Second week of debates draws to a close at Trump's New York trial

A second week of debates concludes Friday at the trial of Donald Trump in New York. New York for concealed payments former porn star Stormy Daniels.

In this case with enormous political stakes, the Republican candidate in the November election against outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents.

Donald Trump again deplored Friday upon his arrival in court that this trial is taking him away from the campaign. He criticized Judge Juan Merchan, whose impartiality he systematically challenges, of “seeking to present the case as as salacious as possible by authorizing testimony that has nothing to do with it”.

The alleged accounting falsifications would have been used to conceal the payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels in the home stretch of the 2016 presidential election, won narrowly against Hillary Clinton.

This sum was used to buy her silence about a fleeting sexual relationship that she claimed to have had with the real estate mogul in 2006, when he was already married to his current wife, Melania. A relationship that Donald Trump denies.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives for his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 3, 2024 in New York © POOL – Mark Peterson

Finally, a confidentiality contract was signed on October 28, 2016, a few days before the vote.

The 130,000 dollars had been paid by the Donald Trump's personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, via a shell company.

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He was reimbursed in 2017 by the billionaire's holding company, the Trump Organization, for expenses disguised as “legal fees”, hence the prosecution for falsification of accounting documents .

– “Extortion” –

The ballet of witnesses continues Friday with the hearing of an expert, started Thursday, on the credibility of the data extracted from Michael Cohen's phones.

The latter, who said he acted at the request of the candidate and turned against his former boss, has not yet testified.

Former US President Donald Trump (c) attends his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 3, 2024 in New York © POOL – Mark Peterson

The whole issue of the case will be to determine what Donald Trump knew about these behind-the-scenes negotiations.

In recent days, the defense worked to undermine the credibility of the lawyer who had represented Stormy Daniels during this transaction, Keith Davidson.

The lawyers of the former Republican president painted an unflattering portrait of the witness and his methods.

Keith Davidon made a specialty of monetizing silence on embarrassing secrets from celebrities, practices described as “extortion” by one of Davidon's lawyers. Donald Trump, Emil Bove.

Three years after leaving the White House in chaos, Donald Trump enters the campaign being indicted in four cases, including the one before the courts federal government in Washington for accusations of illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020.

But through appeals and procedural questions, the trial in New York, on a smaller scale, could be the only one tried before the November 5 election.

If he were elected again, Donald Trump could , once invested in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him, in Washington but also in Florida (southeast), where he is being prosecuted for supposedly casual management of classified documents after his departure from the White House .

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