That would be unprecedented for a former US president. Donald Trump warned on Saturday March 18 that he expected to be charged on Tuesday in a case involving a payment to buy the silence of a pornographic actress. The 2024 presidential candidate called on his supporters to protest, putting law enforcement on high alert.
On Sunday, the former host of the White House denounced on his social network Truth Social a “witch hunt”, and was offended that a prosecutor who exercised “during the greatest wave of violent crimes in history of New York” could “harass, indict, and prosecute a former President of the United States”. Update on this case.
What do we blame Donald Trump for?
The former American president is worried in the so-called “Stormy Daniels” case. In question, 130,000 dollars paid to this actress and director of pornographic films, Stephanie Clifford of her real name. The New York justice accuses her of having bought her silence in the weeks preceding the 2016 presidential election so that she silences a supposed extramarital relationship and thus does not harm the candidate Trump.
In this case, justice seeks to determine whether the American billionaire was guilty of false declarations, which is an offense, or of breach of the laws on electoral financing, which is a crime.
Will he be charged?
The former US president assured it himself on Saturday: he could be “arrested” on Tuesday in what his lawyer Susan Necheles denounced to AFP as “political prosecution” by the state prosecutor. of New York for the district of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.
The possibility of such an indictment suddenly grew closer with the acceleration of the investigation: at the beginning of the week, a former lawyer for Donald Trump who proceeded with the payment of the sum, Michael Cohen, and Stephanie Clifford took turns were heard, then Donald Trump himself was, according to the American press, invited to testify before a grand jury, in other words a panel of citizens endowed with broad investigative powers.
However, “the prosecutors almost never invite the target of the investigation to testify before the grand jury unless they intend to indict him”, explained to AFP the professor of law and former prosecutor Bennett Gershman.
According to former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, even if the billionaire is charged, it is likely that Donald Trump will voluntarily go to court, where he could be placed under arrest. If the prosecution decides to indict the former president, a court meeting would be agreed between the prosecutors and his lawyers so that he can be served with any charges against him.
“He would probably not come to court through the front door”, for security reasons and to avoid making it “a spectacle”, judge with AFP Robert McDonald, professor of criminal law at the University of New Haven and former member of the Secret Service, the American agency responsible for protecting high American personalities. “We would then take his fingerprints, we would register him,” Renato Mariotti explained on Twitter on Saturday, in particular by taking the famous American mugshots. Then, after appearing before a judge, he would come out of court free after paying any bail.
But the former American president has a sense of the unpredictable and the spectacular: some wonder if Donald Trump could thus refuse to surrender, challenging the office of Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg to arrest him.
Even if it would not prevent Donald Trump from remaining a candidate for the presidency, the explosive nature of such a judicial decision could have uncertain consequences for the campaign by putting him in difficulty against his Republican rivals, or on the contrary by stimulating his base.
What will be the safety device?
Fears have emerged after Donald Trump’s call for demonstrations on Saturday. He called on his supporters to “save America” and “protest”. A few hours after his first publication on Saturday, Donald Trump renewed his call: “We must save America, demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate!!!”
The memory of the violence that followed similar messages from him on January 6, 2021, during the attack on the Capitol, is in everyone’s mind. The forces of order, from the federal level (FBI) to that of the New York police, have been coordinating since last week with a view to an indictment of the ex-president, in order to ward off possible unrest, according to CNN and NBC, citing unnamed sources.
For the time being, the authorities have not announced that they anticipate large-scale demonstrations. An organization of young Republicans, the Young Republican Club, is calling for a “peaceful protest” on Monday in lower Manhattan Island, where the court is located. It is in particular in front of this judicial building that the police foresee the possibility of clashes, between possible pro and anti-Trump demonstrators, according to CNN.
In Washington, where hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump had launched an assault on the American Congress in full certification of the victory of Joe Biden, the police “are not aware” of planned demonstrations but “will continue to monitor” the situation and will coordinate with the FBI “to ensure the safety of residents and visitors”, according to an AFP spokesperson.
What were the political reactions?
Republican tenors denounced Sunday a “political” relentlessness against Donald Trump. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, denounced an “abuse of power” on the part of Alvin Bragg.
Even former Vice President Mike Pence, who nevertheless distanced himself from Donald Trump after his supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, lent his support to the billionaire. The lawsuits are “politically motivated”, judged his former right-hand man on Sunday, who himself has ambitions for 2024 and therefore takes care of his image with the Republican base. He said he was “dismayed” at the idea that a former president could be charged by this prosecutor in the midst of a “crime wave in New York”. “Americans have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble,” he added.
On the Democratic side, such a defense was deemed irresponsible. Mike Pence places “his ambition above the general interest” by “attacking potential lawsuits against Donald Trump and defending a call to demonstrate”, tackled on Twitter the elected of the House Adam Schiff, former member of the parliamentary commission that investigated the assault on the Capitol.
“There is no reason to demonstrate,” said Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. “This is about justice working as it should, without fear or privilege for anyone.” The elected Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who presided over the House of Representatives on January 6, 2021, described Donald Trump’s statements as “dangerous”. “It will be important for law enforcement to pay attention to these protests and ensure that they do not reach the level of violence” of January 6, said Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly , who replied in the affirmative to a journalist asking him if he was worried.