2024-02-15 20:39:04
Trump, leaving the hearing room in New York yesterday. ANDREW KELLY | REUTERS
Former president faces charges for bribing porn actress Stormy Daniels
15 feb 2024 . Updated at 9:39 p.m.
Judge Juan Merchanof New York, rejected a request from the defense of Donald Trump that the charges against the millionaire for his participation in the payment of bribes to porn actress Stormy Daniels. In addition, Merchán, in charge of the procedures, established the next trial start date. March 25that which point jury selection will begin.
The candidate’s defense criticized the magistrate’s decision, arguing that it will interfere with the electoral campaign. If the start date is met, it will be the beginning of the first trial against a former president in US history. It will also be the first of the criminal cases against Trump to go to trial.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the person responsible for the prosecution, presented the 34 criminal charges against the tycoon last year. Trump is accused of falsifying his campaign records to hide the bribery of the adult film actress during the 2016 elections. Unlike the federal proceedings he has open in Washington and Florida, the New York case is not subject to the possibility that the magnate, if he becomes president, grants himself a presidential pardon.
Upon leaving the hearing, Trump stated that it is a “very unfair situation” and insisted that his legal problems are politically motivated. “They want to keep me good and busy so that I can’t campaign hard”said about the judge’s decision to set the start of the process in March.
The other trials, pending
Although at first it was intended that the trial for electoral interference (for participating in the assault on the Capitol) would begin earlier – it was set for March 4 – the millionaire’s appeals have ended up causing its delay. Given that, according to Merchán, the Manhattan trial should last about six weeks, federal charges against Trump would have to wait until at least May.
In turn, the special prosecutor leading the federal prosecution against Trump in Washington, Jack Smith, asked the Supreme Court in writing on Wednesday to reject the former president’s latest appeal, presented on Monday. In it, the businessman’s defense submitted a request to the highest US court to annul the verdict of the country’s Court of Appeals. A week earlier, said court denied that Trump was protected by presidential immunity when he tried at all costs to stay in the White House, after losing the 2020 elections.
The US House of Representatives warns of a “serious threat” from an alleged Russian space nuclear weapon
Mike Turner, chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the US House of Representatives, sounded the alarm in Washington on Wednesday night: he had been informed of a “serious threat to national security.” In his statement, Turner asked that information be declassified about what, according to the American media, could be a space nuclear weapon deployed by Russia with the ability to attack satellites.
The National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, expressed the same day his surprise at Turner’s announcement. According to Sullivan, an intelligence meeting with congressional leaders was scheduled for Thursday that “has been scheduled for some time” in which the issue would be discussed. There was also some speculation in the American media about whether Turner’s intention by making public the alleged threat would not be that of motivate Congress to approve the aid package for Ukraine.
In his statement, the president of the committee asked that all information related to the alleged threat be declassified in order to “be able to openly discuss the actions necessary to respond” to it. One of the members of the intelligence group stated that the information was “disturbing”, while for another member of the Lower House it had the capacity to be a “geostrategic turning point.”
Other legislators, for their part, called for calm stating that, despite the seriousness of the matter, it was not an “immediate crisis.”
In this sense, the president of the House of Representatives expressed himself, Mike Johnson. The Republican stated that, although he could not share classified information with the press, he wanted to “assure everyone that there are steady hands at the wheel” and that there was “no reason for alarm.”
The threat would be, according to The New York Times It would be a “nuclear weapon located in space and designed to threaten the US satellite network.” A weapon against which the United States would have no defenses but which, at the moment, it would not have been deployed.
Filed in: Donald Trump USA Russia White House
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