A prosecution file for the less "risky" and "insignificant" compared to the other investigations which threaten it: doubt dominates in the United States on the relevance of the proceedings brought by the New York justice against Donald Trump.
Unsurprisingly, defenders for the former president attacked the indictment released Tuesday during his landmark appearance in a Manhattan court.
"Relieved" on reading the document which, according to him, "does not include any new material element", Me Joe Tacopina thus predicted on the NBC channel that the affair was going to "collapse" quickly.
Rarer, the Republican billionaire's detractors also expressed their frustration at a charge that could ultimately serve his 2024 presidential candidacy.
"This document saddens me," his former national security adviser John Bolton, who has become one of his fiercest critics, told CNN. "It's even weaker than I feared..."
Similarly, the former Deputy Director of the Federal Police (FBI) Andrew McCabe, dismissed by Donald Trump a few days before his retirement, admitted to being "disappointed" by the 34 counts of indictment for "falsification of accounting documents "presented on Tuesday.
The 45th president of the United States is accused of having made up the accounts of his company to conceal the payment of 130,000 dollars to a porn star just before the 2016 election.
In New York State, falsifications of accounting records are generally considered simple minor offenses, but become misdemeanors, punishable by four years in prison, if they were committed to "cover up" another offense.
At a press conference, Democratic prosecutor Alvin Bragg assured that this was the case, but only touched on what this other offense could be, invoking pell-mell possible violations of campaign finance laws. elections or tax evasion.
“New York justice, unlike federal justice, allows imprecise indictments, but that pushes the limits a little,” notes John Coffee, law professor at Columbia University, for AFP.
The prosecution case is "risky on several levels", also believes his colleague William Banks of Syracuse University, pointing to the problem of credibility of the main witness for the prosecution, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
This man, who once bragged about being his boss's "pit bull", paid actress Stormy Daniels out of his pocket not to open up about a sexual relationship she claims to have had in 2006 with Donald Trump.
Michael Cohen, who had been reimbursed by the Trump Organization, today claims to have acted at the express request of Donald Trump. But the former president's lawyers accuse him of being a "pathological liar" and recall that he was convicted of tax evasion by federal justice.
The New York lawsuits "are a legal and political error", asserts Richard Hasen, professor of law at the University of California, on the website of Slate magazine.
This renowned expert in electoral law recalls that federal justice had failed in 2012 to convict John Edwards, candidate for the Democratic primary of 2008, whose mistress had received nearly half a million dollars during the campaign to conceal her pregnancy .
Richard Hasen fears that a similar fiasco "would lend credence to the witch-hunt accusations" hammered home by Donald Trump.
The risk is to discredit at the same time the other investigations which threaten the former real estate magnate.
However, "this case is insignificant compared to the others" recalls William Banks, for whom the "most threatening" investigation is being played out in the state of Georgia, where a prosecutor is interested in pressure exerted by Donald Trump on officials elections after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
"There is a recording where we hear him asking for votes (...), he will find it difficult to deny", underlines the expert.
Federal justice is investigating his role in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and his management of the White House archives.
Small dissonant voice, former prosecutor Barbara McQuade judges the New York file "solid" "because it is mainly based on documents", in particular the checks signed by Donald Trump to reimburse Michael Cohen.
"Unlike witnesses, documents don't lie and don't forget," she points out.
And if the case comes before jurors in 2024, the Republican will be handicapped by his low popularity in Manhattan, a Democratic stronghold. Aware of this risk, he has already asked for the trial to be moved to Staten Island, a much more conservative district.
04/06/2023 04:44:47 - New York (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
