According to two persons familiar with the situation, Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on more than 30 counts of corporate fraud. This is the first time in American history that a sitting or past president has been charged with a crime.
On Tuesday, Trump is anticipated to show up in court.
The indictment was submitted under seal and will be made public soon. At this moment, the charges are not well recognized.
The Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is being looked into the former president in relation to his alleged involvement in a cover-up and hush money payment plot involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that stretches back to the 2016 presidential election.
Although grand jury hearings are private, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a witness spoke for roughly 30 minutes before the grand jury decided to indict Trump.
With the decision, the American political system—which has never seen one of its former leaders face criminal charges, much less compete for office again—will undoubtedly be thrust into unknown territory.
Trump released a statement in response to the indictment claiming it was “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”
“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden,” the former president said. “The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
According to someone who spoke with Trump personally, the grand jury’s decision to indict him caught him off guard.
The former president started to believe press reports that a possible indictment was weeks – or more – away when he was ready for a charge last week.
“Is this a shock today? Hell yes,” the person said, speaking on a condition of anonymity as Trump’s team calculated its response.
The office of Bragg claimed to be in contact with Trump’s attorneys.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
Trump’s defense attorney, Joe Tacopina, claimed that the day after a Manhattan grand jury decided to prosecute him, on Friday, the former president was initially requested to turn himself into police in New York.
However, Tacopina claimed that the timing of the indictment caught him off guard and that extra time was required since the Secret Service, which is in charge of protecting the former president, had to plan his surrender in New York.
Trump has vowed to continue campaigning for president even in the face of criminal charges, so the legal action against him jolts the 2024 campaign into a new phase.
Trump routinely refers to the several investigations into him as a “witch hunt,” hoping to influence public opinion by portraying himself as the victim of what he claims are political investigations conducted by Democratic prosecutors.
Trump called on his fans to protest his arrest as the indictment got closer, mirroring similar calls to action he made after the 2020 election to reverse his loss to President Joe Biden.
A tweet from Greg Price’s official account remarked, “Donald Trump has been indicted by the Manhattan grand jury. Last year, Alvin Bragg lowered 52% of all felony charges to misdemeanors. But now he chose to elevate a misdemeanor past the statute of limitations to a felony to indict Trump. Total banana republic shit.”-
Donald Trump has been indicted by the Manhattan grand jury.
Last year, Alvin Bragg lowered 52% of all felony charges to misdemeanors.
But now he chose to elevate a misdemeanor past the statute of limitations to a felony to indict Trump.
Total banana republic shit.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 30, 2023
In all facets of his life—personal, professional, and political—Trump has long dodged legal repercussions. Through the years, he has paid his way out of legal battles involving the Trump Organization, which bears his name, and many private civil litigations.
The Democratic-controlled House twice removed him from office as president, but the Senate did not convict him.
Even though Trump was not indicted in that case, the Trump Organization was found guilty of multiple counts of tax fraud in December.
Republicans who support Trump and his challengers in the GOP primary for 2024 have criticized the Manhattan district attorney’s office over the impending prosecution.
“I think the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the United States on a campaign finance issue is an outrage,” former Vice President Mike Pence told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview Thursday night. “It appears to millions of Americans to be nothing more than a political prosecution driven by a prosecutor who ran for office on a pledge to indict the former president.”
GOP Rallies To Trump’s Defense
Republican lawmakers promptly defended Trump after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised to look into the situation, blasting Bragg on Twitter and charging the district attorney with conducting a political witch hunt.
Jim Jordan of the House Judiciary Committee, a Republican pushing for Bragg to testify before Congress over the Trump investigation, called it “outrageous” in a tweet.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, called the indictment “completely unprecedented” and said it is “a catastrophic escalation in the weaponization of the justice system.”
Yet, at least one centrist Republican told CNN he believed in the justice system.
“I believe in the rule of law. I think we have checks and balances and I trust the system,” said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.
“We have a judge. We have jurors. There is appeals. So I think in the end, justice will be done. If he’s guilty it will show up. But if not, I think that will be shown too,” Bacon told CNN.
Investigation Began Under Cy Vance
Trump was invited to appear before the grand jury looking into the hush money plot, and Bragg’s office hinted as recently as early March that they were near to filing charges against him.
According to New York law, prospective defendants must get notice and an invitation to appear before a grand jury considering charges. Yet, in the end, Trump opted not to address the panel.
While Trump was president, Cy Vance, Bragg’s predecessor, launched the protracted probe.
It has to do with a $130,000 payment made to Daniels by Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen in late October 2016, just days before the 2016 election, to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with the president from a decade prior. Trump has refuted the relationship.
The probe centers on the payment made to Daniels and Cohen’s reimbursement from the Trump Organization.
According to court documents in Cohen’s federal prosecution, the Trump Organization officials authorized payments to Cohen totaling $420,000 to cover his initial $130,000 paymandyent, tax obligations, and bonus.
The Trump Organization listed the reimbursements as a legal expense in its accounts. Trump has said that he was unaware of the payment.
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