Hear
After the ruling that declared former President of the United States, Donald Trump, guilty of accounting fraud charges for 34 crimes of falsifying accounting documents to cover up a sex scandal, Stormy Daniels -the woman who reported him for bribery- spoke for the first time. “I think he should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate, or being a volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter“, he said on Saturday in an interview with the British newspaper Daily Mirror.
The former actress, screenwriter and director of pornographic films – whose real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford – He confessed that in 2006 he had a sexual encounter with Trump, when he was already married to his current wife, Melania, something that he always denied. Due to this, in the final stretch of the campaign that later established him as president in 2016, the business magnate he would have falsified a series of documents to hide the payment of US$130,000 that he made to the victim to prevent him from telling what happened and causing a “sexual scandal”.
“Standing in court was very intimidating for me, with the jurors looking at me. As I always said, I told the truth all the time,” said the 45-year-old woman and continued: “This is not over for me. For me, this will never end,” said the woman, who maintained that even if Trump is found guilty, She has to live forever with this “legacy”.
This was the first interview Daniels gave since the New York jury found the 77-year-old Republican guilty on Thursday, calling the trial against him “unfair.” Likewise, after being released without bail after this week’s hearing, it was learned that Trump could be sentenced to four years in prison for each chargebut he will most likely be sentenced to probation, since he has no record.
Despite having a conviction against him, He is not disqualified from continuing his electoral campaign for November of this yeareven in the -quite unlikely- event that he goes to jail.
Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges brought against him by prosecutors. The judge who handled the case, Juan Manuel Merchanset the date to announce his sentence next July 11days before the start of the Republican National Conventionin Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On the day of the trial, and after a quick deliberation, the jury announced its unanimous verdict, putting an end to the criminal trial – the first in Trump’s long judicial record – for the payment of surreptitious money, an outcome that comes in the middle of a new presidential campaign in the United States, in which Trump will once again face Joe Biden, who defeated him in 2020.
In total, the Prosecutor’s Office said that 11 checks were issued for false purposes. Nine of those checks were signed by Trump. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization, “and illegally disguised as payment for legal services provided pursuant with a non-existent retention agreement,” indicated the Prosecutor’s Office. “The accused Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal plot to corrupt the 2016 presidential elections. He then covered up that criminal conspiracy and lied in his New York business records over and over again,” said prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, at the beginning of the trial.
Trump and his lawyers announced that they will appeal the decision, but in any case the tycoon must comply with the sentence given to him by Merchan while this process lasts. The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison, but since this is the first time Trump has been convicted of a criminal offense and because of his age, it is unlikely that he will have to serve the sentence.
In addition, The former head of state faces three other legal cases. Two of them were presented by the Department of Justice: one for having taken classified documents from the White House, something prohibited by federal law; and another for his role in the assault on Congress on January 6, 2021 and his subsequent false accusations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The third case is based in the state of Georgia, and has to do with an alleged “election interference“ due to his efforts to try to reverse his loss against Biden. Due to procedural obstacles and delays, it is unlikely that any of these cases will reach oral trial before the elections scheduled for next November 5.
THE NATION
