(New York) Will Donald Trump be indicted this week in New York in a 2016 purchase of a pornographic actress’ silence? After claiming that he was going to be brought to justice, the ex-president assured this weekend that the criminal case would have been dropped.
Since Mr. Trump wrote on March 18 on his Truth Social social network that he was going to be “arrested” and appear in court in New York on March 21 to be charged, but nothing happened, New York is hanging on this hypothetical indictment.
That would be unprecedented against a former US president.
On Monday, according to reports, a grand jury — a citizens’ panel with broad investigative powers that works alongside prosecutors — reconvened in Manhattan court to deliberate on the case that threatens Mr. Trump.
Donald Trump, a 76-year-old former Republican president who dreams of “reclaiming” the White House in 2024, must answer before the justice of the State of New York and his attorney for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, for a payment of 130,000 dollars to porn actress and director Stormy Daniels.
Justice seeks to determine if he was guilty of false declarations, an offense, or breach of the laws on electoral financing, a criminal offense, by having paid money to this woman, whose real name Stephanie Clifford, just before his presidential victory in November 2016.
What purpose ? For her to conceal a supposed extramarital relationship ten years earlier, according to the prosecution.
Accused by Donald Trump and Republican parliamentarians of having a “political motive”, Prosecutor Bragg, an elected Democrat at the head of the Manhattan prosecution since 2022, replied by letter Thursday that the businessman had “created a media false expectation” on his indictment and denounced “interference” in the investigation.
On Saturday, at a campaign rally in Texas, Mr. Trump, suspected by the Washington Post and the New York Times of sometimes flirting with incitement to violence, had denied “any crime” and any affair with Stormy Daniels.
On his plane home, he had gone further according to the political media Axios: “I think they have already dropped the case […] It’s a bogus deal. The kind of bogus business they have absolutely nothing on.”
And the 45th President of the United States hit the nail on the head on Sunday on Truth Social: “The Manhattan District Attorney’s witch hunt against me is DEAD.”
