A former star of porn movies, a loyal lieutenant of Donald Trump who became his sworn enemy, a tabloid press publisher. Here are some of the most anticipated players in Donald Trump’s trial which begins Monday in New York.
Donald Trump
45th president in the history of the United States (2017-2021), he is the first to find himself indicted in a criminal case and to risk prison, while he seeks, at the age of 77, to take his revenge on Joe Biden and return to the White House in 2025.
The Republican leader is appearing for falsification of accounting documents, those of his real estate group Trump Organization, linked to payments to obtain the silence of a former porn star just before the 2016 presidential election.
Stormy Daniels
“All I had to do was sign a piece of paper to stay silent,” she says in a recent documentary about her. But nothing went as planned for Stormy Daniels.
The former porn star received $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about an extramarital affair she claims to have had with Donald Trump in 2006, which he denies.
When the affair was revealed in 2018, she found herself in the spotlight, a feminist icon for some, hated by supporters of Donald Trump. His testimony is expected at trial.
The “pitbull” who became a sworn enemy
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, who did not deny his nickname “pitbull”, Michael Cohen has become his sworn enemy and will be the key witness for the prosecution. It was he who paid the $130,000 to Stormy Daniels — at the request of Donald Trump, he claims — and federal justice has already condemned him for this payment.
Michael Cohen should detail the alleged involvement of the former president before the jury, but the defense will portray a less than credible witness, he who was also convicted of making false statements to the US Congress.
The tabloid press boss
The former boss of the tabloid newspaper “The National Enquirer”, David Pecker, will probably be called to the witness stand. He should describe how he made his diary available to the Trump camp during the 2016 presidential election to cover up embarrassing affairs. Concretely, “The National Enquirer” bought the rights to a story so as not to publish it, the “catch and kill” technique.
The prosecutor
“Child of Harlem” as he defines himself, victim of the muscular methods of the New York police as a teenager, then trained at Harvard, Alvin Bragg became in January 2022 the first African-American prosecutor of the local prosecutor’s office in Manhattan.
Elected as a Democrat, he inherited the Trump file and was initially criticized for a supposed desire to bury the affair before indicting the former American president. Alvin Bragg led the prosecution in the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial, which resulted in the group’s first criminal conviction in late 2022.
The judge
Known as courteous but firm, Judge Juan Merchan will be responsible for presiding over the debates and containing the sometimes volcanic temperament of Donald Trump, without appearing to be a burden.
He has already banned the Republican billionaire, who is virulent on social networks, from attacking witnesses and court staff. “HE HATES ME,” wrote Donald Trump. His lawyers asked the judge to recuse himself because of his daughter’s employment in a political consulting firm that had Joe Biden among its clients and for a $35 donation from the judge to the Democrat’s campaign in 2020. At the end Ultimately, the jury will decide whether Donald Trump is guilty. But it is the judge who will set the sentence.
The lawyers
Donald Trump’s counsel, Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche, form a duo of seasoned lawyers, experienced in white-collar crime. Educated at Yale University Law School and head of her own firm, Susan Necheles is known to be particularly tough during cross-examination.
Todd Blanche spent ten years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office before launching his career as a lawyer. He left a prestigious New York firm to devote himself to the defense of Donald Trump.