(New York) Donald Trump will experience an unprecedented legal event in New York on Tuesday for a former American president: he will appear in criminal court to be served with his indictment in a case of fraud linked to money paid in 2016 to a porn star.
The former tenant of the White House and who aims to return there in 2024 is summoned before a judge in Manhattan court at 2:15 p.m. for a historic hearing of a few minutes during which he is expected to plead “not guilty”.
After a Monday under extraordinary media tension, New York justice banned television cameras and any mode of transmission inside the courtroom.
A single camera positioned in a corridor of the courthouse will be able to capture the first images of the former president of the United States, who should then say a few words.
Authorities, concerned about safety around the Manhattan courthouse, placed New York City police “on high alert” and Mayor Eric Adams warned “troublemakers” on Monday.
Facing the court, supporters of Donald Trump have planned to meet around 10:30 a.m., led by far-right Republican parliamentarian Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trumpist among Trumpists.
On Tuesday morning, a few pros and anti-Trumps — far outnumbered by journalists and police officers — exchanged a few invectives, with opponents unfurling a huge “Trump lies all the time” banner.
The billionaire claims his innocence and claims to be the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by the Democrats of President Joe Biden, who allegedly “stole” his 2020 presidential victory.
He again denounced Tuesday morning, on his Truth Social platform, a “phony court” and a “very partisan” judge.
New Yorker by birth, he spent the night in his skyscraper “Trump Tower” on Manhattan’s legendary Fifth Avenue and is expected to arrive in court at midday.
There, he is supposed to submit to the ritual imposed on any defendant: state his name, age, profession, take a fingerprint and have his photo taken – the famous “mugshot”, the source of so much public humiliation for the stars in the United States.
But his status as a high American dignitary protected by the Secret Service, an agency dedicated to the protection of public figures, could require some adjustments.
According to his lawyer Joe Tacopina, he will not be handcuffed.
He should then be released, possibly on conditions, pending the organization of his trial at a later date.
The New York businessman, who made his fortune in real estate and television, met his followers and his tens of millions of voters for a press conference from his Mar-a- Lago, Florida at 8:15 p.m.
The charges – some thirty according to CNN – have not yet been made public and should be made public by the Manhattan prosecutor who is prosecuting him, Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat: they would be linked to accounting fraud during the payment legal in October 2016 and the subsequent reimbursement of $130,000 to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels.
From her real name Stephanie Clifford, this woman, who has been working with the justice system for five years, was supposed to silence a supposed and very brief extramarital relationship in 2006 with Donald Trump.
The $130,000 she received from the former president’s former lawyer and handyman, Michael Cohen — who served time in prison and turned against his boss in 2018 — had not been paid. reported in the 2016 presidential candidate Trump’s campaign accounts.
A possible violation of New York State election laws: this sum had been recorded, potentially illegally, as “legal fees” in the accounts of his company Trump Organization, already sentenced in December and January to a civil fine of $1.6 million for fraud.
Beyond this case, Donald Trump – who has upended the political system and society in the United States in less than ten years – is the subject of several other investigations, including his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6 2021, his management of the presidential archives or the pressure exerted on electoral officials in Georgia to contest his defeat in the presidential election of 2020.