the new threat of “incarceration” hanging over the ex-president – ​​L’Express

the new threat of incarceration hanging over the ex president –

Judicial pressure that is intensifying for Donald Trump… because of his verbal violence. The judge presiding over the proceedings at Donald Trump’s “Stormy Daniels” criminal trial in New York once again threatened the former American president this Monday, May 6 of “incarceration”. The cause ? Having again violated his ban on verbally attacking witnesses and jurors.

Judge Juan Merchan fined him another $1,000 “for violating his order by making public comments about the jury and how it was selected,” according to his written decision, and warned him that future offenses would be “punishable by incarceration.” Last week, the judge had already fined him $9,000, or $1,000 per offense, for publicly attacking witnesses and jurors on the sidelines of his trial, and threatening to send him to prison in the event of a repeat offense.

The jurors ? “Undercover progressive activists”

Since the start of this unprecedented trial for a former American president on April 15, prosecutors had requested that Donald Trump be sanctioned for his repeated violations of the ban on attacking key witnesses in the case, notably published on its social network “Truth Social” or its campaign site. Among the targets of the former American president, we find in particular his former lawyer Michael Cohen, now a sworn enemy and described as a “serial liar” or the jurors, whom he implies are not impartial and “democrats 95%. Donald Trump notably adopted the comments of Jesse Watters, a prominent host of the conservatives’ favorite channel Fox News, assuring without proof that “they are choosing infiltrated progressive activists who lie to the judge to be part of of the jury”. The day after this publication, a juror threw in the towel, saying she feared being recognized.

READ ALSO: 4,000 trials in 40 years: how Donald Trump uses the courts to destroy his opponents

The Republican candidate in the November election against the outgoing Democratic president faces conviction and, in theory, up to prison time in this case, one of four criminal proceedings in which he is charged. He is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents which allegedly served to conceal the payment of $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels in the home stretch of the 2016 presidential election, which he won narrowly. to Hillary Clinton.

This sum was used to buy her silence about a fleeting sexual relationship that she claimed to have had with the real estate mogul in 2006, when he was already married to his current wife, Melania. A relationship that Donald Trump denies.

Trump compares Biden administration to Gestapo

Donald Trump has made a series of controversial remarks since the start of his trial. Not only against the parties involved in the legal proceedings, but also against Joe Biden, whom he accuses of exploiting justice in order to prevent him from leading his campaign for the American presidency.

READ ALSO: Donald Trump: what if he ended up broke?

Thus, the American media reported this weekend that the former Republican president had compared the Biden administration to the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi Germany. In front of an audience of Republican executives and donors, their candidate for the November election thus accused the Democrats on Saturday of “running a Gestapo administration”, and once again vilified the prosecutors who are investigating the cases against him, according to the remarks. cited by the media.

Comments immediately denounced by the White House and Joe Biden’s campaign team. “Instead of echoing the appalling rhetoric of fascists, lunching with neo-Nazis, and fueling debunked conspiracy theories that have cost the lives of brave police officers, President Biden is rallying the American people around of our shared democratic values ​​and the rule of law,” said Andrew Bates, White House spokesman. The climate of the American presidential campaign, which is due to end on November 5, should once again not be particularly serene and peaceful.

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