The judge in Donald Trump’s historic trial this Monday (6) threatened the former president with an arrest warrant if he continues to violate the order that prohibits him from insulting witnesses, jurors and court staff.
At the end of this new day of the case against the Republican candidate for November’s presidential elections, prosecutors reported that they still expect around two weeks to hear the rest of the testimony.
“I thought they would finish today and they want another two to three weeks,” Trump told reporters, insisting that he is the victim of “election interference.” “I should be campaigning,” he added.
Earlier, the investigating judge in the case, Juan Merchan, imposed a new fine of 1,000 dollars on him, in addition to other sanctions of 9,000 dollars (45,500 reais) for nine previous violations of the court order that prohibits him from doing reference anything related to the trial on your social media.
In his ruling, the judge warned Trump that because this was the tenth time the court had found him guilty of defying his orders, “it seems clear that fines will not be sufficient to deter the defendant from violating lawful orders.”
“As much as I don’t want to impose a prison sentence on you… I want you to understand that I will do it”, warned Merchan, addressing the first former president in the history of the United States to sit in the dock.
This time, Trump was fined for having criticized in an interview the speed (a week) with which the jury was chosen and its supposed composition in a predominantly Democratic city.
The 77-year-old tycoon is accused of 34 falsifications of commercial documents to reimburse his then personal lawyer Michael Cohen with the payment of 130 thousand dollars (R$ 684 thousand at current exchange rate) to buy the silence of former porn actress Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 elections, which he won against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“At the end of the day, I have a job to do and part of that job is to maintain the dignity of the justice system,” said the judge, calling Trump’s criticism “a direct attack on the rule of law.”
The judge acknowledged that holding the tycoon in contempt would be a major decision and a logistical challenge. As a former president, Trump receives 24-hour protection from the United States Secret Service.
During Monday’s session, prosecutors called as a witness Jeffrey McConney, an executive at the Trump Organization, who explained to the jury about the payments to Cohen for the money given to Daniels to buy his silence.
Daniels, 45, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen, 57, Trump’s former lawyer turned sworn enemy of his former boss, are expected to testify at some point in the court’s courtroom. Upper Manhattan, where the trial is being held.
Hope Hicks, a former adviser to Trump, spoke last week about the “crisis” that hit the 2016 presidential campaign, after a recording emerged in which the tycoon boasted that someone as famous as him “could afford anything to conquer women”, including touching their genitals.
Hicks acknowledged that she was “a little stunned” by that recording, called “Access Hollywood.”
“We all agreed that the tape was damaging, it was a crisis,” said Hicks, who was a key player in the final stages of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, when the payments to Daniels were allegedly made.
According to prosecutors, panic over the recording triggered an effort by the Trump campaign to silence Daniels, who threatened to make public an alleged extramarital affair she had had in 2006 with the tycoon, which he has always denied.
Payment in itself is not a crime. But Trump is accused of disguising it as legal fees paid to his lawyer.
In the midst of the election campaign, Trump considers himself the victim of a “witch hunt” and a judicial conspiracy by Democrats, led by current President Joe Biden, to prevent him from making his long-awaited return to the White House.
In addition to the New York case, Trump was accused in Washington and Georgia of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, won by Biden, and of taking top-secret documents to his home in Florida that could compromise the state’s security at the end of his presidency in 2021.
(AFP)
