The attention of Americans and international public opinion is fixed on the state of New York, which will witness, within hours, the first trial of former President Donald Trump, amid strict security measures to face any emergency, especially from Trump supporters.
Trump arrived in New York (Monday), and headed to his former home in Trump Tower, before reaching his trial in Lower Manhattan.
The former president is scheduled to face 34 charges, the most important of which relate to payments during the 2016 election to buy the silence of actress Stormy Daniels, and other criminal charges, including falsifying business records.
It is expected that Trump will enter the courtroom without handcuffing him, or even photographing him in the traditional image that the court usually takes for the defendants, so that it will not be used against him, or be an incitement to violence, according to what a source familiar with the case told Yahoo News.
And Trump will not be placed in a cell, before heading to the courtroom where he will face the judge, which is normal routine procedures for the accused.
For its part, the Office of the Public Prosecutor explained that the reason for the defendants' hands being tied is usually because they may pose a danger in the event of an escape, or a threat to the Public Prosecutor or court staff, which does not apply to Trump.
While the former president could be prosecuted for falsifying business records in New York State as a misdemeanor, the district attorney's office dropped all charges to Class E felonies, the lowest level of felonies in New York State's penal code on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal a crime other essential.
Under New York Penal Code, a Class E felony conviction of falsifying business records can result in up to 4 years in prison. But in practice, that possibility seems so remote, no one ever goes to jail for it, according to a New York law enforcement official.
It is reported that evidence of the underlying crime that escalated from Trump's alleged misdemeanors to felonies remains unclear, and will not be revealed until the indictment is revealed today.
For his part, the former president described the indictment against him as pathetic. He said in a comment posted on his account on the "Social Truth" platform today (Tuesday): Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg just illegally leaked information regarding the pathetic indictment against me.
And he considered that “if the public prosecutor now wants to whitewash his professional record, he must condemn himself,” because of the legal violation he committed. He concluded by saying, "He will record a stigma of failure and disgrace in his judicial history, as will his wife who hates Trump!"
It is noteworthy that the New York case is only one of the investigations facing Trump, who is running again for the presidency. The Department of Justice is investigating both Trump's actions during the 2020 elections and his retention of top secret documents after he left the White House in 2021.
Okaz (Washington) @okaz_online