Late on Thursday evening, it became known that a grand jury in New York has decided to indict former President Donald Trump in the so-called bribery case. He is scheduled to appear in court in Manhattan on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. local time. This is the first time a former president of one of the world’s most powerful countries has been prosecuted for criminal offences. New York strengthens police preparedness because of the indictment. Here are five questions and answers about what will happen next in the Trump case: What is Trump accused of? What happens in the first court session? Will he be detained? Could Trump actually end up in jail? Can Trump still run for office in 2024? What is Trump accused of? It is not yet clear what exactly Trump has been charged with. The indictment will not be made public until Trump appears in court for the first time – which will probably happen on Tuesday next week. The case which is highlighted in the American media concerns, among other things, the investigation of the payment of 130,000 dollars to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels weeks before Trump was elected in 2016. Stormy Daniels claims to have had sex with Trump ten years ago. To keep quiet about this, she must have been paid NOK 1.4 million. Photo: Mike Blake / Reuters It is not the payment itself that is the problem, but that it comes into conflict with the Accounting Act and the rules for election campaign financing. Both that the payment was accounted for as “legal expenses”, and that it prevented the publication of information that could weaken Trump’s candidacy. Cohen was also sentenced to three years in prison in 2018, including for the payment to Daniels. Donald Trump is also being investigated both nationally and at state level, for conditions both before, during and after his presidency from 2016-2020. Among other things, for alleged attempts at electoral fraud in the state of Georgia, and for involvement in the storming of the US Congress on January 6, 2021. The recent indictment is only about the New York investigation. What happens in the first court session? Donald Trump has two choices – he can voluntarily turn himself in to the police, or he can wait until he is arrested. On Thursday, one of Trump’s lawyers told The New York Times that he will probably volunteer for the police on Tuesday. The American online newspaper previously reported that it was expected that Trump would go through all the routine steps in a normal criminal case. In the US, it involves “mug shots”, taking fingerprints and handcuffing the defendant into the courthouse to have the charges against them read out. On Friday, however, the lawyers said that the former president will not be handcuffed when he appears in court in New York next week. This is according to the agreement reached between Trump’s defense lawyers and the prosecutor’s office in Manhattan. This is what one of Trump’s defense lawyers, Joe Tacopina, tells ABC News. Trump’s home Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already ruled out extraditing Trump to New York if he does not voluntarily turn himself in. Photo: Steve Helber / AP Trump will probably be asked whether he is guilty or not in the court hearing. Here, the defendant and the defense can also “bargain” on the charge, and argue that it should be more lenient than what the public prosecutor has said, against the defendant, for example, declaring himself guilty. It is also likely that extra security measures will be in place for the former president, who still has government bodyguards around him around the clock. Will he be detained? Trump will probably not be detained, according to American media. He has not committed any violent offences, he has no criminal record and has the money to pay any bail. In the court hearing, it will be decided whether Trump can pay bail, or whether he will live with certain restrictions until a possible trial, writes the Washington Post. For example, he could face travel restrictions or house arrest, according to CNN. Trump is quite angry with the elected Attorney General Alvin Bragg, who issued the indictment and has led the investigation against him. Among other things, he has called the public prosecutor a racist. Photo: ALEX KENT / AFP Could Trump actually end up in prison? It depends both on what it turns out that Trump is charged with, and what he is eventually convicted of. The ex-president could face as much as four years in prison. But as a first-time offender, he can be sentenced to a lighter sentence, writes the Washington Post. The human rights lawyer Ron Kuby writes in Rolling Stone Magazine that if he gets 4 years in prison, he must serve at least 1 year and 4 months before he is allowed to ask for early release. A woman demonstrates outside a courthouse in Manhattan, New York. She wants former President Donald Trump to be arrested. Photo: SPENCER PLATT / AFP If he behaves properly in prison, he can get away with just under three years behind bars. Kuby also writes that there is no minimum sentence in this type of case – Trump can be sentenced to, for example, attend an anger management course. But everything depends on what is in the indictment, and what Trump is convicted of when a trial takes place. Can Trump still run for office in 2024? According to the Washington Post, Trump is allowed to run for office even if he has the status of a defendant in a criminal case, and even if he is convicted. American professor Robert Shapiro at Columbia University believes, however, that the investigations into Trump have a negative effect on him politically. – Politically, it affects his chances of winning the election if he becomes the Republican candidate. Remember, he lost the election in 2020. It’s hard to believe he’s any better politically now than he was in 2020, considering everything that’s happened since then. – Can he become president? – This has never happened before. It is hard to believe that he can become president if he is convicted and has to go to prison. But it is too early to say, Shapiro told news Urix earlier this week. Associate professor Hilde Restad at Oslo Nye Høyskole believes that it is less likely that an accused ex-president will actually be elected if he stands for election in 2024: – There are two stages. The first is, can he be the Republican presidential nominee? And he can, because he still has a hold on an important voter share in the Republican Party. What is more doubtful is that he can be re-elected, because we see that the way he behaves does not appeal to voters in the middle, she says to news. Could Donald Trump end up in prison? He is accused, among other things, of having paid porn actor Stormy Daniels not to reveal that they allegedly had sex. Is she the one who can stop him from becoming president again?
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Trump is indicted – this is happening now – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
