It is difficult to know the verdict of a trial in advance as there can be so many twists and turns. However, whatever the final decision, it will inevitably have an impact on the American presidential campaign.
This is a great first for a former president of the United States, which Donald Trump would have done without. In the midst of campaigning for the US presidential election in November, the 77-year-old billionaire saw his requests to cancel the prosecution in the Stormy Daniels affair being rejected on Thursday, February 15, by Judge Juan Merchan of the New York court. Consequence: Donald Trump will be tried criminally on March 25, becoming the first former American head of state to appear in a criminal trial.
A decision that the main person concerned did not, unsurprisingly, not very well welcome, denouncing “interference” in the presidential campaign, reports Le Monde, while the trial could last nearly six weeks, according to judge Juan Merchan , which the New York Times echoes. Even before entering the courtroom, Donald Trump had called for “delays,” asking: “How can you run for office when you’re sitting in a courtroom?” The former tenant of the White House had once again also considered, as reported by Le Monde, that this trial “is just a way of harming [him] in the election”.
In the Stormy Daniels affair, Donald Trump is accused of accounting fraud. He is accused of having paid $130,000 to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence in 2016, during the presidential campaign. The objective was, it seems, for her not to make public the extramarital relationship she allegedly had with Donald Trump in 2006, when his wife Melania Trump had just given birth to their son. If the reasons which motivated the payment of this money are questionable, in this case, it is above all the fact that Donald Trump could have illegally used campaign funds which poses a problem. For American justice, franceinfo points out, it could in fact be a concealed donation to the campaign, which would violate certain electoral financing laws.
