Donald Trump will be tried on criminal charges from mid-April in New York, a historic first for a former American president, who on Monday benefited from a financial respite on appeal in another civil trial which saw him sentenced to a half a billion dollars in fines.
In an electric atmosphere at the Manhattan criminal court, the former tenant of the White House who dreams of returning there, looking sullen and visibly exasperated, clashed with judge Juan Merchan who decided that the case of payments to a pornographic actress in 2016 would be judged from April 15.
“I don’t understand how we can have a trial in the middle of an election. It’s unfair,” protested the Republican candidate in the November election to the press in his Wall Street building.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James (c) during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization, January 11, 2024 in New York / Seth Wenig / POOL/AFP/Archives
But Judge Merchan made it clear in the courtroom that he would not again adjourn this criminal trial which was initially scheduled to begin this Monday.
Mr. Trump is accused in this case of having disguised the accounts of his real estate group Trump Organization to reimburse his former lawyer who became his sworn enemy, Michael Cohen, whom he had asked to pay $130,000 to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, just before the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump denies having had sexual relations in 2006 with this woman, real name Stephanie Clifford, who allegedly received this sum to keep their affair quiet while the businessman was already remarried to Melania Trump.
First judicial history
Such a criminal trial will be a historic first for a former president of the United States. In this case, the real estate magnate is charged with 34 accounting frauds punishable by a maximum sentence of four years in prison in the most serious cases.
The legal setbacks of Donald Trump / Olivia BUGAULT, Sophie RAMIS / AFP
But, underlines to AFP the law professor at the University of Virginia (east), Carl Tobias, Donald “Trump has already said that he will appeal which risks further pushing back the date of April 15.”
Indicted in four criminal cases and already sentenced to very heavy fines in two civil trials, Donald Trump, however, received good financial news on Monday from the New York justice system.
An appeals court reduced the legal bond he must provide to $175 million within ten days to guarantee payment of a total of $464 million in fines and interest to which he and his sons Eric and Don Jr. were convicted in February of financial fraud within the Trump Organization.
Bail of 175 million
Mr. Trump said he “deeply respects the appeal decision” and assured that he would deposit “$175 million in cash, bonds or stocks, or whatever is necessary, very quickly, within ten days.”
The entrance to Trump Tower in New York, March 21, 2024 / ANGELA WEISS / AFP
He had until Monday to provide this guarantee under penalty of seeing the Attorney General of the State of New York Letitia James – who has been pursuing him since 2022 and had him sentenced on February 16 by the new judge. Yorkist Arthur Engoron — start freezing his accounts and seizing his real estate.
Such as the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue or a building on Wall Street.
Mr. Trump continued until Monday morning to denigrate magistrates James and Engoron, “racist” for one, “corrupt” for the other, and in the hands of the “democrat clique” of President Joe Biden , according to his messages on his Truth Social network.
His trials are “a witch hunt and a hoax,” he exclaimed again as he entered the courtroom of Manhattan Criminal Court.
A seizure of his real estate would sound like a real “humiliation”, according to Professor Carl Tobias, and his “image (…) as a successful billionaire” would be tarnished according to Andrew Weissmann, former federal prosecutor and author of a book on the indictments of the former president (2017-2021).
Donald Trump boasted Friday of having “nearly $500 million in cash, a significant portion of which was intended to be used in (his) campaign” against Joe Biden.
He also benefited from a breath of financial oxygen on Friday with a green light for the IPO of his media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which should bring him billions of dollars.
These latest events should increase his fortune by more than 4 billion dollars according to Bloomberg, allowing him to reach 6.4 billion and thus become one of the 500 richest men on the planet.
