Former United States President Donald Trump has set his sights to a comeback to the White House in 2024.
But the road ahead is not so rosy for the producer of “The Apprentice”, as he is facing criminal charges all over the country making him the first former U.S. president to experience the humiliation of being arraigned in court.
In our country, of course, this is not a unique case as former presidents Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo have landed in jail in the past.
Immediately after he lost his reelection bid against U.S. President Joe Biden, Trump has mobilized his loyal supporters and aped a version of our people power – the difference being that it was violent and attacked the Capitol and Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
The assault on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters sought to halt the congressional certification of Biden’s election victory.
Trump has incited the mini-revolt with a fiery speech nearby urging the crowd to “fight like hell against the election results.” Federal prosecutors have obtained convictions or guilty pleas from more than 500 people for participating in the Capitol riot, and the result would be the principal.
Trump was then impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time and charged him with incitement of insurrection over the deadly siege of the Capitol, but the Senate fell short of the majority needed to convict him and so he went scot-free denouncing the trial as “the greatest witch hunt in history”.
In 2019, he was first impeached over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate again acquitted the lucky Republican.
Now in Miami, he was arraigned over his handling of classified documents among them the war plan against Iran, charged with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison,
He is accused of endangering national security by holding on to top secret nuclear and defense documents including records from the Pentagon, Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, keeping unsecured files at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and thwarted official efforts to retrieve them until the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his home and charged him for conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and other offenses.
After court, he asked his supporters to rally but nobody came.
In New York, a grand jury indicted Trump over “hush” or “silence fee” payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election to silence her who said she had a tryst with him in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump.
Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her pledge of confidentiality. He faces 34 felony counts where he will be tried next year.
Sustaining his playboy image, Trump was found civilly liable for sexually abusing and defaming former magazine columnist, E. Jean Carroll, in 1996 and ordered to pay her $5 million in damages.
There is also another civil case against him and his three children, accusing them of fraud by overvaluing their assets to secure loans and then undervaluing them to minimize taxes. The prosecutor is seeking $250M in penalties as well as banning them from serving as executives at companies in New York
In the southern state of Georgia, Trump is under investigation for conspiracy connected to election fraud and meddling, pressuring officials to overturn Biden’s election victory, including a recorded phone call in which he asked the then-secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse the result.
Trump should have studied our very own “Garci”, first.
With all his legal woes, the ratings remain competitive for the tough-talking former President and he seems geared up for his return bout with Biden in 2024.
Trump claims like all our jailed past presidents and senators assert – deny all wrongdoing and claim innocence.
Trump gnashing his teeth defiantly says, “Kiss my ass!
Sigh.
April 29, 2024
