Criminal prosecutions of former presidents have often been related to bribery and corruption.
21:45•Updated 22:03
Former President of the United States Donald Trump’s the 2016 election campaign was in full swing when the adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels was allegedly paid $130,000 by the candidate’s attorney at the time From Michael Cohen.
Daniels, real name Stephanie Cliffordsays the payment was in exchange for not talking about the relationship she allegedly had with Trump in 2011.
Trump’s term as President of the United States has come and gone, Cohen has been convicted of a crime, but the possible payment to Clifford is back in the headlines. Although paying to remain silent is not illegal in itself, Trump is suspected of labeling the payment as his company’s legal fees, which would be a lie.
For this crime, Trump has recently been told that he will soon be charged with a crime.
Although this is the first criminal indictment of a president in the United States, prosecutions of former heads of state are not uncommon in other parts of the world.
France’s Nicolas Sarkozy
In 2010, suspicions emerged that Nicolas Sarkozy, who served as French president from 2007 to 2012, had received illegal election support from the heir to the L’Oreal cosmetics brand.
When the former president was detained for questioning in 2014, he went off the rails after trying to bribe a French appeals court judge to reveal information about the ongoing investigation. In return for the information, Sarkozy promised the judge a job in Monaco.
In March 2021, Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in prison for bribing a judge. The judge and Sarkozy’s lawyer also received sentences in the case.
In September of the same year, Sarkozy received a second sentence related to the illegal financing of his 2012 election campaign. As part of the campaign, Sarkozy organized spectacular, the Guardian’s “American-style” characteristics (you switch to another service) occasions due to which his election budget exceeded the allowed limit of 22.5 million euros. The final price of the campaign was 42.8 million.
Also Sarkozy’s predecessor, the former president of France Jacques Chirachas been convicted of corruption.
Park Geun-hye of South Korea
In November 2016, huge protests started all over South Korea when the information that the then president Park Geun-hye from the corruption scandal began to trickle into the public’s consciousness.
In addition to President Park, who has been in office since 2013, the accusations focused on her friends Choi Soon-sil.
Together, the friends procured tens of millions of dollars in donations from major corporations such as Samsung to organizations managed by Choi. Park also pressured companies to enter into contracts with companies owned by Choi and for a year to give him confidential government documents, says (you switch to another service) BBC.
In 2018, Geun-hye was sentenced to 24 years in prison for taking bribes and abuse of power, but was pardoned in 2021.
Brazil’s Lula da Silva
Former and current president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva In 2017, he was sentenced to almost ten years in prison for corruption. A total of five criminal charges were brought against him in the so-called car wash scandal.
Lula’s sentence came from a case in which the court found that he accepted more than one million euros worth of bribes from an engineering firm, in return for which he arranged contracts with the state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro.
In 2021, however, the Supreme Court of Brazil overturned Lula’s sentence and he was freed in time to challenge the then president Jair Bolsonaro in last year’s elections. Lula resumed the presidency in January.
News updated on March 23, 2023 at 10:03 p.m. Detailed information on Trump’s possible charges.