Police barriers in front of Trump Tower and the Manhattan Courthouse; more police and journalists than pro-Donald Trump demonstrators: New York awaits the possible indictment, which would be historic, of the former president of the United States.
In a latest statement from Mr. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign team on Tuesday, a photo shows two New York City Police (NYPD) handlers quietly unloading a metal barrier from a truck.
With a message meant to dramatize and solemnize the moment: “Barricades are being set up around Manhattan Criminal Court as our nation awaits an announcement on whether President Donald J. Trump will be CHARGED despite he has not committed ANY criminal offence.
The 45e Republican President (2017-2021) gives an appointment to his voters “on November 5, 2024 when we, the people, will return to the White House and make America great again”.
In the meantime, he must answer in court for a case of payment of US $ 130,000, just before his presidential victory in November 2016, to the actress of pornographic films, Stormy Daniels, with whom he would have had an affair. .
Outside the offices of New York State Attorney for the District of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, reporters speculate on when the Democratic magistrate and a grand jury — a citizens’ panel with broad investigative powers and charged with ratify an indictment — will be decided on an indictment.
Wednesday or next week?
Trump hit hard on Saturday morning by saying on his Truth Social network that he would be formally and symbolically charged and “arrested” on Tuesday.
American media are now talking about the date of Wednesday, or even next week. And Mr. Bragg, whose services have investigated for several years, remains silent.
For an American president in office or having left the White House, such an indictment would be historic and unprecedented.
The billionaire denounced a “witch hunt” led by the Democrats, but his calls to “protest” failed. Except for around 30 young Trumpists gathered in the cold Monday evening outside the courthouse and a handful of others who held up signs in front of the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.
However, for fear of clashes in a city with a violent history, an NYPD spokesperson warned in an email that “the presence of uniformed police officers will increase in the five boroughs of the megalopolis”, even if it there is “currently no credible threat in New York. »
“The Donald”
In the absence of large-scale demonstrations in the streets, the Trumpists are beating the drum on social networks.
In an attempt to block the judicial questioning of their hero, the group “The Donald” wants to start a “national strike” or even a “civil war 2.0” since Monday.
The case of pornographic actress Stormy Daniel is legally complex.
New York justice seeks to determine if Trump is guilty of misrepresentation, an offense, or breach of campaign finance laws, a criminal offense, by having paid $ 130,000 to this woman, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford , in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election.
What purpose ? For her to conceal a supposed extramarital relationship of the billionaire ten years earlier, according to the prosecution.
The investigation accelerated last week.
Under arrest
Michael Cohen, a former attorney and now Trump nemesis who paid off Stormy Daniels in 2016, had testified before the grand jury, but the actress had also, at the very least, cooperated with prosecutors and that same panel.
Donald Trump had also been invited to speak before this grand jury, according to the American press, and one of his lawyers had assured that he would “surrender” willingly to a summons from the New York justice.
If the former head of state arrives at the Manhattan court to be charged, in an inevitable media mess, he would very symbolically be placed there for a few moments under arrest, photographed, and his fingerprints would be taken.
He could even possibly be handcuffed for a few minutes.
The main fear of the authorities is a repeat of the violence of the assault on the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021, when Donald Trump, defeated at the polls in November 2020, called on his supporters to challenge the results.
He still believes that the victory was “stolen” from him by President Joe Biden.