Ex-U.S. President Trump To Be Arraigned Next Tuesday After Indictment Over $130,000 Hush Money Paid To Porn Star

 

Donald Trump, formerly US president will be arraigned before New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan next Tuesday, his lawyer Susan Necheles told AFP.

 

 Trump huddled with lawyers and advisers at his Mar-a-Lago home on Thursday evening after news broke that a Manhattan jury had voted to indict him over a $130,000 hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump blasted the indictment and said Democrats would regret persecuting an innocent man when his supporters dumped them out of office.

Thursday’s indictment made him the first former US president to face criminal charges, even as he makes another run for the White House.

In the meantime, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was in touch with Trump’s lawyers to arrange his surrender in New York.

A source told DailyMail that the head of Trump’s security detail recently travelled to Manhattan to review arrangements and that the former president would likely be formally arrested next week.

That could be as soon as Tuesday, Susan Necheles, one of his lawyers, told the New York Times.

Although the indictment is sealed for now, CNN reported that it contained more than 30 criminal charges.

‘The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to “Get Trump,” but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant election Interference,’ Trump said in an emailed statement.

‘Never before in our nation’s history has this been done.’

The indictment marks the end of a five-year investigation into cash paid to the adult movie star in 2016, allegedly to buy her silence about their affair.

And it takes the country into uncharted political and legal territory. Although being charged with a crime would not disqualify him from running for office, it does mean a leading 2024 candidate faces the humiliation of arrest.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said talks had begun to bring Trump to New York.

‘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,’ they said.

Earlier, Trump played nine holes of golf at his Florida club as usual on Thursday morning. But the 76-year-old did not stay for lunch even though his usual table was reserved.

A source close to his Mar-a-Lago home said the Trump team was ready with statements and social media messaging as soon as the indictment dropped.

 

 

‘We had a plan in place and the plan was executed,’ he said. ‘Getting surrogates out, getting content out.’

Within minutes his sons Don Jr and Eric were livecasting or tweeting, fundraising appeals followed and an emailed statement arrived from Trump himself in inboxes soon after.

‘I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden,’ said Trump, before criticizing the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

‘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!’

Trump is leading most polls of Republican voters for the party nomination. But the Manhattan case is just one of the legal obstacles he faces, including probes into efforts to overthrow the result of the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Many leading legal scholars believe the hush money case may be the weakest of the lot.

Trump and his allies had even floated the idea that the case was being dropped after a series of delays to grand jury hearings.

As a result, the indictment landed out of the blue on Thursday evening.

It leaves a city braced for protests. All uniformed members of the New York Police Department need to be ‘prepared for deployment,’ according to memo obtained by the New York Times.

His lawyers, Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, promised to fight the ‘political prosecution’ in court. ‘President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime,’ they said.

Although he is the first former president to be criminally charged, he is not the first presidential candidate to be criminally charged. Eugene Debs, convicted of sedition and jailed for his opposition to World War One, ran for president five times.