Trump, before the courts: the keys to the first case of an imputed former president in US history

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This case dates back to 2006 but did not see the light of day until 2018, when actress Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, directly and publicly pointed out the tycoon for an alleged extramarital ‘affair.’

The accusation of former President Donald Trump, in an unprecedented event in the history of the United States, derives from a case that dates back to 2006 but that did not see the light of day until 2018, when the actress Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, pointed out directly and in public to the tycoon for an alleged extramarital ‘affair’ that entailed multiple legal derivatives.

His freedom, for the first time, was threatened.

Despite all the scandals he has been involved in recent decades, the tycoon has succeeded so far: his freedom is at stake for the first time.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said Thursday that prosecutors had contacted Trump‘s lawyers to arrange for his surrender, which could take place for him to surrender, which could happen as early as next week. Trump is expected to appear at the prosecutor’s office for arraignment and have his fingerprints and mugshot taken. He is also scheduled to appear in court when a judge will list the charges,, and Trump will plead guilty.

voluntary surrender

The former president of the United States, Donald Trump,  will appear next Tuesday, April 4, before the Manhattan Criminal Court to hear in person the statement of charges, still under summary secrecy, for which he was charged this past Thursday in the framework of the investigation into the payment of bribes to the porn actress Stephanie Clifford (better known as Stormy Daniels) through an operation buried in the accounts of the Trump Organization, Trump’s company, during the 2016 election campaign.

Trump’s appearance has been confirmed by his lawyer, Susan R. Necheles, in what is officially a “voluntary surrender” process within a procedural phase that the former president’s legal team intends to go through as an initial process with the minor shocks possible after the commotion unleashed by the first criminal charge facing a president of the United States, active or retired, in the history of the country.

“Like O. J. Simpson”

The calm with which the president’s legal team will approach the session on Tuesday will contrast radically with the atmosphere that the campaign team of the former president and, again, a candidate for the White House in 2024, anticipates outside the room. “He is going to be like OJ Simpson but on steroids,” an adviser to the magnate has indicated to the Politico news portal.

Trump’s legal team has assured that he has not the slightest intention of “starting a duel” with the Prosecutor’s Office, in the words of one of the magnate’s lawyers, Joe Tacopina, in statements to the ‘New York Daily News,’ for much that the governor of the state, the ultraconservative Ron DeSantis, has declared that he will in no way contribute to the “extradition” of Trump if he refused to leave his residence.

Tuesday, April 4 at 8:15 p.m.

Donald Trump plans to appear in court at around 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday (8:15 p.m. in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands) after a trip that will take him from his mansion in Mar-a-Lago (Florida) to the district court of Lower Manhattan (in the south of the island, near Wall Street) after a journey in his private plane from Palm Beach International Airport to New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

The details of Trump’s arrival at the court are still being negotiated between his lawyers and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office led by Alvin Bragg, so it is currently unknown if the former president will access the place through a private entrance or, through the Otherwise, he will walk down Center Street before the cameras and his supporters.

July 2006

According to Clifford, the meeting in question occurred in July 2006, during a charity golf tournament that would have ended with both in a hotel room in Lake Tahoe, between California and Nevada. At that time, the former president was married to his current wife and had just given birth – has always denied having any sexual relationship with the actress.

$130,000 for his silence

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.

The case stems from the scandal over the possible secret payment of $130,000 (more than 120,000 euros) to Stormy Daniels by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. 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 in the North American country.

2018

With this money, which Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, mediated, the tycoon supposedly guaranteed Clifford’s silence. The actress alleges she accepted the money out of fear for her family’s safety, as she claims she received some advance notice: In 2011, a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot to tell her to “leave Trump alone,” always according to his version, after agreeing to an interview.

Said interview with the magazine ‘In Touch,’ did not see the light of day until 2018, when the scandal jumped into the air. Clifford spoke at length on television, at the cost of being threatened with a million-dollar lawsuit in which Trump’s legal team alleged that the actress violated a confidentiality agreement.

Legal agreements but not in the campaign

These agreements are legal to the extent that it is allowed to pay someone in exchange for their silence, but in this case, the nuance is that it was done shortly before an election. Therefore, ethical doubts aside, a large part of the doubts, in this case, revolves around whether Trump could have violated the regulations regarding campaigns.

The role of Trump’s former lawyer

Cohen acknowledged his guilt in 2018 for various crimes, including violating campaign finance regulations, for multiple payments, including the one made to ‘Stormy Daniels.’ Initially, he said that he had acted on his behalf. Still, under oath, he said that Trump personally instructed him to deliver the $130,000 to Clifford and returned an equal amount.

The former president has acknowledged the payment to his former lawyer but has denied irregularities and the alleged extramarital relationship at the origin of this entire case.

For now, the only one who has been held accountable for this scandal has been Cohen, sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 and who has ended up being the critical piece in going from ally to declared enemy of Trump. The ex-lawyer went so far as to say that he would shoot him, his former friend would shoot him, his former friend would shoot him-his former friend would shoot him, and his former friend would shoot him, but now he openly demands that the process move forward, whoever falls.