The White House is struggling, trying its best to prevent Donald Trump from returning to his penates.
Donald Trump left New York, his plane flew to Florida, CNN reported. He headed to the airport immediately from the courthouse. The flight time to Florida is about three hours.
Recall that Donald Trump was arrested for about two hours, as prescribed by American procedural law, after which he was released. He appeared in District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon and became the first former president in history to face criminal charges. The NYPD, according to CNN, has been placed on enhanced mode.
A grand jury voted in favor of the move in connection with the Trump Organization's financial document forgery case. Formally, Trump was supposed to be arrested, CNN reported. In American procedural law, arrest is a mandatory part of bringing charges as a result of a grand jury decision. Arrest does not mean being taken into custody. The accused remains under arrest only while charges are brought, a correspondent for The Moscow Post reports.
The case in Georgia is a defendant in Florida
The charge was reportedly charged with 34 counts related to falsifying business records and paying "hush" money to a Trump girlfriend. Its contents were classified before being announced in court. Trump himself called the whole story "political harassment and election interference at the highest level in history."
The lawyer of the politician Joe Takopin said that he did not intend to hide or make a deal with the investigation. Thus, everything did not last long. As the lawyers said, the ex-president pleaded not guilty. The court will return to the case in December. If Trump is convicted, which is unlikely, then the politician could face up to four years in prison.
The charges filed in Manhattan will not prevent Georgia prosecutors or the Justice Department from bringing their charges as part of separate investigations against Trump. Bloomberg notes in this regard that charges in several cases may still slow down litigation and stretch the process until the 2024 elections.
Trump is under investigation in Georgia for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The Justice Department is investigating the case of classified White House documents found at its Mar-A-Lago residence.
When "porn" is involved in the case
The porn actress Stormy Daniels, his former charge d'affaires Michael Cohen, handed over the money in 2016 to Trump's "girlfriend." Reimbursing his subordinate, Trump spent them under the article "legal costs." Forgery of documents in the United States is considered a petty crime and usually does not entail imprisonment.
If the jury decides the documents were falsified to cover up or commit another crime, Trump could face up to four years in prison.
Prosecutors say it could be a crime in New York if the payments were falsified to cover up.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has been investigating the finances of Trump and the Trump Organization since 2019. The investigation initially focused on paying "hush money." Prosecutors later conducted a broader investigation into the Trump Organization's finances.
That led to the Trump Organization and its former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, being charged and convicted of criminal tax fraud. However, criminal charges were not brought against Trump for these crimes, perhaps "this move" was postponed "until the right moment."
Domestic "silent" from the banks of the Potomac
Lawyers question the legitimacy of prosecutors "approach to the Trump case. They name the weaknesses of the case, including bringing Cohen as a witness. Cohen himself has been convicted of making false statements in the past. He is openly anti-Trump.
Donald Trump is not counting on a fair trial already using the allegations as part of an election strategy to energize his supporters. He called what is happening "political persecution and interference in the elections," "an attack by the left forces" on the United States, which became a "third world country." He also believes that the situation is fraught with negative consequences for Joe Biden.
Trump's campaign fund raised $4 million immediately after the ex-president was charged. An indictment or even conviction won't stop Trump from becoming president. There are no restrictions in the US Constitution that prohibit you from being elected to the presidency with an indictment.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called the allegations against Trump election interference. He promised to prosecute prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) proposed impeaching Biden.
Vice President in the Trump administration Michael Pence called the jury's decision "another example of criminalizing politics." The allegations "sent a wake-up call to the world," he said.
The decision to press charges against former US President Donald Trump sets a dangerous precedent and undermines American society's faith in the country's justice system. This was stated by US Senator (Republican from Utah) and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a written statement.
Florida Gov. Ron Desantis said the state would not assist in Trump's extradition request, pointing to "questionable circumstances" associated with the prosecutor.
Joe Biden pointedly refused to comment on the situation, and also avoided answering the question of whether the indictment of Trump could split the country. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris also declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman said everyone in the administration learned about the incident "like any other American" from the media.
From the indictment (according to CNN)
The criminal charges stem from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into the payment of "hush money" made during the 2016 presidential campaign to women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump did not admit this, nor did he plead not guilty to all charges, CNN reported.
According to accusatory documents, Trump "repeatedly and forged a fraudulent image business entries of New York to hide criminal behavior which hid the compromising information from voters during the presidential elections of 2016".
Each criminal charge which Trump faces is connected with concrete entry in the business documents Trump Organization. The prosecutor's office points to the "illegal" scheme of influence of Trump at elections.
In the indictment it is said that:
· Trump had "intention to deceive and commit other crime and also to help and hide his commission".
· The judge Bragg said at the press conference on Tuesday that business entries were forged in 2017 with the purpose to hide the criminal behavior connected with a campaign of 2016. He referred to the law of the State of New York according to which conspiracy with the purpose of advance of the candidate illegal means is considered crime.
· According to prosecutors, Trump and Coen agreed about repayment of a debt in the Oval office. In accusatory documents it is said that Coen agreed with Daniels about payment for silence and to prevent disclosure of the compromising information in recent weeks before presidential elections".
· Trump allegedly hid compensation payments to Coen, noting monthly checks for "legal services", according to statement of the facts, in the transaction which two of them developed in the Oval office.
· Trump personally signed checks for compensation to Coen, according to prosecutors, including 130,000 dollars for Daniels in exchange for her signature under the non-disclosure agreement.
· He also allegedly agreed to pay Coen 35,000 dollars monthly within one year, prosecutors claim. "At the beginning of February, 2017 the defendant and the lawyer A met in the Oval office of the White House and confirmed this arrangement on repayment" — it is said in statement of the facts.
· Many of these concrete facts were a public domain for many years. Coen publicly opened one of checks for 35000 dollars during evidence to the Congress in 2019, trying to confirm the story that Trump played a role in coordination and the organization of payment Daniels.
· Some payments which are the cornerstone of Trump's charges arrived directly from his bank account. Prosecutors say that checks were drawn monthly, including some of them arrived directly from the bank account of Trump to Coen. They claim that they were disguised under fee of lawyers though actually those weren't.
· "Each check was processed by Trump's organization, and each check was disguised under payment of the legal services rendered in a certain month 2017 according to the agreement on deduction" — prosecutors in the statement of the facts attached to the indictment wrote.
· "The records about payments stored and supported by Trump Organization were false business entries. No agreement on pre-trial detention existed, and didn't pay the lawyer A for the legal services rendered in 2017" — he adds with reference to Coen.
· According to prosecutors, participants of the estimated scheme knew that bribes were illegal. According to statement of the facts, participants of the estimated illegal scheme of money laundering, including Coen, recognized that payments to two women were illegal.
· At the end of 2018 the American Media, Inc. company (AMI), the publisher of National Enquirer, concluded the agreement on refusal of prosecution with US Attorney Office of the Southern federal district of New York concerning payment of Karen McDougall, other woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump — that he denies — for her story about Trump, it is told in statement of the facts.
· AMI told the authorities that they were never going to publish history McDougall and paid her that she "didn't publish the compromising statements" about Trump "prior to presidential elections of 2016 and by that didn't influence these elections", it is told in statement of the facts.
· In statement of the facts Coen's statement for recognition of fault at the federal level in which it is said that Coen worked according to Trump's instructions to organize payment to two women, McDougall and Daniels that they stopped stories which can do harm to Trump is also quoted.
Anyway but according to the interviewed observers "the third forces" in the USA already gave the heat command of Trump on full. According to them, new entry of the 45th U.S. President into the White House threatens safety really ruling clique of North American states.