Like any criminal convict, Donald Trump had an interview with the probation services on Monday, a necessary step before the pronouncement of his sentence which could go as far as prison in the case of payments to a former porn star.
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In the middle of the campaign to return to the White House, and the day after a meeting in the heatwave in Las Vegas, Donald Trump, 77, underwent this exercise in New York where the condemned person is traditionally given a series of questions about his legal past, his professional and family situation, and possibly his physical or mental health, a source close to the case told AFP.
According to this source and the CNN channel, the interview lasted half an hour.
“President Trump and his team of lawyers are already taking all necessary measures to challenge and defeat the case of the lawless Manhattan prosecutor,” declared Donald Trump’s campaign director. , Steven Cheung.
Unusually, the interview was to take place by videoconference, from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, and not in person in Manhattan, where the billionaire became the first former president of the United States convicted in a criminal trial, several American media reported.
On May 30, twelve jurors unanimously found Donald Trump guilty of 34 crimes of falsifying accounting documents to hide the $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels at the very end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
This payment, the concealment of which was deemed illegal, was intended to buy her silence about a sexual relationship that she claims to have had with Donald Trump – and which the latter denies – in 2006, when he was already married to his marries Melania.
The interview with the probation services is expected to produce a report for Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial and will set the sentence on July 11.
The offense of falsifying accounting documents can be punished by up to four years in prison in theory, but the judge can choose an alternative such as a suspended sentence with probation, or even community service.
Three days after his conviction, Donald Trump said on Fox News that a prison sentence “would be complicated for the public to accept” and could be “a breaking point” for his supporters.
