The first criminal trial against former President Trump begins on April 15

2024-03-26 16:03:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Former President Donald Trump on Monday criticized the court's decision to set a trial date of April 15 for the payment made to win the silence of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. Law professor Will Thomas says the process could be completed before the November presidential election. He adds that the burden of proof, which is not easy, falls on the prosecutors to convince the 12 members of the jury that the former president is guilty of the 34 legal violations.

President Trump faces 4 different criminal charges. The first of those, which is expected to go to trial on April 15, involves allegations that he falsified business records to hide a $130,000 payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels. According to the professor of law university in Michigan, the efforts of the former president's lawyers to postpone the trial date were unsuccessful.

"From what I heard from Monday's session, I think that the court date will remain for mid-April. The arguments of former President Trump's legal team failed to convince the court and appear to have been poorly conceived from a legal point of view. It seems that the court is starting to lose its patience with Trump's lawyers. It seems that the court is not inclined to postpone the date of April 15" , says law professor Will Thomas, from the University of Michigan.

The trial date now makes Mr. Trump the first former US president to stand trial on criminal charges. The trial is likely to end before the November election, and voters may know whether he will be convicted or acquitted.

However, the odds are against prosecutors in this court case, Professor Thomas says.

"In such a case, prosecutors have the entire burden to present ample evidence that should leave no room for doubt. Unanimity will be needed from a 12-person jury, and prosecutors will have to convince every one of them. So the odds are against the prosecutors. In such a process with many small parts that change, it is the challenge of the prosecutors to present a clear and coherent case for what happened and to bring out the criminal responsibilities" , says Professor Thomas.

Former President Trump says he is not guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush-hush payment from porn star Stormy Daniels.

"Basically, the case is about fraud. The allegation is that Donald Trump paid someone to withhold information before the election. By doing so, he managed to improve his chances in the elections and managed to win them. Under New York law, the offense relates to the fraudulent manner in which the payment was made. There are business records for money in and out, and the case will focus on the falsification of these business records ," says Professor Thomas.

The sum was paid to Ms. Daniels through Mr. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, before the 2016 election. Ms. Daniels says she had a sexual relationship with Mr. Trump about a decade ago, a suggestion the former president has denied. According to Professor Thomas, this court process has every chance to end before the holding of presidential elections in November.

"I continue to think that the New York court case is likely to end before the election, at least the initial phase of the trial ," says Professor Thomas.

This issue is just one of the legal battles that former President Donald Trump is facing, while he is running against President Joe Biden for this year's presidential elections./ VOA