The former US President assured on Saturday that he would be “arrested” on Tuesday and called for demonstrations. Accused of buying the silence of a porn actress with whom he allegedly had an affair with funds raised from his 2016 presidential campaign, he could face indictment.
The possible indictment of Donald Trump would be a first for a former American president. Accused by the courts of paying a bribe to a porn actress with whom he was allegedly having an affair to buy his silence, he pledged on Saturday that he would be “arrested” on Tuesday and called for demonstrations.
After he had an affair with an actress and director of porn films, Stephanie Clifford, he would have paid her $130,000 to buy her silence.
Republicans are in turmoil
It was her former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who had become one of her worst enemies, who was responsible for paying the porn actress the $130,000 to keep quiet about this alleged 2006 relationship with Donald Trump.
Convicted in that case, Michael Cohen testified at least twice before the grand jury in that investigation last week. On Friday, one of the former president’s attorneys, Joseph Tacopina, told the media that his client would “go” before the New York City judiciary if indicted.
“The idea of impeaching a former President of the United States troubles me deeply, as it does for tens of millions of Americans,” former Vice President Mike Pence told The Guardian.
And Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy tweeted that “an outrageous abuse of power by an extremist prosecutor who is giving violent criminals free rein while pursuing political revenge on President Trump.”
Bribery Campaign Fund
This payment case happened just before the November 2016 presidential election, which the Republican billionaire won against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump was not yet President of the United States.
He is said to have used funds from his presidential campaign to make the payment, which New York City prosecutors consider a hidden donation, in violation of campaign finance laws. The investigation is almost complete, so Donald Trump could soon be charged.
“The Republican Party candidate” in the 2024 presidential primary, “and former President of the United States of America, will be arrested Tuesday next week,” Donald Trump launched on his social network Truth Social, referring to him in the third person in all capital letters .
So far, no one has confirmed this Tuesday date proposed by Donald Trump. One of his lawyers, Susan Necheles, told AFP her client had decided to comment on a possible indictment next week on her platform Truth Social “based on press information” that had been released for a few days.
summons to the public prosecutor’s office
“Because this is a political prosecution, instead of communicating with President Donald Trump’s attorneys as they normally should, prosecutors are resorting to leaks to the press,” denounced his advice.
However, if charged, things will not go the classic way: the police will not come to his house to take him to jail. Because of his status as a former president, he will be summoned to the prosecutor’s office, who will inform him of the charges against him, and he should normally be released pending trial.
Law enforcement agencies, as well as local and federal security agencies, are preparing for the possibility of those charges as early as next week, several senior officials familiar with those preparations told NBC on Friday, specifying that the planning remained pre-emptive.
Rumors of this possible indictment have multiplied since Donald Trump was invited to testify before a grand jury — a panel of citizens with sweeping investigative powers responsible for confirming an indictment.
call for protest
A possible sign of the prosecutor’s desire to indict the former president in the so-called “Stormy Daniels” case. In view of this, Donald Trump is posing as a victim and calling on his supporters to demonstrate. “Protest, take back our nation!” he wrote on his social network.
“We have to save America, demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate!!!” Donald Trump repeated a few hours later on his social network.
These messages echo those he launched in late 2020, believing that he had been “deprived” of voting against Joe Biden so his supporters could demonstrate in Washington on January 6, 2021, a prelude to their attack on the US Capitol that had shocked America and the world.
On his social media, he called the services of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected judge and Democrat, “corrupt and very political.”
Donald Trump was the subject of a first New York Times criminal investigation in the late 1970s.
Donald Trump, who is campaigning for the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential election, will hold a rally in Waco, Texas next Saturday. And for billionaire Elon Musk, who facilitated his Twitter reinstatement, Trump will be “re-elected in a landslide victory” in November 2024 if an arrest occurs.
Antoine Howard with Marine Ledoux