Just a few months before the presidential elections in the USA o Donald Trump will become the first former president in the country's history to stand trial on charges related to money he allegedly paid an adult film actress to ensure her silence.
Judge Juan Merchan of the New York District Court denied their request. Trump's lawyers to dismiss the case and instead set a trial for March 25. This is just one of four criminal cases facing the Republican tycoon as he bids for his party's nomination for the Nov. 5 election.
THE 77-year-old Trump was asking Merchan to dismiss the indictment (a total of 34 charges) according to which he falsified business documents in an attempt to conceal the amount of money of $130,000 he paid Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Mercan took just 10 minutes to reject the request and set the trial for March 25.
Before today's proceedings, Trump repeated his claims that the case is politically motivated. “They wouldn't have pushed this, no way, if I wasn't running for president and I wasn't doing wellhe said, speaking in the hallway outside the courtroom.
The trial will begin before the three other criminal cases. By then, Trump may have mathematically secured the Republican nomination, having already won the first four internal party state elections and polls give him a wide lead over the only other candidate, Nikki Haley.
Trump is using his regular court visits to raise money for his campaign, however this strategy seems to not be working so well anymore as he raised millions after his first court appearances, last year. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him by Democratic Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg.
Few protesters were outside courthouses today, holding placards with anti-Trump slogans while chanting “No Dictators in America”.
In a separate case, also today, Trump's lawyers are expected to ask a judge in Georgia to exempt the prosecutor who prosecuted him and many of his allies for offenses related to the attempt to overturn his election defeat in the State in 2020. Prosecutor Fanny Willis has admitted having an affair with a lawyer on her team.
Trump also faces federal charges in Washington for his attempted coup the election result and in Florida, for the way he handled classified documents. He pleads not guilty to all charges.
The case to be heard in Manhattan concerns the money, $130,000, paid by the former lawyer Trump's Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels – aka Stephanie Clifford – not to speak publicly about an affair that she had with the real estate tycoon ten years earlier. Trump denies that this ever happened.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges.
Prosecutors say that in 2017 Trump's family real estate company recorded the repayment of that amount to Cohen as legal fees. This violated state law that prohibits falsifying business documents to conceal another crime.
Source: News Beast
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