(New York) Donald Trump on Friday becomes the first president-designate in the history of the United States to receive a criminal sanction, in the affair of hidden payments to an X-rated movie star, a very symbolic moment that he did everything to avoid before entering the White House.
Until the last day and until the Supreme Court in Washington, the lawyers of the 45e and soon 47e American president have multiplied the appeals by brandishing his past and future presidential immunity, in order to prevent the judge from sanctioning their client.
Thunderclap Thursday evening: the Supreme Court of the United States rejected its final appeal by five votes to four. Of the nine judges who compose it, six are conservative, including three appointed by the Republican.
Thus, with this sentencing by Judge Juan Merchan, more than seven months after being found guilty by a jury of 12 unanimous citizens in a Manhattan criminal court, Donald Trump will enter on January 20, at the age of 78, at the White House with the label of a habitual criminal.
But the burden will be above all symbolic, for the one who escaped any legal consequences in the three other cases in which he had been indicted, including the most serious before the federal courts for his illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election of 2020.
In this case, special prosecutor Jack Smith abandoned the prosecution after the election of Donald Trump on November 5, when the trial had not started.
The future president is not required to appear in person in Manhattan Criminal Court, as the judge granted him the option to appear by video at the hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET.
The magistrate, whom Donald Trump had showered with insults on social networks, also guaranteed that a prison sentence, “impossible to implement”, was excluded for the one who is preparing to govern the leading world power.
“Middle finger”
Juan Merchan indicated that he was inclined to pronounce a waiver of sentence having the effect of confirming the guilt of Donald Trump and thus allowing him to appeal.
“It’s a middle finger (from Donald Trump) to the judge, the jury, and justice,” the former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University told AFP. , Bennett Gershman.
Last spring, the man who was still a presidential candidate had to go almost every day for six weeks to a courtroom with the outdated and summary decor of the criminal court, and attend the debates in this case mixing politics, money and scandal sexual.
The jury found him guilty of 34 counts of accounting falsification to hide from voters the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels at the end of his first victorious campaign in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, whose trial had revealed behind the scenes.
The money was paid to buy the actress’ silence about a sexual relationship she claimed to have had in 2006 with the former real estate mogul, a relationship he has always denied.
Assailed by appeals from lawyers and following a major decision by the Supreme Court on 1er July on presidential immunity, Judge Merchan had to postpone the sentencing several times, from July to September, then to November, after the presidential election.
Donald Trump’s victory triggered a new round of appeals from the defense, but Juan Merchan maintained the sentence.
As in the other cases in which he was prosecuted, Donald Trump presented himself as the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by his political adversaries, a speech that he tirelessly made and of which his supporters were convinced, in a countries where polls show that trust in institutions has significantly eroded in recent years.
