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PIERS MORGAN
Donald Trump’s Stormy Daniels trial is a shameful abuse of power but his enemies could be helping him return to office
Who cares if Donald – who denies it - did or didn’t bed Stormy two decades ago?
DONALD Trump is not everyone’s cup of tea.
I’ve known him for nearly 20 years, and he’s one of the most extraordinary characters I’ve ever met; a charismatic, high-energy, street-smart, trash-talking human whirlwind who people either love or hate with visceral passion.
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Trump is also the most famous person on Planet Earth, which is why
the world’s attention this week has been on a drab 15th floor courtroom in New York where he’s become the first U.S. president in history to ever face a criminal trial.
His alleged crime? Paying $130,000 hush money to cover up an alleged one-night stand with porn star Stormy Daniels in a Beverly Hills hotel suite 18 years ago.
Watch Piers' explosive interviews on his Uncensored YouTube channel here
I’ve been in the same city all week, and it’s all anyone is talking about, mainly because Trump’s a New Yorker to his billionaire
bootstraps.
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He was born here, built his real estate empire here, then became a TV
superstar here, and finally pulled off the political coup of all time
by beating Hillary Clinton to the presidency in 2016.
But now he’s facing up to ten years in prison if he’s convicted, which would represent one of the most stunning falls from grace
imaginable.
It would also represent one of the most outrageous, scandalous, and shameful abuses of partisan political power imaginable.
Frankly, it beggars belief that one of only 46 men to be President of
the United States in America’s 247-year history is being treated in such a pathetically petty and demeaning manner over something so
trivial.
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Who cares if Donald – who denies it - did or didn’t bed Stormy two decades ago?
Even if he did, and when I interviewed Ms Daniels last year, she was very convincing in her account of what happened, it was a consensual
fling between two adults.
WATCH LIVE: Former US President Donald Trump's Trial Over Hush Money Payment
You can morally disapprove given that Trump’s third wife Melania was pregnant at the time. But he and Melania are still together so they’ve clearly worked through any marital issues they may or may not have had.
And Trump didn’t even become a politician for another nine years.
Stinking hypocrisy
So, the idea that it’s now led to a criminal trial which could lead to him potentially spending the rest of his life – Trump will be 78 in June – in prison is ridiculous.
Particularly when you consider that the man who’s brought the case,
Manhattan’s District Attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, is a lifelong Democrat
who has torn up all the usual rules in pursuing what many see as a
malicious, politically motivated case against the Republican nominee
to be President again.
The main allegation, that Trump falsified his financial records to hide the hush money, is usually treated as a state-level misdemeanour in New York, not a federal crime; the statute of limitations on this misdemeanour has expired anyway; and Bragg’s main witness, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, is a convicted criminal and proven serial liar.
All of it adds up to a political stitch-up, and that’s how most view it.
That’s not to say Trump is an angelic choirboy incapable of committing crimes.
Piers Morgan
A recent poll revealed only a third of Americans think Trump did
something illegal in this case, just 3 in 10 feel prosecutors are treating the former president fairly, and only 2 in 10 are confident the judge and jurors can be impartial.
Even if Trump did pay off Stormy to keep quiet, it would be no different to myriad similar deals struck by the rich and famous in America to stop damaging stories coming out, true or false.
And there’s a stinking hypocrisy about the way Democrats have tried
to destroy Trump over sexual peccadillos.
Bill Clinton had sex with intern Monica Lewinski in the Oval Office
and paid $850,000 to settle a case with a woman named Paula Jones who accused him of harassing and assaulting her.
Both these things were considerably more serious than anything Trump did with Stormy Daniels, yet I don’t remember Clinton enduring any criminal trial.
That’s not to say Trump is an angelic choirboy incapable of committing crimes.
Unedifying farce
He is facing far more serious charges relating to classified documents found at his Florida home, trying to interfere in Georgia’s vote count in the 2020 election, and conspiring to overturn the results of that election culminating in the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
All of those should be properly prosecuted.
But this Stormy Daniels case is an unedifying farce that shames America and I believe will help not harm Trump.
Last night, he went from the courtroom to Harlem, and the scene of an incident two years ago when a store owner stabbed a criminal thug to death in self-defence and was initially charged with murder before those charges were dropped.
I’ve known Donald Trump for nearly 20 years, and he’s one of the most extraordinary characters I’ve ever met.
Piers Morgan
He made a powerful speech ironically demanding a new war on crime,
and for police to be allowed to do their jobs.
Afterwards, Trump was greeted by NYPD officers shaking his hand and asking for selfies, and by a large cheering crowd who burst into chants of ‘FOUR MORE YEARS!’
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What this told me is that the more his left-wing enemies try to destroy Donald Trump with their endless legal manoeuvres, the more popular he grows.
And whether they get him convicted of any crimes or not, I suspect the bigger picture is they are martyring him back to the White House.
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