Picture : Twitter/ ANI
Anything related to the former US President Donald Trump has to be dramatic and unprecedented. His latest indictment case being the latest in the news. Though he was given the option to appear on Zoom, but Trump wanted to encash the situation completely to his side keeping in mind the 2024 election strategy! Thus, with secret service agents in tow, a private jet with trademark TRUMP written, the former President reminded the country not to underestimate him. Donald Trump made history by becoming the first US – former or sitting – President to appear in a court as a criminal defendant. After surrendering in a New York court, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after an investigation into hush money paid to a porn star.
He was booked, his fingerprints were taken, but he was not believed to have taken a mug shot. The former porn star at the heart of Donald Trump’s historic indictment in New York has been ordered to pay him more than $121,000 (£96,965) towards legal fees in an unrelated case. Stormy Daniels alleged to have had an affair with Trump in 2006.
An appeal court judge in California dismissed Daniel’s case, and awarded Trump a payment for legal fees. The New York indictment relates to a payment made to her during the 2016 presidential election – alleged to have been “hush money” to keep quiet but not properly recorded.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, sued Trump after he called an allegation by her a “total con job” in a tweet on 18 April 2018. Trump dismissed an allegation completely. On Tuesday – as Trump was fingerprinted, escorted by police into a Manhattan courtroom and listened to a judge read him charges of 34 felony counts, Daniels was ordered to pay Mr Trump the $121,972. Trump’s lawyer Harmeet Dhillon celebrated the judgement in California, writing on Twitter: “Congratulations to President Trump on this final attorney fee victory in his favour this morning. “Collectively, our firm obtained over $600,000 in attorney fee awards in his favour in the meritless litigation initiated by Stormy Daniels.”
Earlier this year, New York City District Attorney Alvin Bragg set up a grand jury to investigate whether there was enough evidence to pursue a prosecution against the former president over the money paid to Daniels.
Trump, who’s running for the White House again in 2024, called the decision by a Manhattan grand jury to indict him “political persecution and election interference at the highest level.”
“God bless you all. I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” were Trump’s first words. Trump claimed the “fake case” was brought “only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election” and said it should be “dropped immediately.”
