Former President Trump at West Palm Beach International Airport March 25 before boarding a plane in Waco, Texas to attend a rally in Waco, Texas. Evan Vucci (AP)
The anticipation with which Donald Trump himself announced his own indictment – the first time in history that a former US President has been prosecuted – has paved the way for what is to come. He will be arrested. He will be photographed and fingerprinted like any other inmate handled by the US justice system. He may even be handcuffed. And in another classic step, which moviegoers from all over the world know very well, his rights are read to him.
But Trump is not just any ordinary citizen, even if he faces the same trials as any other American charged with a crime in New York. Although the specific allegations are not yet known, they are linked to his role in paying $130,000 in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election that led him to the White House over porn actress Stormy Daniels’ silence about an alleged extramarital affair to buy 10 years earlier.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s indictment, which the grand jury accepted, Trump falsified his company’s accounts to pass off that payment as something else. This is an offense punishable by imprisonment for up to one year, which becomes a criminal offense if it is proven that the operation was involved in the commission of another offense e.g. B. irregular campaign financing or conspiracy to influence or prevent a vote.
The former president denies everything and it could be several days before he appears in court. First, he must formally receive the indictment document. It is assumed that a tug-of-war is already taking place during the negotiations on the delivery terms. And Trump may well be trying to turn all of this into a show that will further fuel his die-hard supporters and give wings to his 2024 presidential campaign. His lawyers have initially said he is willing to fly to New York from Florida to meet his legal obligations.
A supporter of former US President Donald Trump attends a gathering outside his resort in Mar-a-Lago after hearing the news of Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury MARIA ALEJANDRA CARDONA (Portal)
Should he not do so, it is an unlikely scenario that Trump would have to be extradited. It would be up to Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, to approve it. Coincidentally, DeSantis is currently the ex-president’s biggest enemy within his own party, and quite possibly his most serious opponent to win the Republican nomination for the presidential election.
The New York court responsible for the indictment is now faced with a dilemma. It must show that Trump is just another citizen not above the law, while at the same time not ignoring the exceptional nature of the process. Just a reminder that Trump must be accompanied by armed members of the Secret Service at all times. And that’s without counting the media frenzy expected at the entrance to the courthouse — even greater than in the past two weeks for the mere introduction of a possible indictment. It remains unclear, among other things, whether Trump must appear in handcuffs. Due to the nature of the case, an exception might be made.
Trump has previously said he has no intention of withdrawing from his presidential campaign if impeached. While there is no precedent in the history of the United States of a former president being prosecuted, there is one instance where a candidate for office ran from prison. It’s an obscure memory, one for keen students of American political history: it took place in 1920, when Eugene Debs was a candidate for the Socialist Party of America while also serving time in prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 because he had made speeches critical of America’s role in World War I. He only got a million votes. Trump is currently comfortably leading the polls among Republicans for his 2024 nomination as the conservative candidate.
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