Former US President Donald Trump has described the 2024 presidential election as the final battle. During a campaign appearance in Davenport, Iowa last night (local time), Trump said in front of supporters: “2024 is the last battle.” Addressing his potential constituents, he said, “If you put me back in the White House, the rule of the corrupt Washington establishment will end.” The United States would be a free nation again. “We will fulfill our mission.”
A few months ago, the ex-president was the first Republican to announce his candidacy for the next election. Trump’s choice of words for 2024 has a bitter aftertaste after he hasn’t conceded defeat in the 2020 election and launched a campaign against the outcome that ended in an unprecedented outburst of violence.
Trump supporters violently stormed the seat of parliament in Washington on January 6, 2021. Congress met there to formally confirm the victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election. Trump had previously incited his supporters in a speech that he had been deprived of a victory by massive election fraud. Five people died as a result of the riots.
Lawyer testifies before possible charges against Trump
In his native New York, the public prosecutor’s office has meanwhile invited Trump’s former lawyer to testify – it is about a possible charge against the ex-president for hush money payments to a porn actress. According to US media reports, Michael Cohen appeared before the so-called grand jury in Manhattan yesterday to discuss details of Trump’s role in the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
In the United States, a jury decides whether to indict a case after the prosecutor has presented evidence. US media assume that this will happen to Trump in the coming days. He would be the first former US President to be charged with a crime.
The case reportedly involves hush money payments to two women: model Karen McDougal and porn star Daniels. Daniels says he had sex with Trump in 2006. According to his own statements, his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, who has since moved away from him, paid her hush money on behalf of Trump in 2016 in order to avert damage from his boss in the presidential election campaign. Trump and his attorneys have granted payment but deny Trump had anything to do with the actress.
Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple counts in court in 2018, including violating campaign finance laws for paying Daniels hush money. In December 2018 he was convicted.
Cohen has worked for Trump for more than a decade and has been a central figure in several affairs involving the president. He was often described as Trump’s “cleanser” until the two broke up. In court and in the US Congress, Cohen raised serious allegations against the President. In a trial, he would be the key witness to incriminate Trump.
