Manhattan prosecutors indicted Donald Trump after a years-long probe—the first criminal charges against a former US president. The district attorney verified the sealed charges. Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, said he would submit on Tuesday for arraignment.
The grand jury in the hush money probe votes to file the first case against the former US president Trump: "This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in
Manhattan prosecutors indicted Donald Trump after a years-long probe—the first criminal charges against a former US president. The district attorney verified the sealed charges. Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, said he would submit on Tuesday for arraignment. Trump was charged. He was innocent. “We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court,” Necheles and another Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said. A New York grand jury heard testimony from Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the case against him. Cohen claims he was told to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to cover up an affair. The charges were unknown. The NYT reported the charge.“This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said after his lawyers were told of the charges. “The Democrats have lied, cheated, and stolen in their obsession to “get Trump,” but now they’ve done the unthinkable—indicting a completely innocent person.”The Democratic-led Manhattan district attorney’s office investigated whether Daniels, whose true name is Stephanie Clifford, violated campaign finance and accounting laws for four years. Cohen was sentenced to three years in jail in 2018 after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations related to the payment. The unprecedented charges follow two weeks of intense speculation about the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation, led by Alvin Bragg, which began when Trump declared he expected to be arrested last week. This week, media reports suggested the grand jury hearing evidence was prepared to take an extended break, leading observers to wonder if the investigation had stalled. Trump will be arrested, fingerprinted, photographed, and released on bail after entering a plea in a Manhattan courthouse. Trump fans in Washington and nationwide will likely lash out at the indictment. On Thursday, many Republicans defended Bragg, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said Bragg had “weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump."Several Republican House committee chairs are investigating Bragg’s probe, accusing him of bowing to left-wing political pressure in his case against Trump. Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer urged Trump and his allies to let the legal process proceed "peacefully."Schumer stated, “Mr. Trump is subject to the same laws as every American.” The court system and a jury, not politics, will decide his fate. Trump previously called for his followers to protest and “take our nation back” if he was indicted and arrested. Trump told reporters at the conservative CPAC gathering this month that he would run for president if indicted. Trump said he wouldn’t leave. “It may boost my numbers.”