The first week of debates at Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York ends on Friday, with the links of interest between Donald Trump’s victorious campaign in 2016 and a scandalous tabloid having been at the heart of the hearings.
As during the previous four days of the trial, the ex-president saw the 12 jurors and six alternates walk in front of him to their benches, without looking at him.
The Republican presidential candidate in November is on trial for concealing in the accounts of his group Trump Organization the payment of $130,000, just before the 2016 election, to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
The transaction was allegedly intended to buy her silence about a sexual relationship she claimed to have had with him in 2006, when he was already married to his wife Melania. A relationship that the billionaire denies.
Less than seven months before the November presidential election, he risks the first criminal conviction of a former president in the history of the United States and theoretically faces a prison sentence.
Just before entering the courtroom, he wished his wife a happy birthday in front of the cameras and again mocked a “horrible and unconstitutional” trial which forces him to spend his days in a “frozen” courtroom rather than to campaign.
Then, he listened for hours, often attentively, sometimes slumped in his chair, looking drowsy, to the long story of the first prosecution witness.
After a break, the hearing is scheduled to continue Friday afternoon.
Cross-examination
Since Monday, David Pecker, former boss of the tabloid National Enquirer, has detailed how, after a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015 in New York with his “friend Donald” and his lawyer at the time Michael Cohen, he had put at their service during the 2016 presidential campaign to cover up possible scandals by purchasing exclusive rights.
An operation carried out twice: 30,000 US dollars to suppress the – false – allegations of a doorman of the Trump Tower on the existence of a hidden child of Donald Trump, then 150,000 dollars to acquire the story of Karen McDougal, Playboy magazine model, who said she had an affair with the billionaire.
“We bought this story so that it would not be published elsewhere. We didn’t want it to embarrass Mr. Trump or affect his campaign,” explained David Pecker.
This thin 72-year-old man, with a receding hairline and white hair combed back, recounted how Donald Trump had expressed concern several times about Karen McDougal’s silence. “How is our daughter?” “, he would have asked David Pecker when receiving him at Trump Tower after his victory. Question reiterated during another meeting at the White House.
But since Thursday, Donald Trump’s defense has subjected David Pecker, who obtained immunity by collaborating with the justice system, to close cross-examination.
Banal
Mr. Pecker had to clarify Friday that during a conversation about Karen McDougal, Donald Trump had told him “I don’t buy the stories”, adding “see with Michael (Cohen)”. Donald Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, also worked to demonstrate that these operations called “catch and kill” in the United States were banal.
David Pecker admitted that he had already “bought” stories about Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tiger Woods, so as not to publish them.
Throughout the week, his testimony allowed the prosecution to set the scene for the case.
For his part, Donald Trump already sees the threat of a conviction for contempt of court, at the request of prosecutors, for his attacks, via the Internet and social networks, against witnesses and jurors. Judge Juan Merchan has yet to rule.
Donald Trump is being prosecuted for 34 counts of falsifying accounting documents from the Trump Organization, which allegedly served to hide payments to Stormy Daniels, under the guise of “legal fees”.
His defense invokes their legality and denies any “plot” to distort the 2016 election, ensuring that protecting a candidate’s reputation is part of the normal functioning of democracy.
The trial is all the more important because it could be the only one, among the four criminal cases that threaten Donald Trump, to take place before the presidential election.
His trial, considered the most important, relating to accusations of illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election, is expected to be further delayed after the Supreme Court’s examination on Thursday April 25 of the question of possible immunity criminal.