Former Pres. Donald Trump during his court appearance. (Photo: Andrew KELLY / POOL / AFP)
Donald Trump appeared in Manhattan District Court on Tuesday where he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The former US president is accused of “repeatedly and fraudulently” falsifying business records in an attempt to withhold negative information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.
This after a hush payment of $130,000 (about R2.3 million) weeks before the election to porn star Stormy Daniels to ensure that she did not reveal details about her alleged relationship with Trump in 2006.
Former Pres. Donald Trump after his court appearance at Mar-a-Lago. (Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)
According to a “statement of facts” released Tuesday with the indictment, Playboy model Karen McDougal and a former doorman at Trump Tower also received hush payments.
McDougal claimed she had a sexual relationship with Trump and the doorman threatened to spread a story about an illegitimate child fathered by Trump.
At the time, Daniels was paid by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, while McDougal and the doorman received $150,000 and $30,000 respectively from AMI, the publisher of the tabloid. National Enquirerget it.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg also accuses Trump of taking steps at the time to conceal the true nature and purpose of the payments for tax purposes.
Trump meanwhile labeled his prosecution as “an insult”.
“I never thought something like this could happen in America,” the former president told hundreds of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida hours after his appearance in court in Manhattan.
“The only crime I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation against those who seek to destroy it… This is an insult to our country.”
Former Pres. Donald Trump after his court appearance at Mar-a-Lago. (Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)
Trump – the frontrunner in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination – said from a stage draped with American flags in an opulent gold and cream ballroom that “radical left-wing prosecutors” were out to get him “at any cost “.
Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, is currently serving five months in prison for the same charges Trump is now facing.
Trump is the first former US president to face criminal charges.
Judge Juan Merchan said during Trump’s appearance on Tuesday that a trial could possibly start as early as January next year – a month before the presidential primaries kick off.
