Former President of the United States Donald Trump is expected in court in New York on Monday March 25 for two cases. The outcome of these two crucial deadlines could tarnish his image as a billionaire candidate for re-election in November.
Indicted in four criminal cases and already sentenced to very heavy fines in two civil trials, the conservative real estate mogul must surrender at 9:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. Paris time) at Manhattan Criminal Court. This is a summons to set a new date for the trial related to payments to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels.
Also this Monday, before the same court in the State of New York, Donald Trump must provide a guarantee that he will pay nearly half a billion dollars in fines to which he was sentenced in civil proceedings, with his sons Eric and Don Jr., for financial fraud within their Trump Organization real estate empire in the 2010s. If Mr. Trump does not post bail covering at least $454 million (€418 million) in fines plus interest , his family's real estate assets will be seized and their bank accounts will be frozen by the local attorney general, Letitia James, who took them to court in October 2022 until having them convicted by New York judge Arthur Engoron on February 16 .
Under pressure, the former Republican tenant of the White House (2017-2021), who wishes to return there from January 20, 2025, confirmed Monday morning that he would go to court, while once again denigrating the Democratic authorities . “These are rigged deals, all coordinated by the White House and the Department of Justice for the purposes of election interference (…) Our country is CORRUPT! ", did he declare. Donald Trump regularly storms against a “phony” civil judgment and an “unconstitutional guarantee requirement” imposed by “racist” Attorney General James and Judge Engoron “controlled by the Democratic clique.”
Inability to post bail, lawyers say
Mr. Trump's lawyers say they are unable to provide this bond intended to suspend, for the duration of an appeal, the February judgment which also prohibits Trump father and son from running their businesses in New York for three and two years .
The former head of state assured Friday that he had “nearly $500 million in cash, a significant portion of which is intended to be used in [his] campaign” against Democratic President Joe Biden. He also benefited from a breath of financial oxygen on Friday with support for the IPO of his media company, Trump Media.
His lawyers have been increasing their appeals for months to delay his trials as much as possible, if possible after the presidential election on November 5. For his criminal indictment over payments before the 2016 presidential election to a former porn star, Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had an extramarital affair in 2006, the trial was scheduled to begin Monday. But it was pushed back on March 15 by at least a month.
Manhattan judge Juan Merchan must set a new date on Monday for this historic judicial first for a former American president who faces four years in prison. The defense of Donald Trump, 77, requires an adjournment of at least three months, time to study tens of thousands of pages of documents submitted in March to the proceedings. The lawyers also want to wait until the Supreme Court in Washington decides this summer on the question of presidential criminal immunity.
Donald Trump denies any affair with Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford. He pleaded not guilty to charges of defacing the Trump Organization's accounts to hide the $130,000 paid in October 2016 so that she would keep quiet about a consensual sexual encounter ten years earlier, when he was married to Melania Trump.
