Despite the troubles with the law that former US President Donald Trump faces, he boasted that he will not abandon his campaign ahead of the 2024 elections for any legal reason.
The media echoed in Washington the interview with the ex-president broadcast last night by Fox News, in which he insisted on how the case against him in New York would influence his new race for the White House.
«Is there something that they can throw in your face legally, that convinces you to leave the race? If you are convicted in this case in New York, would you give up?” Trump was asked and his answer was “no, never (…), it’s not my thing. I would not do it”.
The former ruler appeared before a Manhattan court a week ago charged with 34 felonies in connection with paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged extramarital affair.
Trump has repeatedly denied the affair – revealed during his 2016 presidential campaign – and charged that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation is politically motivated.
During his court appearance, he pleaded not guilty to all charges, including falsifying business records and conspiring to make multiple payments to shut up Daniels.
Trump also took aim at Joe Biden, his eventual Democratic opponent next year, for comments he made to NBC that he is not yet ready to announce his re-election campaign. “There is something that is not right,” said the former occupant of the Oval Office when considering that Biden will not be able to appear.
On the Tuesday of the week before he returned from New York, Trump did something unusual: he admitted during a speech at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, that he actually lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, but claimed that the Democrats withheld information from voters that would have changed the outcome.
Never before has a former president faced as broad a set of federal, state and congressional investigations as Trump.
New York law provides that falsification of business records is elevated to a felony when the “intent to defraud includes the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal its commission”. According to press reports, each charge would carry a maximum of four years in jail, but experts anticipated that people without criminal records rarely go to jail for similar charges.
