According to the media, a decision on a possible charge will be taken in the next week at the earliest. The investigation against Trump deals with a clandestine payment to porn actress Stephanie Clifford.
Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg has criticized former US President Donald Trump’s behavior in the investigation into a clandestine payment to a porn actress. Trump stoked “false expectations” of an imminent arrest over the weekend, Bragg’s office wrote in a letter to three Republican congressmen on Thursday.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social online platform on Saturday that he was due to be arrested on Tuesday. Previously, there were growing signs of accusations against the 76-year-old Republican in the case of a clandestine payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels. However, no charges were brought against Trump.
According to media reports, a decision is not expected to be made until next week at the earliest. The grand jury in charge, a lay body responsible for the indictments, therefore did not want to deal with the Trump case on Thursday, but next Monday at the earliest.
Republican lawmakers Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil accused Bragg of “unprecedented abuse” of his official powers following Trump’s Social Truth statement over the weekend and asked him to testify before Congress about his investigation and provide relevant documents.
Prosecutors reject allegations
The Manhattan Attorney’s Office rejected that in a letter to the three lawmakers on Thursday. Referring to the Republican letter sent on Monday, the agency wrote: “The letter came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and after his lawyers urged him to act. a legitimate basis for a congressional investigation.”
The investigation against Trump involves a clandestine payment of $ 130,000 (about 120,000 euros) to porn actress Stephanie Clifford, known by the name of Stormy Daniels. The payment before the 2016 presidential election was apparently intended to prevent the porn star, who claims she had a sexual affair with Trump in 2006, from becoming public, which could have harmed the presidential candidate.
The question is whether the payment was illegally accounted for and the extent to which it violated campaign finance laws. Trump has denied an affair with Stormy Daniels and any wrongdoing regarding the silence payment. The right-wing populist, who wants to retake the White House in 2024, has repeatedly described the investigations and other allegations as a politically motivated “witch hunt”.
(APA/AFP)