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Trump reportedly delayed the payment until after the 2016 election so it wouldn’t negatively affect his campaign
MADRID, 4 (EUROPA PRESS)
Former United States President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty this Tuesday to a total of 34 criminal charges in a Manhattan court in the case of alleged bribery of porn actress Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels.
The reading of charges before Judge Juan Merchan took place after the former president arrived at the courthouse, where the office of the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is also located. Inside the building, fingerprint samples have been taken from him as part of the arrest process.
Specifically, one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, whom he recently incorporated into his legal team to reinforce his defense, has been the one who has spoken on behalf of Trump, after which the 34 charges he faces for falsifying commercial records in the first degree, has collected the CNN chain.
Each criminal forgery charge relates to the Trump Organization’s business records, including invoices from the former president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, or checks from the former president, dated in various months of 2017.
“Defendant, in New York County and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and to aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry into business records of a company, namely, an entry in the detailed ledger of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, voucher number 842457, and held and maintained by the Trump Organization,” reads one of the counts in the text of the accusation.
However, the prosecutor has ruled out charging the former president with conspiracy charges and has detailed that the 34 counts of falsification of business records were made with the aim of “concealing criminal conduct to cover up information harmful to the electorate during the 2016 presidential elections.” “.
The prosecutor has also shown concern during the session about the comments made by the former president on Truth Social, the social network he owns, where he has even stated during the day that “the radical democratic left has criminalized the judicial system.”
In this sense, he has said that he feels “concerned” about the possible effects that these publications may have on both jurors and witnesses, for which reason the prosecutor has raised the possibility of issuing a protection order.
Specifically, he has advised Trump not to make statements that incite violence or threats against any official. This comes after the former president removed a previous post on Truth Social that showed an image of him holding a baseball bat next to the head of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who was indicting him.
Trump, who has not made any statement after leaving the courtroom around 3:30 a.m. (local time), is now heading to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he is expected to speak around 8:15 p.m. ( local time), as reported by NBC.
Despite the fact that the former president has not ruled on the matter, one of his lawyers, Todd Blanche, has assured in statements to the press that Trump is “frustrated” and “annoyed” at the same time that he has indicated that the situation is “disappointing”. .
For their part, his other two lawyers, Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles, have reiterated, when asked about Trump’s messages on Truth Social, that the former president was “angry” and that his reaction “is exactly what it would be if it had happened to him ( this) to anyone else.”
LATE PAYMENT
During the hearing, the prosecution has alleged that the bribery of Daniels was part of a plan to suppress any negative information that would harm his campaign for the 2016 elections. delay payment until after the elections,” he specified.
In this way, Trump would have agreed with Cohen in the Oval Office of the White House to sign a series of monthly checks, some of them paid from a trust, with the label “legal services” to compensate him for the payment to Daniels. In addition, he would have agreed to pay her 35,000 euros per month for a year.
Trump was indicted last week for the possible secret payment of $130,000 (more than 120,000 euros) to Clifford by former president Michael Cohen’s former lawyer. Trump has thus become the first former US president to be charged, which could end his aspirations to return to the White House in the elections scheduled for 2024.
The imputation of Trump, an unprecedented event in the history of the United States, derives from a case that would date back to 2006 but that did not come to light until 2018, when Stormy Daniels directly and publicly pointed out the magnate for an alleged ‘affair ‘ out of wedlock that entailed multiple legal derivatives.
The fact in question would not have been one of the many accusations of infidelity or even harassment leveled against Trump in recent years if it were not for the fact that in 2016, a few days before the elections that brought the Republican leader to the White House, Daniels received a payment of $130,000.
With this money, in which Trump’s then lawyer, Michael Cohen, mediated, the tycoon supposedly guaranteed Clifford’s silence. The actress alleges that she accepted the money out of fear for the safety of her family.
On the other hand, in the framework formed, among others, by Cohen, there are also two more secret payments: about $150,000 for the model Karen McDougal, for allegedly having had an extramarital affair, and $30,000 for a former Trump Tower porter. that he claimed to know a story about a child he would have had out of wedlock.