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Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records
Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 counts stemming from 2016 hush-money payments, the first criminal charges for any former U.S. president. The case involves payoffs through an intermediary to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election.
Ahead of surrendering, Trump posted on social media that the experience is “SURREAL,” adding, “WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America.”
Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to felony charges of falsifying records to hide hush money paid to suppress potentially damaging sexual allegations during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president with 34 counts related to the hush money and the alleged coverup.
Mr. Trump entered his plea in a Manhattan courthouse after New York authorities booked and fingerprinted him. The former president’s Secret Service detail shadowed him throughout. No former president before Mr. Trump had been charged with a crime, and not since a police officer stopped Ulysses S. Grant for speeding in his horse-drawn buggy in 1872 has a current or former president been arrested.
After his brief appearance in the 15th floor courtroom of Justice Juan Merchan, Mr. Trump was scheduled to return to his estate in Florida, where he will give a speech in the evening.
Mr. Trump, who is running for a second term in the White House, has called the case brought by Mr. Bragg politically motivated and has said a fair trial in the largely Democratic city of 8.5 million people would be impossible.
Mr. Trump grew up in New York and for decades ran his family business from his perch on the 26th floor. These days, Mr. Trump spends most of his time at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., and rarely visits New York, where the former Republican president is shunned more than he is embraced.
The charges against Mr. Trump provide the first public view of a case that Mr. Bragg’s office began presenting to a grand jury in late January. The grand jury voted to indict Mr. Trump on Thursday, but criminal charges in New York’s trial courts generally remain under wraps until defendants make their initial court appearance.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
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