International Bar Association: Donald Trump becomes first former US president to face criminal charges
This article features Government Accountability Project Legal Director, Tom Devine, and was originally published here.
On 30 March, a grand jury meeting behind closed doors in New York City made history by voting to indict former US president Donald Trump. It’s the first time a former president has been criminally charged and moves the US into uncharted legal territory.
The felony indictment on more than two dozen counts involves alleged hush money paid by Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run up to the 2016 presidential election. Trump was scheduled for arraignment in a Manhattan courtroom on 4 April. He issued a statement after the grand jury voted to indict him, calling it a ‘political persecution’ and a ‘witch hunt’. He has denied any relationship with Daniels and disavowed knowledge of the hush money scheme.
‘This is the most current test of a first principle for a free society, whether any person is above the law, and that includes presidents,’ says Tom Devine, Legal Director at the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy group in Washington, DC. ‘The trials [in the Daniels case and relating to any other charges against Trump] themselves will determine guilt or innocence but in a democracy, there’s no excuse for trying to stop the fact-finding about crimes just because someone used to be the president.’
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