Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared in a Manhattan Criminal Court where he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The former US president was arraigned before Judge Juan Merchan. He is the first former president in the history of the US to face criminal charges.
Mr Trump was indicted last week by a grand jury following an investigation related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Mr Trump before his indictment declared his intention to run for office again. He is expected to continue his campaign for the presidency as the US constitution does not require that the president be free from indictment, conviction or prison; thus a person under indictment or in prison may run for the office and may even serve as president.
The next hearing for the case is scheduled for 4 December. The former president has returned to Mar-a-lago where he is expected to address the press.
Charges against Trump
In a press conference monitored on CNN, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said there are 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree which under New York State law is a felony.
He alleged that Mr Trump falsified business records with intent to defraud and an intent to conceal another crime. “That is exactly what this case is about. 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes, these are felony crimes in New York State no matter who you are, we cannot and will not normalise serious criminal conduct.”
Mr Bragg said the defendant (Trump) repeatedly made false statements on New York business records and also caused others to make false statements.
He noted that the former president claimed he was paying Michael Cohen (Trump’s former personal attorney) for legal services performed in 2017 which he categorically called a lie.
“In total the grand jury found there were 34 documents with this critical false statements. Why did Donald Trump repeatedly make these false statements? The evidence will show that he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election,” Mr Bragg told the press on Tuesday after the arraignment.
According to his account, Mr Trump, executives at the publishing company American Media Incorporated (AMI), Mr Cohen and others agreed in 2015 to a catch and kill scheme, that is a scheme to buy and suppress negative information to help the former president’s chance of winning the election.
“As part of this scheme, Donald Trump and others made three payments to people who claim to have negative information about Mr Trump. To make these payments, they set up shell companies and they made yet more false statements including for example in AMI business records, one of the three people that they paid to keep quiet was a woman named Steve Stormy Daniels less than two weeks before the presidential election,” Mr Braggs narrated.
The district attorney said the scheme violated New York election law which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by a lawful means, adding that the $130,000 wire payment exceeded the federal campaign contribution cap and the false statements in their AMI’s books violated New York law.
“…this case today is one with allegations like so many of our white collar cases, allegations that someone lied again and again to protect their interests and evade the laws to which we are all held accountable. As this office has done time and again we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law, no amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring American principle,” Mr Bragg said.
Trump’s Lawyer Jim Trusty speaks
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Donald Trump’s lawyer Jim Trusty described the case against his principal as a personal political persecution by Alvin Bragg.
“… when it comes to announcing target first and trying to string together evidence later but that’s what it goes to you know when you have a guy that runs for office saying I will get Donald Trump it shouldn’t be a surprise that he will string together a flimsy case,” he said as he described Mr Braggs approach.
Mr Trusty told CNN that no reasonable prosecutor would go to court with Michael Cohen as a star witness “but Alvin Bragg is not a reasonable prosecutor.”
He said there was a lot of legal gymnastics going on with the case and Mr Braggs is trying to make felonies out of misdemeanors to avoid a statute of limitations problem.
