New York, Washington For Pam Roehl it is clear: “This is a politically desired process”. The woman in a red Trump scarf and MAGA baseball cap traveled all the way from Nashville to show her support for Donald Trump. Today it is on Fifth Avenue, corner of 56th Street, diagonally across from Trump Tower, where the ex-president disappeared into his New York apartment a few minutes ago.
Together with around 100 sympathizers, Roehl waited for Trump for several hours and held out banners with “TRUMP 2024” and “Finish The Wall” to the yellow taxis driving by. Tomorrow, Roehl will join polarizing Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene in a protest against the trial.
For the first time in American history, an ex-president faces criminal charges. The grand jury at the Manhattan Criminal Court voted last week to indict Trump. The case involves hush money payments to two former lovers of the ex-president. One of them is former porn actress Stormy Daniels, who also wrote a book about her relationship with the President.
After a month-long absence from his exile in Florida, Trump returned to his hometown for one night for this process. The exact allegations will not be known until Tuesday, when Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, four miles south of Trump Tower. The indictment is still under lock and key, according to media reports it contains more than 30 points.
“People love an underdog. And this process makes him an underdog”
The real estate agent Roehl takes the allegations calmly: “Even if he had a relationship with her, they are two adults and there was an agreement,” she says in a calm voice. In addition, the United States now really had other problems. And one thing is certain for her anyway: Politically, that will only make him even more popular. “People love an underdog. And this process makes him an underdog,” says Roehl, who was also at Trump’s rally in Waco, Texas ten days ago.
The Trump supporter also came to Nashville.
Trump knows that. That’s why he claimed weeks ago that the New York judges would arrest him. He presents himself as a victim of a corrupt judiciary. The worse the photos from New York, the better for him. “Witch hunt while our great country goes to hell,” he wrote on his social network Truth Social on the plane before landing in New York.
If Trump presents himself to the authorities on Tuesday, he will probably not be handcuffed. It is an arrest, but Trump voluntarily hands himself over to the authorities. The appointment is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. local time. He will be fingerprinted and photographed on the 15th floor of the building. It is still unclear whether the arrest photo will be made public.
The ex-president will walk down a hallway into the courtroom and be accompanied at all times by the Secret Service agents to which he is entitled as ex-president. Cameras or cell phones are not normally allowed in the courtroom. It will be the same courtroom that tried movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes case.
Trump plans to speak at Mar-A-Lago in the evening
The ex-president will have his rights read and is expected to plead not guilty. The judge will probably set a date for Trump’s next appearance on Tuesday, after which the ex-president will be released and can fly back to Mar-A-Lago in Florida. There he wants to give a speech at 8:15 p.m. local time.
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According to media reports, the allegations also relate to the falsification of business documents, which would only be an administrative offence. But Trump should also be charged with at least one crime – and crimes can be punished with imprisonment.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is investigating whether Trump violated state law in connection with hush money payments in 2016. Much of the investigation is based on statements by Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney. On Trump’s instructions, he wants to have transferred a total of 280,000 US dollars to the porn actress Stormy Daniels and the Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Both women say they had sexual encounters with Trump in 2006, which Trump denies. Cohen, in turn, is said to have been “compensated” by Trump’s company “The Trump Organization” with more than 420,000 US dollars. Cohen has already served a prison sentence in connection with the payments. Prosecutors could now classify the payments as illegal campaign donations, reports CNN.
Hush money payments are legal, but falsified business records are not. If prosecutors can prove intent to falsify and conceal, i.e. a clear intent to defraud – as Cohen claims – it would be a class E crime, punishable by up to four years in prison.
The ex-president only wants to stay one night in his hometown.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Trump’s defense attorneys could delay the process, even after the presidential election. The indictment could also be reduced to an allegation of misdemeanor instead of a felony – or the charges could be dropped altogether.
Nevertheless, Trump could still run for the 2024 presidency: the US Constitution does not provide any hurdles for criminals running for the presidency.
Financially, the process brings both Trump and Stormy Daniels a lot: Trump’s supporters donate more diligently than they have in a long time. And also Daniels recently reported happily about lots of online orders for their own #Teamstormy merchandise.
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