Tried in New York amid financial and sexual scandal, Donald Trump is threatened by the judge with going to prison

Un nouveau rappel à l'ordre pour l'ancien président américain. AP POOL – Julia Nikhinson/POOL

The magistrate criticizes him for new comments made in an interview during which the former American Republican president criticized the selection and composition of the jury responsible for trying him in this predominantly Democratic city.

The judge at Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York again threatened the former US president with jail time on Monday for violating his ban on verbally attacking witnesses and the jurors. Judge Juan Merchan fined Donald Trump $1,000 for violating his order by making public comments about the jury and how it was selected, according to its written decision. At this unprecedented trial for a former president, he also warned him that future offenses would be "liable to incarceration".

Heavy political issues

At issue, an interview in which the defendant criticized the speed of the jury selection, completed in one week, and its presumed composition, in a city with a very majority Democratic population. In this trial fraught with political issues, the Republican candidate for the November presidential election against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden risks conviction and, in theory, up to a prison sentence.

Indicted in four proceedings 

This case is one of four criminal proceedings in which he is charged. But due to recourse in other cases, this trial in New York, of a lesser scale, particularly compared to his indictment by federal justice in Washington for illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election of 2020 won by Joe Biden, could be the only one judged before the election of November 5.

Donald Trump is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents which allegedly served to conceal the payment of $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels in the home stretch of the presidential election in 2016, won narrowly against Hillary Clinton. This sum was used to buy Stormy Daniels' silence about a sexual relationship she claimed to have had with the real estate mogul in 2006, when he was already married to her current wife, Melania. A relationship that Donald Trump denies.

The $130,000 was paid by his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, via a shell company. He was reimbursed in 2017 by the billionaire's business group, the Trump Organization, for expenses disguised as "legal fees", hence the prosecution for falsification of accounting documents.

Moments of emotion and technical sequences

Since its opening on April 15, the trial has alternated moments of legal drama and dry, very technical sequences. Friday's hearing was marked by the tears of Hope Hicks, former communications manager for Donald Trump, who recounted the "crisis" into which the broadcast of an old recording of the billionaire's vulgar remarks about women plunged her.

Monday's hearing was devoted to the reimbursement of Michael Cohen, an executive of the Trump Organization, Jeffrey McConney, by explaining the modalities in detail. In the afternoon, Deborah Tarasoff, from accounting at the Trump Organization, took over the helm.

An instrumentalization of justice ?

As he has tirelessly done since the start of the trial, Donald Trump accused his Democratic adversaries of exploiting justice to eliminate him from the presidential race. Last week, Judge Merchan fined him $9,000, or $1,000 per offense, for publicly attacking witnesses and jurors on the sidelines of his trial and threatening to send him to prison in case of repeat offense.

The former president targets in particular Michael Cohen, who turned against him and cooperates with the prosecution, or jurors, whom he implies that' #39;they are not impartial. If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him, in Washington but also in Florida (southeast), where he is being prosecuted for his allegedly casual handling of classified documents after his departure from the White House.