Accustomed to rowdy statements on “Truth”, the social network of which he himself is at the origin, Donald Trump did it again on Saturday March 18 by publishing a message in capital letters as he is used to. But it has attracted more attention since the former White House tenant talks about his next “arrest” in the course of the current week. Referring to the day of “Tuesday”, the former President of the United States has still not received a visit from the police on Wednesday but could indeed be charged in the “Stormy Daniels” case. This would be a first for a former American head of state.
Buy Silence by Stormy Daniels
It all started in 2006 during a golf tournament on the shores of Lake Tahoe between California and Nevada. Donald Trump attends alongside Stephanie Clifford, an actress and director of pornographic films, better known as Stormy Daniels. On the sidelines of the event, the 45th American president had a sexual relationship with the young woman, then 27 years old. An episode that the interested party will evoke several years later, in 2011, in an interview with the magazine In Touch but which will not be revealed until 2018 due to pressure from Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
In 2016, as the election campaign entered its final sprint, no one heard of this affair between the New York billionaire, candidate for the supreme office, and Stormy Daniels. And to keep this story under the rug, Donald Trump’s lawyer makes a deal with the actress to buy her silence. Results of operations: a payment of 130,000 euros, two weeks before the presidential election, according to the revelations of the wall street journal in 2018.
What about his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election?
Enough to charge the 76-year-old billionaire? Not as such insofar as this type of agreement is not punishable by law. On the other hand, the Trump Organization is suspected of having reimbursed the sum paid to Michael Cohen by passing it off as ordinary legal fees. Which is equivalent, according to American justice, to a disguised donation to the presidential campaign. A maneuver which could also be in violation of the laws in force across the Atlantic concerning the financing of electoral campaigns. And who could then turn the misdemeanor into a crime and earn the billionaire a sentence of up to four years in prison.
Before getting there, the Manhattan prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, must first take up the case and clearly determine the nature of the offense (or crime) committed by Donald Trump. And even in the event of conviction, the person concerned could still seek the Republican nomination for the presidential election of 2024, the judicial time being much longer than the political time. In his defense, Donald Trump is content to deny these accusations en bloc and his lawyers prefer to denounce an attempt at “extortion” on the part of Stormy Daniels with whom the billionaire also refutes any sexual adventure.
As for Michael Cohen, already in the crosshairs of the authorities for the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, he ended up turning against Donald Trump, swearing to have acted under his orders. On the Truth network, in the wake of his sensational announcement, he called on his supporters to show their support and “take back the country”.