Donald Trump asked the New York courts this Monday, March 11, 2024, to postpone his historic criminal trial by at least one month, from March 25, in a case of payments to an adult film actress, reports theFrance Media Agency. The lawyers of the former President of the United States invoke the argument of his criminal immunity which will be debated by the Federal Supreme Court in Washington from April 25.
According to a court document dated March 7 and made public this Monday by the Supreme Court (trial court, editor’s note) of the State of New York for the jurisdiction of Manhattan, this “court should adjourn the trial pending Supreme Court consideration of the scope of the doctrine of presidential immunity”indicates theAFP.
On March 6, the highest court of the United States set April 25 for the debates of the nine supreme judges on the criminal immunity invoked by Donald Trump as former president (2017-2021), after having taken up on February 28 of this highly sensitive issue eight months before the presidential election. Targeted by four criminal proceedings, the 77-year-old Republican candidate is seeking through multiple appeals to go to trial as late as possible, in any case after the November 5 election, recalls theAFP.
Prosecuted for fraud and “conspiracy against the State”
Donald Trump is due to appear in criminal court in New York on March 25 – a first for a former American president – for a case of payments to a former pornographic film star, Stormy Daniels. The New York prosecutor in Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, is prosecuting him for 34 accounting frauds punishable by a maximum sentence of four years in prison if the former tenant of the White House is found guilty. The courts could, however, impose an alternative sentence and not send him behind bars.
Donald Trump, who pleads not guilty, is accused of having disguised the accounts of his real estate empire Trump Organization to conceal $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, just before the November 2016 presidential election. according to the prosecution, that she kept silent about an alleged sexual relationship in 2006 when he was already married to Melania Trump. Donald Trump denies any relationship with Stephanie Clifford.
As pointed out byAFP, Donald Trump has already managed to postpone a federal criminal trial in Washington scheduled to begin on March 4 for “conspiracy against the American state”, i.e. his illicit attempts, notably on January 6, 2021, to reverse the results of the November 2020 election won by Joe Biden. The procedure is suspended while the question of presidential criminal immunity is decided by the Supreme Court.