(New York) A third week of debates concludes Friday at the trial of Donald Trump in New York, marked by the marathon testimony of former pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, beneficiary of the hidden payments which are worth these unprecedented criminal proceedings against a former president American.
The week opened on Monday with a new warning shot from judge Juan Merchan, who after having imposed a series of fines on him for verbally attacking witnesses and jurors, threatened him with prison in the event of recidivism.
The other star witness in this trial, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid the actress $130,000 in the final days of the campaign for the 2016 presidential election, won narrowly by the Republican candidate, could be called to the bar as early as next week. Michael Cohen, who says he acted at his request, turned against his former boss.
In the midst of the campaign against outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, the Republican candidate is being tried for 34 crimes of accounting falsification for concealing the reimbursement of sums to the lawyer in the accounts of the Trump Organization. He risks conviction and potentially a prison sentence, with still incalculable consequences for the electorate.
Although the facts are less serious than those with which he is accused in the three other criminal proceedings against him, this trial is all the more important as it could be the only one to be held before the November 5 election.
Only Donald Trump’s federal trial in Washington for illicit attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election could still begin before this deadline, provided that the Supreme Court quickly rejects the immunity he claims as a former -president.
Accountant, editor, assistant
Like every day, upon his arrival at the Manhattan court on Friday, he denounced a “horrible” trial intended, according to him, to prevent him from campaigning.
Since its opening on April 15, the trial has alternated moments of legal drama and dry, highly technical sequences.
Thus, after the torrential testimony Tuesday and Thursday of Stormy Daniels who recounted in great detail the fleeting sexual relationship she claims to have had with him in 2006, and fought step by step the defense’s attempts to discredit her story.
ILLUSTRATION JANE ROSENBERG, REUTERS
Stormy Daniels completed her testimony on Thursday.
An affair that Donald Trump, then already married to his current wife Melania, categorically denies.
After Stormy Daniels, an employee of the accounting department of the Trump Organization took the stand on Thursday, an editor questioned about the publication of one of the real estate mogul’s books, then one of his direct assistants at the House -Blanche, Madeleine Westerhout.
The latter testified again Friday morning.
One of the challenges of the debates is to determine what Donald Trump knew about these behind-the-scenes negotiations to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels.
If he were elected again, he could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him, in Washington but also in Florida, where he is being prosecuted for withholding classified documents after his departure from the White House.