TRUMP. Donald Trump is seriously considering running for president in the United States. The former head of state should declare his candidacy for 2024 in a few days.
“I will very very very likely do it again!” It is in these terms that Donald Trump announced that he was seriously considering declaring himself a candidate for the United States presidential election in 2024. And a date of formalization would even already be considered, we learn this Friday November 4, 2022. The info is signed by the very conservative American channel newsmaxwhich is favored by the former American president, but also byAxios, a news site launched by former Politico journalists. According to these two sources, the septuagenarian could announce that he is launching the race for the White House on Monday November 14, 2022, two years from the ballot, scheduled for November 5, 2024.
The day before, Thursday, November 3, during a trip to Iowa, Donald Trump left little doubt about his ambitions for a return to power. If for several weeks, he had been trying out easily decipherable clues about his desire to run for the presidency of the country, the billionaire could not have been clearer in his last speech: “In order to make our country prosperous, safe and glorious, I will very very probably do it again, okay? But very very very probably!” The former head of state brought out his speech, already used in many meetings in recent weeks, in which he says he “ran twice, I won twice and I did much better the second time than the first, getting millions more votes in 2020 than in 2016 – and likewise, getting more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far”, still not acknowledging defeat in the face of to Joe Biden.
donald trump court cases
The images had marked the whole world. January 6, 2021 was to be the day of the official proclamation of the results of the American presidential election. A little more than two months after the voters vote, Joe Biden’s victory was to be officially ratified on Capitol Hill, located in Washington, where the country’s two parliamentary chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, are grouped. But that day, nothing went as planned. Contesting the results from the day of the vote, Donald Trump’s camp demonstrated in front of the center of legislative power on January 6. But very quickly, excesses took place with supporters of the outgoing president who invaded the site with the aim of preventing the certification of the results. A real assault, similar to an insurrection, which turns tragic: four demonstrators lose their lives, as well as a policeman. Held as the main responsible for these riots, what role did Donald Trump really play on January 6, 2021? A parliamentary commission of inquiry manages to clarify the file.
A call to unite and a combative speech
Originally, this rally of supporters of Donald Trump also contesting the results of the presidential election was initiated by the American president. The latter had called for a rally under the name of “Save America March”, he who has always alleged electoral fraud and filed dozens of appeals, all rejected. Initially, protesters gather at The Ellipse Park, behind the White House. Around noon, Donald Trump speaks in public and calls for a march to the Capitol, located 2.5 km away, “to peacefully, patriotically make between your voices.” But this term “peacefully” is drowned in the middle of a much more combative speech, during which he called for “stopping[er] the theft (of the election, according to him, editor’s note)” and to “fight[re] like a devil.” “If you don’t fight like a devil, you will no longer have a country”, he had launched. The demonstrators then left in the direction of the Capitol and began to invade the site.
A “premeditated” plan by Donald Trump
According to the parliamentary commission of inquiry responsible for shedding light on the assault on the Capitol, Donald Trump is “the central cause of January 6”, she estimated Thursday, October 13, 2022. “He was personally and in a way involved in all of this,” said Liz Cheney, chair of the commission. The former president of the United States would have established “a premeditated plan of the president to declare his victory, whatever the true result”, added Zoe Lofgren, another member of the commission. “His intention was clear, ignore the rule of law and stay in power,” said Adam Kinzinger, also a member of the commission.
What is Donald Trump risking?
Never before heard by the commission, Donald Trump was summoned to appear before this political body. Because it’s not a court proceeding, the former president can absolutely refuse to appear, even though it’s a federal offense. The American billionaire should take legal action to try not to have to answer the questions of the nine parliamentarians who make up the commission. At this stage, and only within the framework of this commission of inquiry, Donald Trump does not risk anything criminally.
On the other hand, in parallel, the American justice opened an investigation into the assault on the Capitol. An ultra-sensitive file that is moving forward discreetly, given the political dimension of the subject. However, the American Minister of Justice had indicated that “no one is above the law in this country”, thus implying that Donald Trump could be charged according to the elements collected. “We must hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election,” he said in July 2022, as reported by the Swiss News Agency. Keystone-ATS.
In addition to cases related to the assault on the Capitol and suspicions of tax evasion, Donald Trump is also accused of a rape, which was allegedly committed in the 1990s. If the complaint was filed in 2019, the file emerges because of the decision of a judge obliging the former president of the United States to make his statement in the coming days, he who wishes to postpone this act, certainly after the mid-term elections, organized on November 8.
