After six weeks of debate during the first criminal trial of a former president of the United States, the 12 jurors declared Donald Trump guilty this Thursday, May 30.
It’s a political earthquake. Donald Trump was found guilty this Thursday, May 30, of 34 falsifications of accounting documents linked to porn star Stormy Daniels’ payment in 2016.
The 12 jurors unanimously estimated that the former president tried to hide a payment of $130,000 to the porn actress to avoid a sex scandal at the very end of his 2016 presidential campaign. 77 years old had already become the first former American head of state to be tried in a criminal trial, he is now the first to be convicted.
The judge will pronounce the sentence in several weeks. It could go up to four years in prison, but the magistrate can decide on an alternative sentence, such as a suspended sentence with probation.
“Conspiracy and cover-up”
During a five-hour indictment, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass tried one last time to convince the jurors that behind the accounting falsifications, “the heart of this affair is a conspiracy and a cover-up” to win the November 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton.
According to him, the money was used to buy Stormy Daniels’ silence about a sexual relationship she claims to have had in 2006 with the billionaire, when he was already married to his wife Melania, an episode denied by Donald Trump.
The sum was paid to the actress by Michael Cohen, the businessman and Republican leader’s former confidant.
Once Donald Trump was in the White House, in 2017, Michael Cohen was reimbursed, using, according to the prosecution, false invoices and entries disguised as “legal fees” in the accounts of the Trump Organization , hence the prosecution for accounting falsifications.
An obvious innocence for his lawyers
But for the defense, this thesis does not hold up. Donald Trump, now “leader of the free world” and busy with much more important problems, did not know the details of the paperwork when he paid his lawyer.
According to them, “there was no intention to defraud and no conspiracy to influence” the vote. And the payment to Stormy Daniels was only the result of “extortion” against the Republican candidate.
At the end of a three-hour argument, lawyer Todd Blanche warned the jurors against any temptation to make their verdict a “referendum” for or against Donald Trump, whose return to power some Americans fear.
“If you stick to” the evidence, “it’s a verdict of not guilty, quickly done, well done,” the lawyer concluded.
For his part, before the jury’s deliberation, the judge asked the 12 Americans not to judge the facts based on their “personal opinions”.