Donald Trump became the first former US president to be charged with a crime on Thursday after a New York grand jury indicted him for hush money payments made to a porn actress during his 2016 presidential campaign.
The 76-year-old Republican’s historic indictment, which comes despite his denial of any wrongdoing in relation to the payments made before the election that propelled him to the White House, is guaranteed to upend the current presidential contest in which Trump intends to win re-election.
And it will forever symbolise the history of the former president, who overcame two impeachments, resisted prosecution in cases involving the US Capitol riot and missing confidential documents, only to find herself in court for a sex scandal involving 44-year-old adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s attorney, Susan Necheles, told AFP she anticipates arraignment to take place on Tuesday of the following week.
Trump’s attorneys were called Thursday evening to “arrange his surrender” in New York, with the criminal accusations against him to be made public at that time, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
Trump blasted the charge as “political persecution and electoral meddling,” lashing out at the police and his Democratic rivals while threatening his successor, Joseph Biden, with the consequences.
As reported by CNN, surrendering for arraignment over up to 30 charges of corporate fraud would typically include being fingerprinted, photographed, and sometimes even handcuffed.
In the Republican camp, Trump’s supporters and sons blasted the indictment as “un-American,” while his anticipated opponent for the party’s nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, blasted it as a vendetta meant to destroy his 2024 campaign.
READ ALSO: Trump replies to the indictment
The leading Republican in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, claimed that the indictment had “irreparably destroyed” the nation. Mike Pence, a potential rival to Trump in 2024, termed it an “outrage” that will only “further serve to divide” the country.
Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat and the prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment case in 2019, termed it “a frightening and unprecedented development.”
In a statement, Schiff stated that the indictment and arrest of a former president were unprecedented in American history. Yet the illegal behaviour for which Trump is accused is also criminal.
Daniels accepted the change with her trademark panache.
She tweeted about her #TeamStormy products and said, “I have so many messages flowing in that I can’t respond… also don’t want to spill my champagne.”
Potential demonstrations
The payment to Daniels, who received $130,000 weeks before the election that put Trump in office, to prevent her from going public with accusations of a tryst they allegedly had a decade earlier, led to Trump’s declaration on March 18 that he anticipated being jailed within days.
Trump predicted his indictment and simultaneously called for protests, expressing concern that it may result in “possible murder and devastation” that “could be disastrous for our nation.”
While the grand jury panel continued to hear testimony, the possibility of an immediate indictment seemed to fade after his comments put New York on edge for potential protests—until Thursday.
A small group of anti-Trump protestors and a media scrum soon formed outside the district attorney’s office, but otherwise things remained quiet.
In 2019, Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen, who has testified before the grand jury, told Congress that he paid Daniels on the president’s behalf and was subsequently repaid.
The jury was instructed to evaluate if there had been a cover-up meant to help Trump’s campaign by burying the problem after prosecutors said the checks were not legally recorded.
Of the three significant investigations involving the former president, the New York inquiry is the first to make a judgement on charges.
In addition, Trump is under criminal investigation in Georgia for the 2020 election and in Washington for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which was carried out by the former president’s followers who wanted to keep him in office following his loss to Joseph Biden.
Republican candidates in the lead
Trump, who is widely seen as the leading candidate to represent the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election, has called all of the probes “political retaliation.”
His opponents and critics both have expressed doubts about the legal viability of the hush money issue, making the effect of an indictment on his prospects of winning the race unclear.
Detractors are concerned that if Trump were to be exonerated, it may be simpler to dismiss as a “witch hunt” any future indictment in situations that are arguably more severe—ssuch as Trump’s attempts to invalidate the results of the election in Georgia.
The Manhattan accusations will probably increase support for Trump among his supporters and increase his prospects of winning the party primary.
Trump had his first campaign event in Texas on Saturday, speaking to a far smaller crowd of supporters than the 15,000 he had anticipated in Waco, Texas.
He warned the enraged throng, “These extreme left maniacs don’t give a damn about people’s innocence.”
