There was great anticipation for Tuesday’s arrival of the former United States president, Donald Trump, to appear in court. Trump was indicted last week for allegedly paying a large sum of money to a porn star Stormy Daniels. He has been charged with running a fraudulent election campaign in 2016 which he pleaded not guilty.
Former US President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, as prosecutors accused him of orchestrating payments to two women before the 2016 US election to conceal publication of their sexual encounters with him.
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Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, the two women who filed charges against him, also made a court appearance.
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According to charges brought by Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday, he was involved in a plan to increase his chances of winning the 2016 presidential campaign. This was achieved through a sequence of payments made by third parties to keep things quiet, and then he allegedly engaged in repeated fraudulent actions to hide the illegal activity from New York business records.
According to ABC News, prosecutors alleged that starting in 2015, there was a scheme involving the CEO of National Enquirer’s publisher, AMI, to hide damaging information about Donald Trump.
This included payments made to two women who had previously claimed to have had affairs with him, as well as a former T Tower doorman who had an untrue story about Trump having a child out of wedlock.
“From August 2015 to December 2017, Defendant orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit Defendant’s electoral prospects. To execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York,” prosecutors stated in a factual statement accompanying the accusations.
Following the arraignment, Trump’s lawyers stated that the indictment contained “no surprises” and that they “plan to fight it hard. Trump is upset, frustrated, disappointed, and angry that this happened,” said attorney Todd Blanche outside the Manhattan courthouse.
“While no one is above the law, no one is below it either,” said advocate Joe Tacopina. “And there’s no way we’d all be here today if this man’s name wasn’t Donald J. Trump.”
The case did not go as expected for Stormy Daniels, the porn actress at the center of the hush money payment case, she has been ordered by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in California to pay more than $121,000 to Trump’s attorneys.
Trump’s team is required to file any motions before August 8, and the prosecution has until September 19 to respond. Judge Juan Merchan has announced that he will make a decision on the motions during the next in-person hearing, which is scheduled for December 4.
