For the first time in American history, an American president has been criminally indicted by a grand jury. If convicted, Donald Trump faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
After his two civil convictions with heavy fines, for defamation in January and for financial fraud in February, a new legal battle opens for Donald Trump. The 77-year-old billionaire, candidate for the November presidential election, is expected on Monday April 15 in the dock of a New York court for a criminal trial – a first for him, and unheard of for a former president American.
The businessman is accused of having disguised the accounts of his real estate group in 2016, when he was already running for the White House, to conceal payments intended to silence Stéphanie Clifford, a former porn star the pseudonym Stormy Daniels, about an alleged extramarital affair that occurred ten years earlier, which Donald Trump denies. Franceinfo summarizes this complicated affair for you, judged in the middle of the presidential campaign.
The affair arose from a payment to conceal a possible affair
The accusations against Donald Trump originated in 2016, a few days before the presidential election. A former pornographic actress, Stormy Daniels, receives $130,000 from the billionaire’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. In exchange, she agrees to remain silent about a sexual relationship she says she had with Donald Trump in 2006, when the latter is already married to Melania Trump. She never spoke of this brief affair publicly – an interview on this subject, given in 2011 to the American celebrity magazine In Touchremained in the drawers after threats of prosecution from the businessman.
The affair came to light in January 2018, when the Wall Street Journal reveals the payment from the lawyer of Donald Trump, now president of the United States, to Stormy Daniels, and the agreement she accepted in return. In February, Michael Cohen acknowledged his participation, but refuted any link with his famous client: “Neither [le conglomérat immobilier] Trump Organization, neither the Trump campaign participated in the transaction with Stormy Daniels, nor have either refunded the payment to me, directly or indirectly“, he asserts New York Times. He assures that the payment was “legal and did not constitute a campaign contribution or expense”.
Donald Trump denies having had a sexual relationship with the actress, whom he accuses of extortion. But Stormy Daniels took legal action to cancel the confidentiality agreement signed two years earlier, and opened up about the affair in the media. In an interview with CBS in August 2018, she said she accepted the transaction out of concern “For [sa] family and their safety”after being threatened, years earlier, by a stranger asking her to “leave Trump alone”.
For his part, targeted by several fraud investigations, Michael Cohen reverses his position and agrees to cooperate with the investigators. In August 2018, he admitted in particular to having made the payment to Stormy Daniels “on demand” by Donald Trump. Heard by Congress in February 2019, the lawyer presented a copy of the check with which the American president reimbursed him. And publicly charges his former client: “He’s a racist, he’s a crook, he’s a liar”, he explains to American parliamentarians. In the meantime, Donald Trump’s new lawyer also acknowledges that Michael Cohen was reimbursed, but disputes the use of funds intended for his campaign.
Donald Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsification
Buying Stormy Daniels’ silence is not illegal. But the amount paid by Donald Trump’s lawyer does not appear in his company records or in his campaign accounts. Justice accuses the ex-president of having disguised the reimbursement of Michael Cohen in “legal fees” in the accounts of the Trump Organization.
In New York State, accounting falsifications are generally considered simple infractions, but they become misdemeanors if they were committed to “hide” another crime. In his indictment, prosecutor Alvin Bragg claims that the “dozens of false entries in accounting documents” served to obscure his efforts to “hiding compromising information from voters”which he assimilates to “attempts to violate electoral lawss” from Donald Trump.
After three months of investigations and the hearing of numerous witnesses, a grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump in March 2023. The former tenant of the White House is targeted by 34 counts of falsification of documents with a view to committing another crime linked to the financing of his campaign. This is a first in the history of the United States, no other American president having been confronted with criminal justice. This indictment was denounced by Donald Trump as “political persecution and electoral interference at the highest level”. At an appearance in April 2023, he pleaded not guilty.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks
Donald Trump will be tried by a jury of twelve citizens. Their selection and that of the substitutes begins Monday. In the form of 42 questions to which they will have to answer, potential jurors will be questioned in particular about their membership in conspiracy movements having participated in the attack on the Capitol, on January 6, 2022, intended to contest the defeat of the former Republican president against to Joe Biden, reports the American site Politico.
Donald Trump, absent from the hearings of his civil trials, will this time have to be present at the Manhattan court to attend his trial which is expected to last “between six and eight weeks”, says NBC News. A sentence could be handed down before the November election, but many twists and turns could still delay the proceedings. Donald Trump’s lawyers have increased their appeals and challenges, obtaining the postponement of the trial, which was initially scheduled to open on March 25.
Former Republican president faces four years in prison
The 77-year-old billionaire faces a maximum sentence of four years. But several factors, such as his age and his lack of prior criminal conviction, can help him avoid imprisonment, even if the jurors found him guilty, analyzes the American channel CNBC.
However, according to the American media, his repeated criticism of the judge, Juan Merchan, does not work in his favor. “This judge should be impeached and the case should be dismissed”wrote Donald Trump on his social network Truth Social on April 4, calling the magistrate a “corrupt” and accusing him of“electoral interference at its peak!” He was reacting to Juan Merchan’s adoption of a gag order prohibiting him from making comments about witnesses or jurors, reports the AP agency. CNBC points out that a conviction, even accompanied by a prison sentence, would not prohibit Donald Trump from running in the presidential election.