TRUMP PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO 34 CRIMINAL CHARGES
▶ Former US president describes ‘surreal’ experience of becoming first to face prosecution
Former US president Donald Trump yesterday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after an investigation into hush money paid to an adult film actress in 2016.
He entered the plea after being placed under arrest at a federal court in Manhattan – the first time that a serving or former US president has been charged with a crime.
Mr Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has claimed the prosecution is politically motivated.
Wearing a dark blue suit and his signature red tie, Mr Trump, 76, held his fist in the air as he departed Trump Tower for court.
As he was being driven in a motorcade, he posted on social media that the experience was “surreal”.
About an hour later, Mr Trump, flanked by his lawyers, sat with his hands folded as he entered his plea.
“Not guilty,” he said.
The court released a photograph of a glum-looking Mr Trump as he was arraigned.
He planned to fly back to his home in Florida to give an address in the evening.
Taken together, the charges carry a maximum sentence of 136 years in prison under New York law, but any sentence if he were to be convicted at a trial would almost certainly be far less than that.
While falsifying business records is a misdemeanour punishable by no more than one year in prison under New York law, it is elevated to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison when done to advance or conceal another crime.
Thousands of demonstrators for and against the former president gathered outside the court and helicopters flew above. Authorities were on the lookout for violence, but no serious incidents were reported.
“I’m just happy to be here because I think it’s long overdue,” said Dympna Burkhart, a retired journalist who was holding a sign that read: “Trump’s depravity is a danger to us all.”
Alan Gotlieb, who wore an American flag jumper and a red Make American Great Again cap, said he was at the court to stand up for the US constitution and for Mr Trump, who he referred as to “our president”.
Mr Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, in November announced a bid to regain the presidency in 2024 in an effort to deny Democratic President Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020, a second term.
The businessman turned politician was raised in New York and built his real estate business there.
But Manhattan is overwhelmingly liberal and Mr Trump is reviled by many in the borough.
He has said his case should be heard in Staten Island, which by a large margin supported him in 2020.
Mr Trump, who was impeached twice by the House of Representatives but was never
convicted in the Senate, faces several other criminal investigations and lawsuits.
The most pressing legal concern for him after the Manhattan case is probably an investigation into potential election interference in the southern state of Georgia.
Mr Trump’s arraignment came after a New York grand jury last week voted to indict him over his alleged involvement in a $130,000 payment made to Stormy Daniels seven years ago.
Mr Trump denies having an intimate relationship with the adult film actress, but has acknowledged reimbursing his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for the payment.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance law breaches and was sentenced to three years in prison.
He testified in the Manhattan investigation last month. The former president has denied the alleged affair and that he made a hush-money payment.
Such payments, if not properly disclosed, are a breach of campaign finance rules.
Any trial is at least more than a year away, legal experts have said.
Being indicted or even convicted does not represent a legal impediment to Mr Trump running for president in the 2024 election.
President Joe Biden’s administration has declined to comment on the drama unfolding in New York.
“The American people should feel reassured that when there is an ongoing case like this one that we’re just not commenting,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday.