Donald Trump could be charged any day

This week in New York, Donald Trump could be charged with allegedly hiding silence payments to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, almost seven years after the money changed hands.

However, legal experts say any trial of the former U.S. president will be more than a year away, and could coincide with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign, when Trump wants to return to the White House.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he expected to be arrested on Tuesday and called on his supporters to protest, although a spokesman later said the former president had not been notified of any upcoming arrests.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg presented evidence to a New York grand jury for the $130,000 payment. porn actress “Stormy” Daniels According to sources, in the last days of the 2016 presidential campaign in exchange for his silence about the alleged affair.

Trump denies the relationship, and his lawyer has accused Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, of racketeering.

If impeached, Trump will be the first former US president to face trial. criminal process. Polls show him ahead of other potential Republican nominees, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run for president. run for the White House.

According to former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the average criminal case in New York lasts more than a year, and the Trump case is far from typical.

This raises the possibility that Trump may have to face trial in the middle 2024 presidential campaign, or even after Election Day, although putting an elected president or president on trial on state charges will enter uncharted legal waters. If elected, he would not have the right to pardon himself from state charges.

“It’s so unprecedented that it’s hard for me to say,” Agnifilo said when asked if a judge would put Trump on trial shortly before the election. “I think it’s delicate.”

He New York case is one of several focused on Trump, including an investigation into election interference in the state of Georgia and a couple of federal investigations into his role in assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 his supporters and that he withheld secret documents after leaving the White House.

Case call

From his early days in real estate, as a television celebrity, and then in politics, Trump has used aggressive counterattacks and delaying tactics when he has run into legal trouble.

Trump accused Bragg, the elected Democrat, of attacking him for political gain and may seek to have the charges dropped for that reason.

Trump is likely to turn to other avenues, some of which may prove thorny. legal issues which would take time to resolve.

While he was president, Trump reimbursed Cohen for payments to Daniels, and the federal prosecutors who charged the lawyer said in court documents that the payments were falsely recorded as legal services. New York Times He said, citing sources, that the most likely charges against Trump would involve falsifying business records, which is usually a misdemeanor.

To qualify this charge as a felony, prosecutors must prove that Trump falsified the tapes to cover up the second crime. One possibility, according to the Times, is that prosecutors could claim that the payment itself violated state campaign finance law because it was in fact illegal secret donation to promote his campaign.

Experts said the use of state election law to falsely accuse business registrations is an unproven legal theory, and Trump’s lawyers are likely to challenge it.

“There are many possibilities,” said David Shapiro, a former agent FBI prosecutor and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “This is a dream case for defense lawyers.”

Fingerprints and police protocol

In the short term, any charge would require Trump to travel to the prosecutor’s office in downtown New York to turn himself in. In white-collar cases, lawyers and prosecutors often arrange a date and time rather than arrest the person at home.

Trump will be fingerprinted and photographed and will face trial. probably would have stayed pledge and, according to experts, they will be allowed to return home.

This was stated by Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina. CNBC What would surrender if he was accused. If he refuses to appear voluntarily, prosecutors may request that he be extradited from Florida, where he currently resides.

Ironically, DeSantis usually had to formally approve an extradition request as governor, although Florida lawyers said his role would be strictly administrative.

Source: Aristegui Noticias

Mary

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