The Guardian
Trump claims he ‘will be arrested’ on Tuesday in New York criminal case
Ex-president makes remark on Truth Social without any official confirmation of the likelihood or timing of charges being brought
Also on Saturday, Trump sent out a fundraising email that said the “Manhattan DA could be close to charging Trump”.
And in a later, inflammatory message on Truth Social he slammed the current government with a post beginning: “It’s time!!! We are a nation in steep decline being led into world war III by a crooked politician” and ending: “We must save America! Protest, protest, protest!!!”
Since leaving the White House, Trump lives at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and moved his residency status from his native New York.
David Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach country in Florida, told CNN that if Trump was indicted in New York “there will be protests here” and added: “You have to worry about potential violence.”
He noted that there would be questions about whether Trump would surrender to the New York authorities or face extradition from Florida.
It emerged in January that Bragg had made the surprise move to impanel a grand jury to hear evidence in the Daniels case.
Daniels met with investigators in Manhattan earlier this week to discuss Trump’s role in a $130,000 payment she received in 2016 aimed at dissuading her from going public about claims she had a sexual liaison with Trump in 2006, before his political career but during his marriage to Melania Trump – an infidelity Trump denies.
This as Cohen gave testimony before the New York grand jury into the case. In 2016 during the election that Trump went on to win, Cohen made the payment and arranged another payout to a different woman, as Trump faced allegations of previous sexual assault and harassment from multiple women – with the money paid at Trump’s direction, Cohen has asserted.
Any charges in this case would most likely involve state crimes of falsifying business records, typically a misdemeanor but a felony if it was part of a cover-up or wider criminal wrongdoing, and here could revolve around campaign finance illegality.
Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with campaign finance crimes related to payments to Daniels and to a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, arguing that the payouts amounted to impermissible gifts to Trump’s election effort.
McDougal, who was paid $150,000, alleged she had an affair with the married Trump in 2006-2007. He denied it.
Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime.
Separately, last year the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced the appointment of Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor and top former justice department official, as special counsel to oversee the investigations into Trump’s role in retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
And in Georgia, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, is investigating whether Trump interfered in the 2020 election in the state.
Donald Trump in Ohio in November 2022. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP
Trump claims he ‘will be arrested’ on Tuesday in New York criminal case
Ex-president makes remark on Truth Social without any official confirmation of the likelihood or timing of charges being brought
Also on Saturday, Trump sent out a fundraising email that said the “Manhattan DA could be close to charging Trump”.
And in a later, inflammatory message on Truth Social he slammed the current government with a post beginning: “It’s time!!! We are a nation in steep decline being led into world war III by a crooked politician” and ending: “We must save America! Protest, protest, protest!!!”
Since leaving the White House, Trump lives at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and moved his residency status from his native New York.
David Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach country in Florida, told CNN that if Trump was indicted in New York “there will be protests here” and added: “You have to worry about potential violence.”
He noted that there would be questions about whether Trump would surrender to the New York authorities or face extradition from Florida.
It emerged in January that Bragg had made the surprise move to impanel a grand jury to hear evidence in the Daniels case.
Daniels met with investigators in Manhattan earlier this week to discuss Trump’s role in a $130,000 payment she received in 2016 aimed at dissuading her from going public about claims she had a sexual liaison with Trump in 2006, before his political career but during his marriage to Melania Trump – an infidelity Trump denies.
This as Cohen gave testimony before the New York grand jury into the case. In 2016 during the election that Trump went on to win, Cohen made the payment and arranged another payout to a different woman, as Trump faced allegations of previous sexual assault and harassment from multiple women – with the money paid at Trump’s direction, Cohen has asserted.
Any charges in this case would most likely involve state crimes of falsifying business records, typically a misdemeanor but a felony if it was part of a cover-up or wider criminal wrongdoing, and here could revolve around campaign finance illegality.
Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with campaign finance crimes related to payments to Daniels and to a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, arguing that the payouts amounted to impermissible gifts to Trump’s election effort.
McDougal, who was paid $150,000, alleged she had an affair with the married Trump in 2006-2007. He denied it.
Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Trump with any crime.
Separately, last year the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced the appointment of Jack Smith, a veteran prosecutor and top former justice department official, as special counsel to oversee the investigations into Trump’s role in retaining classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
And in Georgia, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, is investigating whether Trump interfered in the 2020 election in the state.
Donald Trump in Ohio in November 2022. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP
2 yr. ago