The case broke out on June 21, 2019. Donald Trump, then President of the United States, was accused of rape by Elizabeth Jean Carroll. According to the story of this columnist for the magazine Shethe billionaire would have sexually assaulted her in a fitting room of the luxury store Bergdorf Goodman, a department store in New York, in late 1995 or early 1996.
“As the cabin door closes, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall and presses his mouth to my lips. I’m surprised and I push him away and laugh again. He grabs me both arm and pushes me against the wall again, runs his hand under my dress and pulls down my pantyhose. The next moment, still dressed in his suit, he opens his raincoat, undoes his fly, forcefully touches my private parts with his fingers, and penetrates me with his penis, completely or halfway – I’m not sure anymore. We struggle hard. I wear 10 cm heels, and I try to crush his foot. I finally manage to push away with my knee, open the door and run out,” said the complainant, now 78, to the New York Magazine.
For his part, Donald Trump had defended himself by evoking “a completely false and unrealistic story, which resurfaces 25 years after having allegedly taken place (at the time of the press release, in 2019, editor’s note), and which was invented to tarnish the president’s reputation.
Donald Trump accused of tax evasion
On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, New York State Attorney General Letitia James gave a press conference to announce the filing of charges for financial fraud. “The lawsuit alleges that Donald Trump, with the help of his children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, and senior executives of the Trump Organization (his company, editor’s note), falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to his company on terms more favorable than those that would otherwise have been offered to the company,” she explained, adding that the move was intended to obtain better insurance at lower prices but also to win tax reductions. The 222-page report helps uncover that “from 2011 through 2021, Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization knowingly and intentionally created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on his annual financial statements to defraud financial institutions.”
What is Donald Trump accused of?
If the report thus evokes more than 200 financial frauds of Donald Trump, some are iconic because they concern flagship properties of the former American president:
- His home in Mar-a-Lago: located in Florida (southern United States), on the Atlantic coast, one hour north of Miami, the residence was valued at 739 million dollars against… 75 million in reality. The difference would be linked to the residential development potential of the land, an idea finally abandoned by Donald Trump;
- A triplex in the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue: on one of New York’s most famous thoroughfares, Donald Trump built the headquarters of his company, the Trump Tower. Inside, a triplex whose declared surface has been… tripled: 2790m² announced against 1020m² in reality. Enough to increase an estimate, eccentric, to 327 million dollars.
- The building at 40 Wall Street: still in New York, not far from the American stock exchange, the building located at 40 Wall Street is the property of Donald Trump. According to the investigation of the Attorney General of New York, it was valued by an independent expert from a bank at 220 million dollars in 2012, an amount jumping to… 735 million dollars in 2015, according to Donald Trump. The reason ? Appraisals then distorted by a firm that applied a distorted and particularly high rental rate of return to the building.
- A golf course in Scotland: the case had not failed to be publicized. In 2020, Donald Trump aimed to extend a golf course located in a peaceful Scottish village, on the shores of the North Sea. A site that he had valued at 327 million dollars in 2014. An amount based at 80% on the value generated by the construction and rental of 2,500 houses, when he had only obtained an agreement for less than 1500 houses.
- A golf course in Florida: a few kilometers north of his residence in Florida, Donald Trump acquired a golf course in 2012 for $5 million. But, a year later, the new owner valued his property at… 62 million dollars. How ? In the United States, members of golf clubs deposit a membership deposit (several thousand euros) which must be returned to the member after 30 years. This financial manna represented 41 million dollars. Donald Trump included it in the golf valuation when it cannot be grouped to the value of the site. Moreover, the latter was overstated due to the use of the “Trump” brand.
- A former post office in Washington: the real estate magnate had won a lease in 2013 to operate the former post office in the American capital and transform it into a hotel. For this, he had then contracted a loan of 170 million dollars from Deutsche Bank, granted thanks to fraudulent documents. But in 2022, he sold his lease for $375 million. The net profit pocketed during this operation would be 100 million dollars.
What is Donald Trump risking? Can he go to jail?
A civil lawsuit has been filed in New York State Supreme Court by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. If the magistrate does not require a prison sentence against Donald Trump, she claims 250 million dollars in compensation, as well as the prohibitions to manage a company against her and those of the Trump children, in the State of New -York, and to apply for a five-year loan in that same state.