Donald Trump walked out of Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Tuesday without any conditions or judicial oversight after his landmark appearance in a case involving alleged accounting fraud and multiple other counts.
In Tuesday's hearing, unprecedented for a former US president, Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg after a five-year investigation.
The 76-year-old former president could stand trial early next year, although he will try to avoid the ordeal before the presidential election, in which he is expected to be a candidate.
Possible trial in January 2024?
Judge Juan Merchan said a trial could begin possibly next January, whereas Trump’s lawyers at the historic hearing preferred the spring of 2024.
Trump is facing 34 counts, mostly linked to payments to cover up three embarrassing affairs before the 2016 election, according to the indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
The indictment, released after Trump’s court appearance, alleges that he “hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” and that he “orchestrated a scheme with others” to influence the election “by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication.”
“These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are,” Bragg said.
Lawyer denounces a "ready-made" indictment
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, denounced a “sad,” “ready-made” indictment and vowed to fight it.
In the crowded courtroom, Donald Trump appeared with a closed face and a stern look. He spent about two hours in the Manhattan courthouse.
The septuagenarian gave an appointment to his followers and his tens of millions of voters for a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence, in Florida, at 8:15 p.m. (02:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Belgian time.)
Surrounded by bodyguards, the former White House occupant had arrived at the courthouse in the early afternoon in a convoy, under very high security, with US news helicopters flying overhead.
Handfuls of activists, for and against...
In front of the courthouse, handfuls of activists for and against Trump, some of them highly colourful, were separated as soon as the first invective broke out — with authorities anxious to prevent the tense situation, already at the heart of exceptional media coverage, from escalating.
His detractors had unfurled a huge “Trump lies all the time” banner.
The billionaire claims his innocence and asserts that he is the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by President Joe Biden’s Democrats who, he claims, “stole” his 2020 presidential “victory.”
Trump case not a priority for Biden
Biden, for his part, had made it known that Trump’s appearance in court was “not a priority” for him, according to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
A New Yorker by birth, Donald Trump spent Monday night in his luxurious ‘Trump Tower’ and had to submit, in court on Tuesday, to the ritual imposed on all defendants: declare his name, age and profession, and perform a fingerprinting. On the other hand, he presumably escaped the notorious ‘mugshot’ – photo – source of much public humiliation for stars in the United States.
The charges he faces include accounting fraud in the October 2016 payout and the subsequent reimbursement of $130,000 paid to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, to make her keep quiet about an alleged and very brief extramarital relationship she maintains they had in 2006 and which Trump denies.
The woman, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been cooperating with the law for five years now. The $130,000 she received from a former lawyer and handyman for the former president, Michael Cohen – who served time in prison and turned on his boss in 2018 – had not been declared in the campaign accounts of presidential candidate Trump in 2016.
Possible violation of New York state election laws
The sum had been recorded, potentially illegally, as “legal fees” in the accounts of his company, the Trump Organization, which was already fined $1.6 million in December and January for fraud.
Trump has also been indicted because he “orchestrated” a series of payments to cover up two other embarrassing cases before the 2016 presidential election, according to the Manhattan prosecutors.
A Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have information about a hidden child was paid $30,000 to keep quiet while a woman who posed as a former mistress was paid $150,000, also to keep quiet, plus the Stormy Daniels matter, Bragg detailed in the indictment statement.
Beyond this case, Donald Trump, who has been impeached twice by Congress, is the target of several other investigations, including his role in the 6 January attack on the Capitol, his handling of presidential records and pressure on election officials in Georgia in the aftermath of the November 2020 elections.
