It is not without irony, writes the German "Spiegel", that Donald Trump will be brought to court in New York, the city where he made his fortune from real estate, where there is a 58-story skyscraper called Trump Tower.
Clashes with the law are nothing new for Trump, they followed him throughout his business and political career. It was mostly about not-so-clean real estate deals, tax evasion, obstruction of judicial authorities. If you're not a pedophile, it doesn't matter what the media reports about you, it's important that they report, Trump allegedly once told one of his advisers.
Persistent prosecutor Alvin Bragg
He didn't think then that one day the police would take him to court in Manhattan, maybe even with handcuffs on his hands, that they would photograph him for the police file, take his fingerprints like any detained person. The man who turned the political scene to the extreme into a show business to which he imposed the rules, will find himself on an unfamiliar stage where, even if that is the court's intention, he will play by completely different rules. A scene created by the tenacious Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the first African-American to shave in that position.
Alvin BraggManhattan Public Prosecutor Alvin Bragg / Photo: AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Even before he turned 21, someone had a gun pointed at him on six occasions in the northern part of Manhattan, where he still lives today: three times by police officers, three times by people who were not police officers, Bragg said. Once someone put a knife to his throat, once someone pointed a semi-automatic rifle at his head, once he found a corpse in front of the door. The conditions in which he grew up motivated him, he says, to practice law.
Bragg gives the impression of a legal believer whose goal is to make "our community safer and our judiciary more equal." The biggest obstacle on his way so far is certainly the former president of the United States of America, Donald Trump - a privileged, rich white man who has spent his entire life looking for ways to cheat the law and has done so very successfully.
Bragg took a 1:0 lead in this clash of American opposites - he is the first prosecutor who managed to bring an American former or current president to court where he will have to plead to the indictment.
APTOPIX Trump IndictmentSupporter of Donald Trump in front of Trump Tower in New York / Photo: AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
And she, as reported by the American media, revolves around the sum of 130.000 dollars which, according to Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen in the role of a witness, his client paid porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign to prevent it from leaking to the public that he had sexual relations with her in 2006, a few months after her birth his son Baron.
The bribes were paid by Cohen, and from a legal point of view, Trump violated the law because one of his firms declared the money spent on bribery as legal expenses, and allegedly Trump personally signed several checks in the amount of $35.000
"Witch Hunt"
Trump will certainly do everything to turn the trial into a circus, to create the public impression that he was not accused because he broke the law, but that it was a political process. He announced his new candidacy for the presidency of the USA in front of the Republican Party, which he will not give up, long before the start of this court process, and he invited his supporters to line up around him in battle lines. He also called them to "protect America from electoral fraud" when he lost the presidential election against Joe Biden, so they stormed Congress and fell into it, five people lost their lives.
Trump IndictmentPalm Beach / Photo: AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
Trump says there is a "witch hunt" going on, that the Democrats have turned on him because he is the one who represents the interests of ordinary Americans. "They're attacking me because I'm fighting for you," he told "ordinary" Americans, "real" patriots, after the Grand Jury upheld the indictment against him, thus, the former president said, "officially turning America into the Third World."
Before today's reading of the still-sealed lawsuit, some prominent Republicans offered their support to Trump. Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy wrote on Twitter that Prosecutor Bragg “instrumentalized our sacred justice system against Donald Trump.” US Vice President Mike Pence simply wrote “Scandal!”.
New York is ready for trial
New York authorities are ready for protests by Trump supporters. The head of the police reminded, for the record, that "violence and demolition do not belong to the legitimate expression of opinion."
Trump IndictmentJournalists in front of the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan / Photo: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
"New York will not be a playground for inappropriate outbursts of anger," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Vandalism and violence will not be tolerated.
Trump's fans have announced protests called by their idol.
The White House announced that it would "closely monitor" the events in New York and be ready to react, if necessary.
No TV coverage in the courtroom
Judge Juan Mercan, who will hear Trump, said late on Monday evening that despite the great public interest, and in accordance with judicial practice, the broadcast of the hearing from the courtroom will not be allowed. Five photographers have been approved and will be allowed in the courtroom until the hearing officially begins.
Photo: AP Photo/Corey Sipkin"Lock him up", protesters in New York / Photo: AP Photo/Corey Sipkin
The entire event is accompanied by extensive security measures in New York. Metal fences have been erected around Trump Tower and the Manhattan courthouse. Police forces are deployed in the vicinity of both buildings.
The trial of Donald Trump has immeasurable political significance for the USA. For one, it is proof of the greatness of America and an independent judiciary, confirmation that in a country that still sees itself as the leader of the free world before the law, but no one is untouchable, and for others, Trump's supporters, it is precisely the crowning proof that various liberals and communists are destroying everything that is sacred to Americans, to instrumentalize even the judiciary in order not to deal with the leader of true American patriots. The division of American society, which had escalated and has not decreased since then, will come to the fore on this occasion as well, after Barack Obama's first victory.
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