “not guilty,” which he almost certainly will, the judge will set a date to start proceedings. First there should be hearings in which the former president’s defense will try to implement delaying resources to make the process more difficult.
Trump will then face a criminal case as he runs for the White House for the third time, which will take time and attention away from his campaign. However, neither the lawsuit nor the conviction would prevent him from running or even winning the presidency in 2024.
What is the reason for the accusation?
The case stems from paying for the silence of women who were allegedly sexually involved with Trump. A grand jury in Manhattan has investigated bribe payments at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, one of the witnesses who testified, says he orchestrated payments totaling $280,000: $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels and $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Cohen said he transferred the money shortly before the 2016 presidential election and was later repaid by the Trump Organization.
New York prosecutors charged Cohen in 2018 and said the payments were improper campaign contributions because they were intended to prevent harm to Trump shortly before the election. Trump’s attorney then pleaded guilty and was arrested for violating federal campaign finance law.
Paying for people’s silence is not illegal in the United States. However, concealing the act in financial statements does, especially when it could constitute illegal election campaigning.
It appears the Manhattan District Attorney is investigating whether anyone committed crimes arranging the payments or how the financial transfer was accounted for internally at the Trump Organization. But the specific charges involved in the case – which number more than 30, according to US media – went under wraps on Thursday.
what Trump says
Trump, who denies having ever had sex with women, called the allegation “political harassment” and an attempt to interfere with his presidential campaign. Calling himself “a completely innocent person,” he called the indictment the latest in a series of actions he says are designed to “destroy” his Make America Great Again movement, including his two presidential impeachments and house searches. his home by the FBI who revealed secret documents.
“Democrats have lied and cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘get Trump,'” he said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Trump said his arrest was imminent and urged his supporters to protest. Last week, he warned of “potential death and destruction” if he were charged.
His words recalled his comments before the January 6, 2021 violent uprising in the United States Capitol. Trump did not repeat his call for protest Thursday, but police forces across the country are on guard for potential riots.
What are the other investigations against Trump?
The current indictment comes amid several other investigations, piling legal troubles for the former president. Those pending cases, along with a civil trial scheduled to begin next month in New York over a reporter’s allegations that Trump raped her in the 1990s, add to an ever-growing cloud of scandal surrounding him.
At the federal level, the Justice Department is investigating the storage of top-secret government documents at its Mar-a-Lago, Florida, estate and efforts by Trump and his allies to change the results of the 2020 election.
The efforts of many of the same plaintiffs in the latter case have also come under a special investigation in the state of Georgia. The jury representative said the special grand jury recommended several criminal charges, leaving Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, to decide whether to convene a regular grand jury for the criminal charges.
md/cn (AP, Reuters, ots)
Source: Terra
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