(Washington) What now? After Donald Trump’s official and highly publicized indictment, the race for the White House in 2024 appears more uncertain than ever, as does the former president’s busy judicial schedule.
This while the other big contender, Democratic President Joe Biden, takes his time to officially announce a candidacy that seems inevitable.
Before a judge in New York, Donald Trump, the first former American president to find himself in this position of accused, pleaded not guilty to falsifying documents concerning payments in order to stifle embarrassing affairs for him before the presidential election of 2016.
It remains to be seen whether this case – one of many involving the billionaire – will go to trial.
The calendar is crucial for those who hope to win the Republican nomination for the presidential election in November 2024.
Justice evokes a next appearance at the end of the year and a trial in January 2024 – just before the primaries – but the lawyers of the former president do not hear it that way.
“We’re not going to a jury… This case is going to fall apart of its own accord, due to legal difficulties, long before” that, one of them, Joe Tacopina, said on NBC Wednesday, speaking about a ‘zombie’ affair.
In the meantime, Donald Trump, left free, can campaign at his leisure, on the condition, however, of “refraining from comments likely to incite violence” about his case, judge Juan Merchan warned him on Tuesday, who nevertheless did not go so far as to impose a “gag order”, an absolute ban on discussing the procedure in public.
But restraint is not the forte of Donald Trump, who denounced Wednesday morning on his Truth Social platform, in capital letters as he is accustomed, a supposed “instrumentalization” of justice by the Democrats, accused by the ex- president of “election interference”.
As of Tuesday evening, he had tried to use the incredible media attention around his charge to his advantage.
The former president, who appeared grim and tense throughout the day, called his impeachment, detailed in 34 counts, from Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious Florida residence.
PHOTO CHANDAN KHANNA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The former president, who appeared grim and tense throughout the day, called his impeachment, detailed in 34 counts, from Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious Florida residence.
He felt that the prosecutor in charge of his case should himself “be prosecuted”, before attacking the judge and his family: “I have a judge who hates Trump, whose wife and family hate Trump . »
The former tycoon delivered a substantively provocative but rambling and sometimes monotonous speech to activists sporting red caps and other paraphernalia typical of his rallies.
litigant
After a trip that Donald Trump wanted as presidential as possible – private plane flanked by his name, convoy under very high security in the streets of New York – he was overtaken by his situation as a simple litigant during the two hours spent in a courthouse in lower Manhattan.
The former president had to: state his name, age and profession, take a fingerprint. On the other hand, he escaped the humiliating taking of the mugshot.
The billionaire claims to be the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by the Democrats of President Joe Biden, who allegedly “stole” his 2020 presidential victory.
For his part, the Democrat said that this appearance was “not a priority” for him, according to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
Donald Trump is accused of falsifying documents relating to a series of payments aimed at covering up three embarrassing cases ahead of the November 2016 election.
In particular 130,000 dollars to obtain the silence of a star of pornographic films, Stormy Daniels, with whom he would have had an extramarital affair in 2006 – which the principal concerned firmly denies.
Donald Trump has “stopped lying”, thundered Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, elected affiliate of the Democratic Party, denouncing “serious criminal conduct”.
President Joe Biden has chosen to stand back, refusing to comment on the legal troubles of his possible rival in 2024.
The 80-year-old Democrat has been rolling out his program since Monday in almost complete indifference.
He nevertheless hopes that in the long term, the contrast will work in his favor, while Donald Trump is undoubtedly only at the beginning of his appearances and legal proceedings – the former president is the subject of investigations for a attempt to hijack the presidential ballot in Georgia, for his alleged role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol storming, and in a case of confidential documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
The media frenzy on Tuesday around the former president in any case overshadowed an indisputable diplomatic victory for Joe Biden, and an announcement with serious consequences for the march of the world: it was almost in indifference that Finland officially joined the NATO.