“A conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential elections” by buying the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy bunny Karen McDougal – with whom he had affairs ten years earlier – as well as that of a Trump Tower doorman who threatened to reveal his alleged illegitimate child. It is the accusing castle contested by Donald Trump in a historic hearing in the Manhattan court, the first former American president to end up under criminal investigation and under arrest, even if he was spared the handcuffs and the mugshot he wanted to use as a poster electoral. “Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified corporate documents in New York to cover up criminal behavior aimed at hiding compromising information from voters during the 2016 election,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg explained at a press conference, revealing the 34 counts: all crimes, even if class E, the lowest level, with a maximum penalty of 4 years in prison. “We cannot and do not want to normalize serious criminal conduct, everyone is equal before the law,” he added, recalling that Trump reimbursed those payments to his handyman lawyer Michael Cohen as fictitious “legal expenses”, with checks signed in the Oval office. Even before appearing in the highly armored Manhattan court, Trump had swiped (social) left and right: against a “partisan judge” who “hates me”, a “show trial” to be moved to a non-hostile neighborhood like Staten Island ( the only one from the Big Apple who voted for him in 2016 and 2020, ed), a “witch hunt” ordered by Joe Biden and the ruling Democratic Party “which today arrests its main opponent for not having committed any crime “. “Democrats on the radical left have criminalized the use of the justice system, this is not what America should be,” he attacked in Truth. As soon as she left Trump Tower – where Melania also arrived – the former president wrote another live message: “I’m heading to court, it seems so surreal – Wow, they’re going to arrest me. I can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGICA!”. Then, raising his fist in a sign of struggle, he reached the courthouse in a procession of Secret Service cars, in front of which hundreds of his supporters and hundreds of his enemies faced each other for hours with slogans and insults, but without the dreaded accidents. ‘Use, Use’. ‘Trump 2024’, the chants of the fans who flocked to the gathering of young Republicans, including the controversial deputies Marjorie Taylor Greene and George Santos. ‘Lock him up’, the response of the anti-Trumps, also armed with placards with the tycoon in a prisoner’s striped uniform: to divide them, in Collect Pond Park, barricades and a police cordon. The Donald then entered the Palace of Justice from the back for the ritual protocol, without TV in the courtroom (prohibited by the judge) but with an authorized handful of photographers who immortalized him in the dock with three agents behind him in images that toured the world and will go down in history. Before him he went up to the seventh floor for fingerprints, then with a sulky face to the fifteenth for the reading of the 34 charges. “Not guilty”, declared the former president, ready to transform the future trial already set for January 2024 into a political arena, convinced that it will help him mobilize the base and win the Republican nomination for the House White. As for now the latest Reuters / Ipsos poll also confirms, in which Trump rises among the Republicans from 44% to 48% while his main potential rival, the governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, falls from 30% to 19%. However, the uncertainty of the other, much more serious investigations that are pressing him remains. “It’s a sad day, this is political persecution”, commented the former president’s defenders, calling him “frustrated and disappointed”. But he is determined to ride the “witch hunt”, dragging the party with him, forced for now to unite. The duel with his inquisitor has already begun: at the press conference of the prosecutor Alvin Bragg he replies with an evening speech to his Maga people, in the comfort zone of Mar-a-Lago. However, the judge asked the parties to avoid comments that foment unrest or undermine the rule of law, otherwise reserving the right to impose silence on the case on those who transgress: a difficult red line for The Donald to respect.
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