An inglorious first. This Friday, January 10, Donald Trump became the first elected president in the history of the United States to be found guilty, in the affair of secret payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. “A shame for the system”denounced the billionaire. This conviction, which he did everything to avoid before entering the White House, is above all a very symbolic moment. Because at the same time as he sentenced Trump, New York judge Juan Merchan pronounced this Friday an exemption from sentence.
Until the last day and even before the Supreme Court in Washington, the lawyers of the 45th and soon 47th American president increased their appeals by brandishing his past and future presidential immunity, in order to prevent the judge from sanctioning their client. The thunderclap came Thursday evening: the Supreme Court of the United States rejected its final appeal by five votes to four. Donald Trump had nevertheless put all the chances on his side: of the nine judges who make it up, six are conservative, including three appointed by the billionaire.
A convict at the White House
With this sentencing, more than seven months after being declared guilty by a jury of twelve unanimous citizens before a Manhattan criminal court, Donald Trump will enter the White House on January 20, at the age of 78, with the label of ‘a criminal. But nothing more, for the man who has already escaped any legal consequences in the three other cases in which he had been indicted, including the most serious in federal justice for his illegal attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election In this case, special prosecutor Jack Smith abandoned the prosecution after the election of Donald Trump on November 5, when the trial had not started.
The future president appeared by video during this hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court, not being forced to come in person to this hearing which was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. New York time (2:30 p.m. in France). Magistrate Juan Merchan, whom Donald Trump had heaped with insults on social networks, had already warned that a prison sentence, “impossible to implement”, was excluded for the one who is preparing to govern the leading world power.
A silence bought with money
Last spring, the man who was still a presidential candidate had to go almost every day for six weeks to a courtroom with the outdated and summary decor of the criminal court, and attend the debates in this case mixing politics, money and scandal sexual. The jury found him guilty of 34 counts of accounting falsification to hide from voters the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels at the end of his first victorious campaign in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, whose trial had revealed behind the scenes. The money was paid to buy the actress’ silence about a sexual relationship she claimed to have had in 2006 with the former real estate mogul, a relationship he has always denied.
-Assailed by lawyers’ appeals and following a major decision by the Supreme Court on July 1 on presidential immunity, Judge Merchan had to postpone sentencing several times, from July to September, then to November, after the presidential election. Donald Trump’s victory triggered a new round of appeals from the defense, but Juan Merchan maintained the sentence.
As in the other cases in which he was prosecuted, Donald Trump presented himself as the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by his political adversaries, a speech that he tirelessly delivered and of which his supporters were convinced, in a country where polls show that confidence in institutions has clearly eroded in recent years.
Updated at 4:22 p.m. with the sentencing.
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