From Reuters:
“Trump hit with criminal charges in
New York, a first for a US ex-president”
Donald Trump has been indicted by a
Manhattan grand jury after a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy
Daniels, two sources said on Thursday, becoming the first former U.S. president
to face criminal charges even as he makes another run for the White House. The
charges, arising from an investigation led by Democratic Manhattan District
Attorney Alvin Bragg, could reshape the 2024 presidential race. Trump
previously said he would continue campaigning for the Republican Party's
nomination if charged with a crime. The specific charges are not yet known and
the indictment will likely be announced in the coming days, the New York Times
reported. Trump will have to travel to Manhattan for fingerprinting and other
processing at that point. Susan Necheles, a lawyer representing Trump, said she
was informed of the indictment but did not know when he would surrender. A law
enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, also confirmed the
indictment. Bragg's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump, 76, sought re-election in 2020 but was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has falsely claimed he lost to Biden due to widespread voting fraud and
has called the investigation that led to his indictment a "political witch
hunt." Bragg's office last year won the criminal conviction of the
businessman-turned-politician's real estate company.
The Manhattan investigation is one of
several legal challenges facing Trump, and the charges could hurt his
presidential comeback attempt. Some 44% of Republicans said he should drop out
of the race if he is indicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last
week. The grand jury convened by Bragg in January began hearing evidence about
Trump's role in the payment to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential
election that he ended up winning. Daniels, a well-known adult film actress and
director whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received the money
in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in
2006. The former president's personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said Trump
directed hush payments to Daniels and to a second woman, former Playboy model
Karen McDougal, who also said she had a sexual relationship with him. Trump has
denied having affairs with either woman. Federal prosecutors examined the
Daniels payoff in 2018, leading to a prison sentence for Cohen but no charges
against Trump. No former or sitting U.S. president has ever faced criminal
charges. Trump also faces two criminal investigations by a special counsel
appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and one by a local
prosecutor in Georgia.
DIVISIVE FIGURE Trump, a divisive figure in U.S.
politics with support particularly among white blue-collar and conservative
Christian voters, served as president from 2017 to 2021, governing as a
right-wing populist. He was impeached twice by the House of Representatives,
once in 2019 over his conduct regarding Ukraine and again in 2021 over the
attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. He was acquitted by the Senate
both times. He leads his early rivals for his party's nomination,
holding the support of 44% of Republicans in a March Reuters/Ipsos poll,
compared with 30% support for his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,
who has yet to announce his candidacy. Biden is expected to seek re-election.
Trump on March 18 wrote on social media that he had expected to be arrested
on March 21 and urged his supporters to protest to "take our nation
back," reminiscent of his exhortations ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack
on the U.S. Capitol.
Several Republicans in Congress
accused Bragg of selective prosecution with political motivations.
"Outrageous," House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jim Jordan wrote on Twitter. Trump in 2018 initially disputed knowing anything
about the payment to Daniels. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the
payment, which he called a "simple private transaction." In 2018,
Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance law violations for his role in
orchestrating the payments to Daniels and McDougal and was sentenced to three
years in prison. He testified that Trump directed him to make the payments. Cohen
testified before the Manhattan grand jury investigating Trump on March 13. The
grand jury also heard from David Pecker, the former publisher of the National
Enquirer. The tabloid publication bought the rights to McDougal's story about
her alleged relationship with Trump for $150,000 but never published it, a
method known as "catch and kill" used by some media outlets to bury
damaging information about a third party. Daniels has said she had a sexual
encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006 - the year after he married
his current wife Melania and more than a decade before the
businessman-turned-politician became president. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2021
rejected her bid to revive a defamation lawsuit she brought against Trump over
a Twitter post in which he accused her of a "con job" after she
described being threatened over publicizing her account of a sexual
relationship with him. Lower courts had thrown out her suit. In the case that
led to the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges, Bragg
declined to charge Trump himself with financial crimes related to his business
practices, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the probe to resign.
Among Trump's ongoing legal woes are
a criminal investigation led by Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney
in Georgia's Fulton County, into whether he unlawfully tried to overturn his
2020 election defeat in that state. Special counsel Jack Smith is separately
investigating Trump's handling of classified government documents after leaving
office and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
^ Trump likes his firsts. First
President to call for a Coup of the US Government (the Attack on the Capital)
and now the First President to be indited and soon to be arrested. I can’t wait
to see his Mug Shot. ^
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