NY. The judge in the historic trial of Donald Trump this Monday threatened the former president with jail if he continues to violate his order that prohibits him from speaking ill of witnesses, the jury and court staff in public.
In addition, he imposed a new fine of $1,000, which is added to other sanctions for nine previous violations of the court order that prohibits him from referring to anything related to the trial on his social networks. In his ruling, the judge warns him that because this is the tenth time the court has found him guilty of disobeying his orders, “it seems clear that fines will not be enough to deter the defendant from violating legal orders.” .
“As much as I don’t want to impose a prison sentence on you… I want you to understand that I will do it,” warned Judge Juan Merchan at the beginning of the third week of the trial of the first former president in the history of the United States to sit on the bench. .
On this occasion, Trump is fined for criticizing in an interview the speed (one week) with which the jury was chosen and its supposed composition in a predominantly Democratic city.
Trump, a 77-year-old Republican, is accused of 34 falsifications of business documents to reimburse his then personal lawyer Michael Cohen for paying $130,000 to buy the silence of former porn actress Stormy Daniels a few days before the 2016 election that he won against the Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who became a sworn enemy of his former boss, are expected to testify at some point in the Manhattan Superior Court courtroom where the trial is being held. .
Throughout the first two weeks, several witnesses paraded on the stand who exposed the goings-on to try to hide potentially negative news for the presidential campaign of the New York real estate magnate, who aspires to win the presidential elections next November.
But perhaps one of the most damaging for Trump was the testimony of his former close advisor Hope Hicks, who on Friday explained how she had to manage the “crisis” when a recording came to light in which the magnate boasted that someone famous like him He could do anything to conquer women, touch their genitals without them flinching.
Former President Trump Holds Super Tuesday Event At Mar-A-Lago This is the tenth time that Donald Trump has been found guilty of disobeying court orders.
(WIN MCNAMEE/Getty Images via AFP)
‘Crisis’ for Trump’s image
Hicks admitted that she was “a little dazed” by that recording called “Access Hollywood.” “We all agreed that the tape was damaging, it was a crisis,” said Hicks, who was a key player in the final stages of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, when payments to Daniels were allegedly made.
According to prosecutors, the panic over the recording triggered an effort by the Trump campaign to silence Daniels, who threatened to make public an alleged extramarital relationship she had with the magnate in 2006, and which he has always denied. The payment itself is not a crime. But Trump is accused of disguising it as legal expenses for his lawyer.
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In the middle of the election campaign, Trump considers himself the victim of a “witch hunt” and a legal conspiracy by the Democrats with current President Joe Biden at the helm, to prevent him from making his long-awaited return to the White House.
In addition to the New York case, Trump has been accused in Washington and Georgia of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Biden won, and of taking highly secret documents to his Florida home that could compromise state security upon completion. his presidency in 2021.
