Criminal Court of New York and American politics in fibrillation for an imminent historical moment: the first indictment of a former president of the United States could arrive today or postpone a few more days if the grand jury set up by District Attorney Alvin Bragg will take more time after hearing another witness, Robert Costello, who questions the credibility of Trump’s main accuser, Michael Cohen.
The former president himself said a few days ago that yesterday, Tuesday, he would be arrested in the Stormy Daniels case: the porn star who was allegedly paid in 2016 with electoral funds ($130,000) to keep silent about a sexual relationship ten years earlier with Trump. Circumstance he always denied but confirmed by Michael Cohen, who was his lawyer at the time, and ended up in jail for this admission and other crimesincluding perjury. It seems that the members of the grand jury have convinced themselves of the validity of the allegations of illegitimate use of electoral funds (with related false accounting) leveled against Trump.
Yesterday, however, the work of the court continued in an increasingly tense climate: while on the outside the entire court area was cordoned off for fear that the planned protests could lead to riots and violence, everything was stopped for over an hour due to a telephone bomb threat. Stormy Daniels has also been hit by various death threats since Trump spoke of her possible arrest. And again yesterday, the spokesman for the prosecutor Bragg replied with a “let’s not be intimidated” to the request of three presidents of parliamentary committees, all Republicans, who want to convene the district attorney and ask for the documents of an investigation that define ” politically motivated”.
Heavy interference in the work of magistrates, but it remains to be understood why a case that had already emerged for several years (Cohen’s confessions and his detention date back to 2018) is only now exploding again. In 2018 Trump was president and could not be charged, but he was not even named in the inquiry.
However, we will not see Trump in handcuffs: if the former president goes to the New York criminal court for the indictment, his fingerprints will be taken and he will be notified of the date of the first hearing. Even if he were arrested, he would be released immediately on bail. According to experts he could be detained only if he continues to threaten to promote an insurrection against the action of the judiciary.
Speaking of his upcoming arrest, Trump came close by inviting his fans to protest en masse, to rebel: “Let’s take back the country!”, He wrote on his social network Truth. So far, however, the political solidarity of many Republican exponents has not been matched by a mobilization of the Trumpian phalanxes.
Maybe it’s just tactics or maybe the heavy sentences inflicted on the assailants of Congress have cooled the impetuosity of many militiamen. And from the arsonist Alex Jones, great conspiracy theorist, to Roger Stone, a life spent playing the charge alongside Trump, there are numerous “hardcore” Trumpians who do not seem to accept the ex-president’s appeal: Stone invites protesters to be cautious, to protest peacefully, not to fall into the trap set by the New York police.
Not even Ali Alexander, organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement (the alleged electoral fraud) will go to protest: “There is no freedom in New York, we all risk being arrested, or worse, and I have other things to do.”