Donald Trump’s power is being questioned after the Stormy indictment

In the 2024 elections the two powers will clash within the United States. The Democratic Party, predictably led by Joe Biden, will have “presidential power” during the election race. Republicans, after the end of the primaries led by Donald Trump, will use another kind of power: the one that motivated him to raise $4 million in 24 hours as a result of his imputation in the Stormy case.

Trump, a former resident of the White House since 2020, cannot be said to have “presidential power”. Although, considering the events, it may be that he doesn’t need it. Along with the stripes bestowed upon him as the first former president of the United States to be indicted in a criminal investigation, Trump retains the status leading the race for the Republican nomination. The latest polls show him leading by more than 25 percentage points over his main rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a lead that has been growing since November.

The $4 million (3.68 million euros) in donations came after Trump made a personal request through the Truth social network and his campaign team sent more than a dozen emails in less than a day. The New Yorker’s campaign points out that more than a quarter of the donations were given by people who they have never worked with a campaign before.

If Trump and his legal team initially greeted the accusation with surprise, it was soon replaced with glee. Pictures of his arrest could be valuable in future fundraisers. Aware of this, according to sources close to him, the former president would joke about “golden women”.

While the media potential of his arrest could prove beneficial to the campaign he is embroiled in, the legal ramifications of the case offer worse prospects. Considering them, the legal strategy of defending the former president could go through the submission of request after request in order to prolong the process for years.

The events of last week, when the imputation of the former president for payment $130,000 for porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for their silence on the sexual encounter, they also prompted a series of statements of support from a significant portion of Republicans. From his primary rivals to House Republicans, the former president’s grip on America’s conservative party appears unwavering.

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The case of the House of Representatives illustrates an influence that, despite recent electoral defeats, may continue to grow in the future. Incumbent Kevin McCarthy’s need to make concessions to Trump’s most loyal representatives in order to secure his job in January has caused much of the House’s legislative and oversight activity to be tied to the magnate’s needs.

Hence the fixation on the body’s Judiciary Committee, chaired by another of Trump’s staunchest allies, Jim Jordan, to expose the alleged “political persecution” behind the Stormy trial.

That’s not “the power of the presidency,” but it opens up possibilities beyond the reach of other Republican primary candidates.

“Presidential power”, in addition to material advantages, gives the occupants of the White House an aura of presidentialism that facilitates the search for re-election. Not for nothing, of the 46 presidents the United States has had throughout its history, only 10 were not re-elected. Trump is the last of them, the first in decades. If he repeats as the Republican candidate, he would have a chance to make up for it. In 2020, “presidential power” did not serve him to maintain his duties. In 2024, another force may serve to reclaim it.

The Fox network is on trial for claims that the 2020 election was rigged

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Judge Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the case Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News for defamation will go to trial. The company, which makes voting machines, has sued media mogul Rupert Murdoch for spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election and is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.

During the election campaign three years ago, Fox News broadcasts even said that Dominion Voting Systems was a company created in Venezuela by Hugo Chávez for the sole purpose of rigging the US election and commit voter fraud in concert with the Democratic Party.

The judge believes that the evidence shows that the claims are about electoral manipulation they are fake. It also finds that the accusations by the Fox hosts and guests are not opinions, as the network claimed. Judge Davis opined that it is an oxymoron “to call statements opinions while asserting that they are news statements and/or accurate reports of official proceedings.”

Fox’s defense revolved around the argument that it was First Amendment to the Constitution protect freedom of the press. For the chain, giving voice to members of the Trump administration in their attack on Dominion meant covering the news. For the judge, on the other hand, that argument would only be valid if the chain included opposing arguments, which it did not do, or if it analyzed the truth of the statements against Dominion, which it also did not do. .

Now the jury will have to decide whether Fox acted with “malice”, that is, if he voiced the claims against Dominion knowing them to be false, or if the abuse of chain occurred out of recklessness rather than bad faith.