I an unprecedented turn of events, a New York grand jury has voted to indict Trump over hush money payments made to a porn star, making him the first ever former president to face such serious criminal charges.
In an incident, which may turn American politics upside down, the ex-US President Donald Trump has been indicted in New York on charges involving payments to a porn start made during his 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. It’s the first criminal case ever brought against a former US president.
As per multiple media and official source, Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in next week, as the details of a surrender are being worked out. The office of New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who got a grand jury to indict Trump, confirmed to news agency AFP that the Republican’s lawyers have been contacted to “coordinate his surrender… for arraignment.”
“Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,” AFP quoted the spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as saying.
A New York grand jury indicted Donald Trump over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election with which he became the first US president to face criminal charges. If Donald Trump is convicted in the case, he will not be disqualified from running for the presidential elections in 2024. Donald Trump filed his candidacy papers for the polls in November last year.
Following years-long investigation, the charges were made against Donald Trump into a payment that his personal lawyer made to porn star Stormy Daniels- a $130,000 pay-out to silence her over an alleged affair. Donald Trump has repeatedly slammed the investigations and said that he was “completely innocent”.
In a statement, Mr. Trump lashed out at the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, a Democrat, and portrayed the case as the continuation of a politically motivated witch hunt against him. Trump reacted to the new case against him in a poorly-spelled post on his Truth Social website, writing: “These Thugs and Radical Left Monsters have just INDICATED the 45th President of the United States of America, and the leading Republican Candidate, by far, for the 2024 Nomination for President”.
Switching to all uppercase letters, he added: “THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE. IT IS LIKEWISE A CONTINUING ATTACK ON OUR ONCE FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS. THE USA IS NOW A THIRD WORLD NATION, A NATION IN SERIOUS DECLINE. SO SAD!”
“This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history,” Mr. Trump said in the statement, calling Mr. Bragg “a disgrace” and casting himself as “a completely innocent person.”
“President Trump did not commit any crime,” Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Susan R. Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, said in a statement. “We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”
Donald Trump to surrender soon
Mr. Trump is likely to turn himself in on Tuesday, at which point the former president will be photographed and fingerprinted in the bowels of a New York State courthouse, with Secret Service agents in tow. He will then be arraigned, at which point the specific charges will be unsealed. Mr. Trump faces more than two dozen counts, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Donald Trump will not be handcuffed when he surrenders next week in New York to face criminal charges, his defense lawyer Joe Tacopina said on Friday. Susan Necheles, another Trump attorney, said the former president will plead not guilty.
Tacopina said, while Trump was not expected to be cuffed, he likely would be fingerprinted and undergo other routine protocols when going to court on Tuesday to face charges in an indictment handed down by a grand jury probing a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
