New York | Home stretch at Trump trial, judgment time approaches

(New York) Donald Trump returned to the New York court on Tuesday for the final arguments of his trial, the last act before the twelve jurors retire to decide on a historic verdict, in the middle of the presidential campaign.

Upon his arrival, the former President of the United States affirmed that it was a “dangerous day for the United States”, once again castigating “a trial that should not have taken place” and attacked the judge who presides over it, Juan Merchan, calling him “corrupt”.

After six weeks of intense debates, defense and prosecution have a final opportunity to convince the jury, seven men and five women called to decide on this case with colossal political stakes for the Republican candidate in the November 5 election.

The prosecution will emphasize that the 45^e President of the United States (2017-2021) was guilty of falsifying accounting documents from his group of companies, the Trump Organization, to hide a payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels in order to to avoid a sex scandal at the very end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Prosecutors will insist that through this payment, which they liken to a hidden campaign expense, Donald Trump “corrupted” this election by buying the silence of the actress about a sexual relationship that she claims to have had with him in 2006, when he was already married to his wife Melania.

Donald Trump, who won the vote narrowly against Hillary Clinton, denies this relationship and presents himself as the victim of political prosecution. He declined to testify at the trial.

Sow doubt

The defense, for its part, will once again seek to torpedo the credibility of the number one accuser, Donald Trump’s former confidant, Michael Cohen, to sow doubt in the jury, which must be unanimous in declaring the accused guilty.

Michael Cohen had paid the money, on the orders of his boss, to Stormy Daniels “to ensure that the story would not come out, and would not affect Donald Trump’s chances of becoming president of the United States.” , he assured. He was then reimbursed with the help, according to the accusation, of false invoices and entries disguised as “legal fees” in the accounts of the Trump Organization, hence the prosecution for accounting falsifications.

After the final arguments, Judge Juan Merchan will entrust the jurors, perhaps as early as Wednesday, with the difficult task of deciding whether they find the former American head of state guilty or not guilty.

If they cannot reach an agreement, the trial will have to be repeated.

Elbow to elbow

If he is found guilty, the 77-year-old Republican presidential candidate will be able to appeal and, in any case, appear on November 5. But with the considerable weight of a criminal conviction, while his duel with Joe Biden, 81, promises to be close.

The stakes are all the more important as this trial will probably be the only one to take place before the presidential election, among the four cases in which Donald Trump is charged.

Throughout the debates, the jurors delved behind the scenes of a presidential campaign where the fear of a sex scandal seemed omnipresent, especially after the revelation of a video where Donald Trump was heard vulgarly boasting of ” “grab” women “by the pussy”.

A former tabloid boss, friend of the billionaire, told the stand that he was his “eyes and (his) ears” to chase away any embarrassing revelation, even if it meant paying a Playboy model $150,000 to keep her quiet. on an affair with Donald Trump. The jury also heard the audio recording of a private conversation between the candidate and Michael Cohen discussing this payment.

As for Stormy Daniels, she provided details of the sexual relationship she said she had with the billionaire, an act according to her that was consensual but where the “balance of power” was “unbalanced”.

But if there was a lot of talk about sex and money, the jurors will ultimately only have to answer one question: did Donald Trump order the falsification of accounting documents to hide the payment?