Former president Donald Trump made a momentous courtroom appearance April 4, when he was confronted with a 34-count felony indictment charging him with conspiring to bury allegations of extramarital affairs that arose during his first White House campaign.
With Trump watching in silence, prosecutors bluntly accused him of criminal conduct and set the stage for a possible criminal trial in the city where he became a celebrity decades ago.
The indictment centers on allegations that Trump falsified internal business records at his private company while trying to cover up an effort to illegally influence the 2016 election by arranging payments that silenced claims potentially harmful to his candidacy. It includes 34 counts of fudging records related to checks Trump sent to his personal lawyer and problem-solver to reimburse him for his role in paying off a porn actor who said she had an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.
Alabama State University students are not at all surprised by Trump’s arraignment, and many are wondering why Trump has not already been arraigned for his past actions.
Freshman Symon Greenwood, a dance major, said, “I am glad that he is finally being held accountable for the crimes he has committed, even if he is only being admitted to a few of them.”
“I believe that Donald Trump being publicly affrained was important for the Americans to see and to see someone that was held so highly punished and placed in handcuffs like a regular citizen reiterates that no one should be above the law.” Greenwood said, “regardless of who you are or what power you hold.”
Vaeh Archer is a junior political science who feels like if he truly deserve it if he really did what they said he did then he deserve it.
Ty’Queria Evans, ,a sophomore psychology major, feels that it is about accountability.
“I was waiting for the time when people start actually holding him accountable for his crimes,” Evans said, “but they should have done it a lot sooner.”
Nakiya Norris is a freshman majoring in biology. “I feel like he got what he deserved; he did a lot of unlawful crimes at the time; if you do the crime, you do the time.”
Trump, somber and silent as he entered and exited the Manhattan courtroom, said “not guilty” in a firm voice while facing a judge who warned him to refrain from rhetoric that could inflame or cause civil unrest. All told the ever-verbose Trump, who for weeks before Tuesday’s arraignment had assailed the case against him as political persecution, uttered only 10 words in the courtroom. He appeared to glare for a period at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor who brought the case.
All 34 counts against Trump are linked to a series of checks that were written to Cohen to reimburse him for his role in paying off Daniels. Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded in various internal company documents as being for a legal retainer that prosecutors say didn’t exist. Cohen testified before the grand jury and is expected to be a star prosecution witness.
Nine of those monthly checks were paid out of Trump’s personal accounts, but records related to them were maintained in the Trump Organization’s data system.