Donald Trump? “Guilty.” » One word, just one, with global resonance. A word that speaks both of the vitality of a state of law, put to the test, and of the unprecedented challenge that looms for American democracy in an election year. Two syllables, pronounced 34 times for 34 facts and forming the word ” guilty “, resounding in the Manhattan criminal court at the end of the day, Thursday, May 30. Donald Trump makes American history. He is the first former president convicted in a criminal case for falsifying accounting documents.
Many commentators had commented and expressed doubts about this issue with its old facts, mixing sex, tabloids and checks. However, it resulted in a unanimous decision by the jurors, with impressive diligence, after approximately eleven hours of deliberations spread over two days. The afternoon progressed on this Thursday, without any particular events, when Judge Juan Merchan announced that he was going to send the twelve citizens home at 4:30 p.m. The magistrate went away, as at the theater, then returned shortly after . He had just received a note. “We, the jurors, have a verdict. » It took another 30 minutes to carefully fill out the official decision form. “Let there be no eruption or exclamation,” demanded Juan Merchan in advance. Donald Trump remained silent, impassive.
On Wednesday, after receiving the final instructions from the magistrate – a remarkable mountain guide during this high-risk trial – the seven men and five women with protected identities withdrew to deliberate. After a few hours, they asked for very specific details, in writing. They particularly concerned a key moment, in 2015, when the alliance of interests was forged between Donald Trump and David Pecker, the boss of the tabloid The National Inquirer. The newspaper had to identify possible embarrassing revelations for the candidate, buy the exclusivity of these stories and suppress them.
This system, explained the deputy prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, during his indictment, was “one of the most valuable contributions anyone has made to the Trump campaign”perhaps even “what allowed Trump to be elected”. Michael Cohen, the candidate’s personal lawyer, paid $130,000 to former pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 presidential election. He was reimbursed by checks in 2017, disguised in the accounts of the Trump Organization.
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