The second day of the oral hearing against Donald Trump It started as expected: with anger. The first topic of the day was the prosecution’s demand that the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, would toughen the prohibition imposed on Trump from speaking publicly about the trial, the magistrate, the witnesses, the jurors, the families of any of these, or the prosecutors. Trump, who has attacked Merchan’s daughter on two occasions, has been accused by prosecutors of violating the order 10 times.
Merchan did not make any decision, although that does not mean that it will not take action later. But what he did have was a tense exchange with Trump’s lawyer, to say the least, Todd Blanche. “You are losing all her credibility in court!” said Merchan, who spent more than an hour arguing with Blanche, after which he declared that “I still don’t have an answer.”
The Prosecutor’s Office, meanwhile, did not beat around the bush. Chritopher Conroythe Manhattan assistant district attorney handling the case, asked Merchan to remind the defendant that “incarceration is an option”, given his violations of the restrictions placed on his words. It is, in fact, something that Trump already knew. And he also knew how to take advantage of it. The night before, the former president’s campaign sent an email to his supporters with the Subject: “Tomorrow they could send me to jail.” Because Trump’s trial is being held in two courts: one in Manhattan and another on social networks and the media.
Waiting for the judge to decide the margin he gives Trump to use the right to freedom of expression to insult the rest of the people involved in the trial – which in his case, given that he is a public figure, can entail a physical security risk for those attacked – the session focused on the role played by the tabloid tabloid National Enquirer in the Trump campaign.
The “media arm”
He National Enquirer It is a tabloid newspaper along the lines of Sun or of Daily Mirror British, which at the time of the 2016 elections was owned by the company American Media Inc (AMI). The head of AMI, David Peckerwho is – or, rather, was until now – a friend of Donald Trump, has immunity from trialand he was the first to declare.
Its role is fundamental, because the accusation maintains that the National Enquirer made a pact with the Trump campaign to become a kind of media arm why are you publishing fake news that favored the then candidate, slandering his rivals -to whom he attributed five lovers or to whom he said that their parents had participated in the plot to assassinate the president John F. Kennedy– and, above all, buying the testimony of women who had had sexual relations with Trump, so as to never publish the corresponding news. The expenses of these operations will go to Donald Trump’s account.
And that is one of the keys that lead to the case of the porn actress Stormy Daniels and the $130,000 ($121,000) the Trump campaign paid her for her silence after she tried to spread the word. story of the sexual relationship he had with the future president when his third wife, Melaniahad just had her son Barron.
With your testimony, Pecker confirmed the three assumptions. The businessman said that in 2015, when Trump launched his campaign, the right hand the Trump, Michael Cohenhad met with him to attack his rivals, especially the evangelical senator from Texas and the Pentecostal doctor Ben Carlsonthe two most conservative candidates who, according to the future president’s team, presented the greatest danger to his candidacy. It was like that Enquirer He called Cruz an alcoholic, accused him of being unfaithful to his wife and said that his father, the Cuban exile and evangelical pastor Rafael Cruz, had taken part in Kennedy’s assassination.
Pecker’s other statements were more morbid, referring to the “fish and kill” tactic (which is how the expression of catch and kill, English widely used in this trial). According to the media businessman, a key element was protecting the image of the “very desirable single“Donald Trump, who had had sexual relations with a considerable number of women not only in his previous marriages or during his single times, but also during his current union with Melania Trump. That meant paying women who wanted to tell their story, have the exclusive publishing rights to it, and then never release it.
The case that most concerned Trump and Choen – who repeatedly called Pecker to see how the negotiation was going – was that of the former erotic model of PlayboyKaren McDougalbut, according to the witness, there were at least ten women who took money in exchange for silenceplus the Trump Tower doorman who took 30,000 dollars (28,000 euros) for not telling which women were going to visit the then businessman and TV star. reality shows.
Everything seemed to work to the full satisfaction of the parties. McDougal took his 150,000 dollars (140,000 euros). And the expense was never recorded as what it was either from the point of view of the company or from that of campaign investment, since it was part of the effort to Trump will reach the White House. From those dusts these judgments have come.