Press
In the USA everything revolves around Donald Trump. He is doing well in the fight for the White House. But what about the judiciary?
Washington, DC – Donald Trump wants to be president again. The chances are actually not that bad. He is currently ahead in polls, and his opponent Joe Biden is considered weakened. But Trump also has problems to contend with. First and foremost, of course, are the charges and trials that will cost him time and money this year. Convictions cannot be ruled out.
Trump faces a total of four charges ahead of the US election in November. The content ranges from the concealment of hush money payments to the storage of secret government files to attempted election fraud and conspiracy against the USA. The following proceedings await Trump, who was the first president in US history to be charged under criminal law:
- State-level indictment in New York: hush money affair
- Federal indictment in Florida: Secret documents affair
- State level indictment in Georgia: Attempted election manipulation
- Federal indictment in Washington, DC: conspiracy against the United States
Indictment against Trump in the New York hush money affair
The first of these trials is scheduled to begin soon in New York. The main background is that Trump had hush money paid to Stormy Daniels in the amount of $130,000 through his lawyer Michael Cohen during the 2016 election campaign. The hush money itself was not illegal. However, the New York District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan accuses Trump of illegally recording the payments, trying to conceal them illegally and using them to cover up other violations of the law. Trump faces lengthy prison sentences for these allegations.
However, the procedure has been postponed again. Prosecutor Alvin Bragg wrote to the responsible judge Juan Merchan on March 14 that they were prepared to start the trial as planned on March 25th, but were also not opposed to a “short adjournment that does not exceed 30 days.” The reason for this are newly arrived documents containing more than 70,000 pages that are relevant to the process and still need to be examined. These could burden Trump even further. On March 15, Judge Merchan ruled that the trial would be postponed for 30 days. An exact new start date has yet to be determined. A hearing is scheduled to take place on March 25 to discuss the matter in more detail.
Indictment against Trump in Florida in the affair involving secret documents from the White House
Trump is charged in federal court in Florida with storing secret government files at his private Mar-a-Lago estate. He is accused of taking numerous documents from the White House at the end of his term in office and hiding them from the reach of the judiciary. Special prosecutor Jack Smith has requested the trial begin on July 8th. If convicted, Trump could also face a long prison sentence in this case.
Trump himself had requested through his lawyers that the lawsuit be dismissed. But Judge Aileen Cannon, appointed by Trump, did not take part. On March 14, she rejected the application, according to US media reports. However, Cannon did not address the other important question she has to decide at the hearing: When should the trial begin? At the beginning of March she suggested that the July date proposed by the prosecution was “unrealistic”. Trump’s lawyers are demanding that the trial should only begin in the distant future. Alternatively, they have mentioned August 12th as a possible date for the start of the trial.
Trump indicted in Georgia for attempted election manipulation
Trump has been charged by the judiciary in the state of Georgia for his attempts to overturn his election defeat against Biden. The charges are based, among other things, on a law against organized crime. In a phone call with Georgia’s election director Brad Raffensperger, Trump demanded, among other things, that he “find” the 11,780 electoral votes necessary for his victory there.
There is also no date for the start of the trial in Georgia. The responsible public prosecutor, Fani Willis, is currently under pressure because of her intimate relationship with the special investigator in charge of the case. She is accused of a conflict of interest. Trump lawyers have asked that Willis be removed from the case and charges dropped. A decision is still pending. On March 13, Judge Scott McAfee rejected six less important points in the indictment. At the same time, he emphasized: “That does not mean that the entire prosecution is invalid.” On March 15, McAfee decided that Willis could continue the investigation. But the prosecutor with whom she had a relationship has to withdraw. He did that immediately.
Indictment of Trump in DC federal court on election conspiracy charges
Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with four counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official process. Among other things, it concerns Trump’s role in the storming of the Washington Capitol in January 2021. He faces prison sentences of up to 20 years each for two of the charges.
The trial in the District of Columbia was scheduled to begin March 4 but was put on hold to await a decision on whether Trump is immune from prosecution. The former president claims “absolute immunity.” That would mean he cannot be prosecuted for actions that occurred during his term in the White House. A federal appeals court had ruled, however, that the office of president does not mean that the officeholder “is above the law for all time thereafter.”
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court recently accepted Trump’s lawyers’ request to address the issue. Even if the conservative camp has a clear majority there, this does not necessarily mean that the court will give all presidents carte blanche to commit crimes in the upcoming ruling of historic dimensions. But Trump is also hoping that the trials against him will be postponed, thereby preventing verdicts before the election.
The verdicts against Donald Trump in civil proceedings
The criminal trials aren’t everything. There are also three judgments in civil proceedings. Trump was fined $355 million (€328 million) for financial fraud. The real estate entrepreneur is said to have artificially inflated the assets of the family empire over the years in order to obtain favorable conditions from banks and insurance companies. Together with the interest due, the penalty amounts to more than 460 million dollars.
In addition, Trump was sentenced to pay a total of around $88 million in two civil lawsuits for sexual abuse and defamation of author E. Jean Carroll. In early March, Trump posted more than $90 million in bail with the court. At the same time, he appealed against the verdict. (cs/afp)