In the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, the symbol of his financial power, which catapulted him into politics, former president and convicted felon Donald Trump held a press conference this Friday – a monologue, rather – hours after the jury of Stormy Daniels case found him guilty of the 34 charges against him for falsifying the accounting records of the payment of a bribe to the porn actress for electoral purposes. “If they do this to me, they can do it to anyone,” was her first sentence of her brief appearance, putting herself not only above the rest of her fellow citizens, but even above the law.
The Republican candidate did not contribute a single new argument, not even a criticism, to what was heard during the six weeks of the trial. He attacked everyone: against the judge, against President Joe Biden, “a real danger to our country”, against the committee that investigated the assault on the Capitol, whose members he called “thugs”, against immigrants, the tax pressure and even against electric vehicles. “We live in a fascist and corrupt state,” he proclaimed.
The Republican described the criminal trial, the first of four he faces – there are three cases pending in Washington, Georgia and Florida – as “very unfair.” “As for the trial itself, it was very unfair. We were not allowed to use our election expert under any circumstances. “They saw what happened to some of the witnesses who were on our side, they were literally crucified,” he said before a lectern decorated with the logo of his electoral campaign and surrounded by a battery of US flags: impossible to distinguish if the Donald Trump who appeared before the media was just an individual convicted by justice or a former president who aspires to be re-elected in November.
Trump criticized Judge Juan Merchan, saying that “he looks like an angel, but he is actually a demon.” “There has never been a more confrontational judge. Now, I’m under a gag order [orden de silencio], which no one has been under before, no presidential candidate has been under a gag order before.” With his usual rushed syntax, full of repetitions, he stated: “I am under a gag order, unpleasant gag order, in which I have had to pay thousands of dollars in fines and was threatened with jail,” he stated. During the trial, he was twice convicted of contempt, for a total of $10,000, and warned that he would go to prison if he persisted in his criticism of witnesses and judicial officials.
Regarding the crimes prosecuted, the 34 counts of falsifying accounting records to cover up a bribe intended to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, he stated: “Falsifying business records: that sounds very bad, it sounds very bad to me. That is something bad for me, it has never happened to me,” he conceded, reiterating, as his lawyers said at the trial – the Republican refused to testify, although today he has assured that committing perjury did not matter – that the reimbursement of the bribe to his lawyer Michael Cohen advancing the $130,000 to Stormy Daniels was truly a legal expense. “An accountant correctly marked it on the books” as legal expenses, Trump said. “What are you going to call him if not?” Furthermore, he insisted, that search was made without his knowledge. Regarding the payment, and the confidentiality agreement that the woman signed upon receiving it, he described it as “perfectly legal.”
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Cohen, in fact, received $420,000: the full amount of the bribe he advanced to Daniels in October 2016, weeks before the elections, to prevent the disclosure of the scandal from harming him at the polls; plus a bonus and taxes. Regarding his former confidant, whom he could not mention directly because the gag order prevents him from doing so, he did not spare criticism: “He was a highly qualified lawyer. Now I’m not allowed to use his name because of the gag order. But you know, he’s a creep. Everybody knows. It took me a while to discover it, but it was effective.” “He got in trouble, not because of me,” Trump said of his former fixer (solver). “He got into trouble because he made outside deals and had something to do with taxis and licenses that lent him money.” Cohen, the prosecution’s main witness, was investigated in 2018 for a company of his in the industry and the irregular granting of licenses, as was recalled at the trial.
Pending the appeal, Trump continues to blame Democrats for his judicial setbacks. Those “bad people” responsible for the conviction, whom he accuses of inciting justice against him to derail his electoral campaign, which this Thursday broke fundraising records – almost 35 million in a few hours – thanks to the verdict. Instead of attacking Biden, as he has done repeatedly in his daily appearances before the media, at the entrance and exit of each session of the trial, this Friday he attacked Judge Merchan, whom he accuses of being “highly conflicted.” ” if. For several reasons: Merchan, along with Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, are the only ones left out of the gag order and, therefore, may be the target of Trump’s criticism. The other reason is the connection of Loren Merchan, the judge’s daughter, with a firm that advises Democrats. Due to references to it, the judge expanded the restrictions of the gag order in April. It is to be expected that in his appeal to the appeals court, Trump’s defense will focus on this alleged involvement, although it would be insufficient, in view of the outcome of the verdict, to sow doubts in the seven men and five women on the jury.
In his usual majestic tone, Trump assured that he will continue with his political plans despite the sentence. “I don’t mind exposing myself because there are things to do for this country. This is bigger than Trump, bigger than my presidency,” he said. “We are going to continue with the fight. “We are going to make the United States great again, because we are in serious trouble,” he added, introducing, without being relevant, one of the favorite themes of his campaign: his promise to end irregular immigration, the indiscriminate entry of “ lunatics and criminals”, especially the crowd from Venezuela, who live in “luxury hotels” provided by “the Democrats”, that is, Biden and the “band of fascists” who support him to keep the border open between States United and Mexico. To stop “the invasion” of citizens from three countries – he explicitly cited the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela and China – “November 5 will be the most important day in the history of our country,” he concluded without responding to questions from the media.
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