Targeted in several court cases, but never charged, former US President Donald Trump could see this threat materialized in court in New York, because of a payment in 2016 to a former porn star, a known case, but which suddenly rises to the surface.
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The signs that this legal case is accelerating are multiplying. Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and now one of his worst enemies, testified before a grand jury in the investigation related to a nondisclosure agreement on Monday, his lawyer, Lanny Davis, confirmed to the AFP.
The investigations of the New York prosecutors focus on the payment in 2016 of $ 130,000 by the lawyer to the pornographic actress Stormy Daniels – Stephanie Clifford of her real name – to buy her silence on an alleged relationship she would have had with Donald Trump.
Former loyal to the Republican billionaire, Michael Cohen has already been convicted in this case. Arriving in court on Monday, the man who had delivered explosive and damning testimony on Donald Trump before a parliamentary committee in 2019 assured that he was not driven by any spirit of revenge.
But the candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election “must be held to account for his crap”, he assured, according to the CNBC channel website.
“Witch hunt”
According to the New York Times and the Washington Post, Donald Trump himself was invited to testify before this grand jury by the Manhattan prosecutor’s office, a possible sign of the desire of prosecutors to prosecute the former president.
According to the New York Times, a possible indictment would relate to accounting violations or campaign finance laws related to the payment to Stormy Daniels.
“Prosecutors almost never invite the target of the investigation to testify before the grand jury unless they intend to indict him,” a law professor at the AFP told AFP. Pace University and former prosecutor, Bennett Gershman.
After the revelations of the two newspapers, Donald Trump had denounced Thursday on his Truth Social network a “political witch hunt aimed at bringing down the candidate in the lead (and this) by far, of the Republican Party” in the primary for the presidential election of 2024 .
“I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels,” added Donald Trump.
A criminal indictment would be a first for a former US president.
This prospect is also not to be excluded in the file on the attempts of the Trump camp to modify in its favor the results of the presidential election in the state of Georgia in 2020, a grand jury having recommended indictments without revealing any name.
Criminal proceedings could complicate the race for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential nomination for Donald Trump, who sees the hypothesis of a rival candidacy for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis looming.
Combination
The payment to the former porn star had taken place two weeks before the presidential election won by the Republican against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Michael Cohen was sentenced, after pleading guilty, to three years in prison in particular for having orchestrated this payment in violation of the laws on the financing of electoral campaigns. He assured that he acted at the request of the former Republican candidate, who would have reimbursed him once he arrived at the White House.
According to the New York Times, Donald Trump could be charged with a misdemeanor misdemeanor accounting misrepresentation to conceal the payment to Stormy Daniels.
These charges could increase and become criminal if prosecutors consider that the offense was intended to hide a violation of campaign finance rules, the New York Times had also explained, stressing however that “combining” the two would be unprecedented.
Donald Trump is targeted in other cases, including his role in the assault on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021, as well as the management of his presidential archives.