Former President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he expects to be arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday and called for nationwide protests.
Summary
Former President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday as part of the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into an alleged “hush money” payment and called for nationwide protests.
- “Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office … indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven … the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” the former President wrote on Truth Social.
- Trump cited “illegal leaks” from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that indicated he would be taken into custody. The former president’s attorney and spokesman said they had not received any communications from prosecutors about a possible arrest.
- Bragg’s office is investigating whether Trump committed a crime by concealing his payment to his former attorney Michael Cohen to reimburse Cohen for a $130,000 so-called “hush money” payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels. The payment came in the last days of the 2016 campaign and was allegedly intended to ensure Daniels would not speak out about an affair she had with Trump.
- A Trump indictment would mark the first indictment of a former U.S. president in history. Once the Manhattan grand jury concludes its investigation, prosecutors will decide whether to indict Trump. Typically, defendants are expected to surrender to police before being fingerprinted and having a mugshot taken. An arraignment hearing would likely follow shortly after.
- Trump’s likely 2024 rivals defended the former president. “The idea of indicting a former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me as it is to tens of millions of Americans,” said former Vice President Mike Pence in Iowa. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called a potential Trump indictment “a national disaster” and “un-American for the ruling party to use police power to arrest its political rivals.”
- As NBC News put it, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and “several MAGA Republicans” defended Trump no Saturday ahead of a possible indictment. McCarthy tweeted, “Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.” Rep. Elise Stefanik said this indicated Democrats have attained “a dangerous new low.”
- CNN reported meetings between city, state, and federal law enforcement officials have been taking place all week in New York City ahead of a possible Trump indictment. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, New York State Court Officers, and the New York Police Department have all taken part in the meetings.
- According to Politico, McCarthy plans to instruct several House committees to investigate
- Sen. Lindsey Graham blasted Bragg for his “ongoing, never ending” efforts to “destroy Donald Trump,” according to Fox News. Meanwhile, Graham said, in New York, “you’re lucky if you don’t get mugged on the way to where you’re going. Is this really the most important thing going on in Manhattan?”
- Breitbart reported the case against Trump seemed to accelerate this week after Daniels’ attorney said she had met with Bragg’s office and agreed to serve as a witness. Cohen has previously said he was “pressured to make a $130,000 hush money payment on behalf of the former president” ahead of the 2016 election.
- National Review’s Andrew McCarthy called a potential Trump indictment “nakedly political,” “a disgrace,” yet likely “good for Democratic political fortunes in the long term.” McCarthy writes, “Democrats want to run against Trump in 2024. Their dream scenario is that Trump becomes a GOP juggernaut as he did in 2016, rolls over Florida governor Ron DeSantis (whom Democrats most certainly do not want to run against) and the rest of the field, storms to the Republican nomination, and then is soundly thrashed by the Democratic candidate (probably President Biden). Democrats know Trump cannot win a national election.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
