Re-elected on November 5, the 47th American president faces this Tuesday the possible abandonment or freezing of proceedings against him in the affair of hidden payments to the X-rated film star.
A New York judge is expected to rule Tuesday on whether to drop or freeze charges against President-elect Donald Trump in the case of hidden payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, after a historic conviction in the spring. This case is the only one in which a criminal trial took place against the Republican, out of the four in which he was charged while being a candidate in the November 5 presidential election which he won, an unprecedented scenario in American history.
After six weeks of debate, at the end of May, a jury of 12 citizens unanimously found Donald Trump guilty of 34 accounting falsification offenses to hide from voters the payment of $130,000 to the X-rated movie star. The goal was to prevent a sex scandal from breaking out at the very end of his first victorious campaign in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.
The sentence, which could range from a fine to prison – an unlikely hypothesis according to observers – should first have been pronounced on July 11 by judge Juan Merchan, but the magistrate agreed to postpone it for the first time. on September 18, then on November 26, that is to say in a week, in order to study new appeals from the defense lawyers.
“Exceptional circumstances”
They are now asking “the suspension and dismissal (of the case) to prevent President Trump”who will take office on January 20, “not be prevented from governing”.
On Tuesday, while the judge had not yet rendered his decision, Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, indicated that he would oppose an outright cancellation of the procedure, while believing that the freezing of prosecutions “until the end of the presidential term” of the 47th President of the United States was to be an option to “consider”. He therefore does not oppose a new referral.
Donald Trump's team immediately saw a “total and definitive victory”asserting that “this baseless lawsuit is frozen” while the decision rests with Judge Juan Merchan. Even before the election of Donald Trump, his lawyers had requested the cancellation of the procedure after a decision by the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, which considerably extended presidential immunity last July.
This appeal, on which Judge Merchan must also rule, was filed on the grounds that evidence used by the prosecution relates to official acts during the Republican's first term in the White House (2017-2021). Donald Trump is already certain of being able to bury the prosecutions initiated by the federal courts, in particular the heaviest on his alleged illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Voter’s Verdict”
This is not the case for the trial of the Stormy Daniels affair which took place before the courts of the State of New York. But observers still call on the judge and the prosecution to throw in the towel.
“The ultimate democratic verdict on (all) these prosecutions was rendered by the voterswrote US Supreme Court lawyer Thomas Goldstein in the New York Times. Despite the lawsuits, more than 75 million people (…) decided to send him back to the White House.”
But for former prosecutor Randall Eliason, “the election should not prevent the sentence from falling, in the same way that the criminal trials did not prevent the election of Trump”. “The judge can craft a sentence that will not interfere with his presidential duties. From a judicial and historical point of view, it is important that the criminal proceedings come to an end.he adds on his Sidebars blog.
Since he was elected, Donald Trump has promised to appoint three of his personal lawyers, including Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who defended him at the New York trial, to key positions at the Justice Department.
