The criminal trial against Donald Trump opened this Monday in a New York court, making him the first former president in the history of the United States to sit in the dock, which threatens to shake up the 2024 presidential campaign.
The judge investigating the case, Colombian Juan Manuel Merchan, began the trial after reading the charges against the 77-year-old Republican magnate.
“This is an assault on the United States. Nothing like this had ever happened,” said the Republican magnate upon his arrival at the court.
Trump will be tried for hiding a $130,000 payment to former porn actress Stormy Daniels to allegedly buy her silence about an extramarital affair and thus protect his 2016 campaign, which he ultimately won against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
For the Republican, almost certainly his party’s candidate for the presidential election on November 4, the trial is a “political persecution” orchestrated by the Democrats to prevent him from achieving his long-awaited dream of returning to the White House.
The tycoon is not accused of the payment itself to hide a sexual relationship that he has always denied, but for disguising it as legal expenses of the Trump Organization, the family business, which can lead to a sentence of up to four years in prison.
However, the sentence would not be an obstacle for him to run in the presidential elections on November 5, in which he will face Democrat Joe Biden for the second time, who defeated him in the elections four years ago.
But the very real prospect of Trump becoming a convicted felon — and potentially facing prison time — casts an unprecedented layer of uncertainty on an already unpredictable election.
Jury selection
The trial begins with the selection of the twelve jurors who will have the responsibility of unanimously declaring the tycoon “guilty” or “not guilty”, a process that can take several days.
The twelve finalists and six substitutes will be selected after answering a thorough questionnaire about their political sympathies in a city with a majority Democratic heart and, above all, about their impartiality and ability to define the fate of one of the most influential politicians in the United States. recent times, both in the United States and in the world.
The millionaire is accused of 34 falsifications of accounting documents of the Trump Organization to camouflage as “legal expenses” the payments made to Stormy Daniels, which were advanced out of his pocket by Trump’s then lawyer and trusted man, Michael Cohen, currently a sworn enemy and who will be one of the key witnesses for the prosecution.
“A lot at stake”
This is one of the many open fronts of the New York magnate who amassed his fortune in the real estate sector and the construction of golf courses that he denounces as being the victim of “a witch hunt.”
It will probably be the only trial to be held before the November 5 elections, despite lawyers’ attempts to delay its holding.
The Republican candidate also has other trials pending for trying to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election and his management of classified documents that he took home when he left the White House.
“The stakes are high, because Trump and his lawyers have so far managed to delay the (other) trials,” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told AFP.
But far from impacting his brilliant career for the presidency, each problem with the law seems to reinforce his popularity among his followers.
On Saturday night, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump again declared himself a victim of judicial and political persecution by Democrats.
“Our enemies want to take away my freedom because I will never let them take away theirs,” he told his followers.
Trump assured that he will testify at the trial, which could last between six and eight weeks.
The Manhattan court, in southern New York, is under maximum alert. Demonstrations are expected from both followers and opponents of the former tycoon, as well as media from around the world.
Unlike other states, television cameras are not authorized in New York courts, so only the written press will report on the development of this trial, which arouses great interest.