United States.
While he is unlikely to be found guilty of encouraging an insurrection, the problems legal of Donald Trump will not disappear after his trial in the Senate: The former US president could soon be indicted before the justice criminal, and also faces multiple civil lawsuits.
the exmagnat real estate New Yorker, installed in his luxurious residence of Florida, Has been the subject of numerous civil lawsuits for some time, and has an army of lawyers ready to defend or attack its opponents.
Having become a simple citizen, he risks at least one criminal indictment, led by the prosecutor Democrat of Manhattan, Cyrus Vance, Who have been battling for months to get their tax and bank statements.
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The investigation, which initially focused on payments made to two alleged Trump lovers ahead of the 2016 presidential election, is now examining possible tax, banking and insurance fraud.
The Supreme Court ordered Trump in July to hand over the required documents to the prosecutor, but his lawyers questioned before the highest court the breadth of the order. the Supreme Court has not yet failed in this regard.
Trump has described the investigation as “the worst witch hunt in the history of United States“.
– Tax or bank fraud –
The dossier, instructed behind closed doors before a grand jury, seems to be moving forward nonetheless.
According to the American press, Vance investigators recently interviewed employees of his insurance company, Aon, and Deutsche Bank, Trump’s financial backer and his holding company, the Trump organization.
They also re-interrogated Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in prison after admitting he bought the silence of two alleged lovers of the former president.
Cohen said in a congressional hearing that Trump and his company artificially inflated or reduced the value of their assets to obtain bank loans or reduce their taxes.
The state’s Democratic prosecutor New York, Letitia James, is also investigating these allegations. He already successfully confronted the lawyers of the Trump organization to be able to interrogate a Trump son, Eric, and obtain documents on some family properties.
His investigation is civil, but “if we discover criminal facts, it will change in nature,” James said recently.
If the allegations are confirmed, the former president will be exposed to possible imprisonment. And unlike federal crimes, violations of state law cannot be forgiven by the American president, even if Joe Biden I would like to do it in the name of reconciliation.
Some critics of Trump they celebrate in advance, like the “Rise and Resist” militants, who demonstrated in early January in New York to demand his imprisonment.
But prosecutors, aware of the extremely tense political climate, will think twice before holding him accountable, several jurists told AFP.
“No one is going to rush,” stressed Daniel Richman, a former prosecutor and professor of law at Columbia University. “The last thing we want is for the (judicial) process to be used, or perceived as being used, as a political instrument,” he stressed.
“There are two schools,” said Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer in charge of three civil lawsuits against the ex-president. “I am from the school that thinks that we should not forbid justice to be done for fear of throwing oil on the fire: if we do not act to make it clear that the pillars on which the country rests apply to everyone, president or not , I think we are in pretty big danger. “
– “Stage at the A Capone” –
By Gloria Browne-Marshall, Professor of Law at New York City University (CUNY), Trump on the dock would be “a logical outcome,” “a stage in the A el Capone,” the legendary gangster of the 1920s finally convicted in 1931 of tax evasion.
But he still believes his indictment is likely before the end of the prosecutor’s current term Cyrus Vance in November, I would not bet that there will be a trial or a conviction.
With millions of supporters potentially willing to fund his defense, Trump could counter with his own lawsuits and make the dossiers drag on “for years,” he said.
This would force prosecutors – elected officials who depend on taxpayers’ money – to mobilize considerable resources to give battle, he added.
Bennett Gershman, former prosecutor and professor at the Pace University, Also bets that Vance will blame Trump.
“If I were to be in front of a jury again it would be a real circus, it would be amazing,” he said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.”