Charges come as T**** makes another run for the White House
The Associated Press
Manhattan grand jury on Thursday voted to indict D***** T**** on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of two extramarital sexual encounters, the first criminal case ever against a former U.S. president and a jolt to T****'s bid to retake the White House in 2024.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed the indictment. The district attorney's office issued a statement saying a date for arraignment has not been selected. T**** was asked to surrender Friday but his lawyers said the Secret Service needed additional time to make security preparations, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The people, who couldn't publicly discuss security details, said T**** is expected to surrender early next week. District Attorney Alvin Bragg left his office Thursday evening without commenting. The specific charges are not yet known, as the indictment remains under seal. CNN reported T**** faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud. Prosecutors in New York investigated money paid to adult film performer and director Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep both women from going public with claims that they had sexual encounters with Trump before he became president.
T****, a Republican who's running for the White House again in 2024, called the decision to indict him "political persecution and election interference at the highest level," in a lengthy statement released minutes after the indictment was announced.
T**** called it the next step in a campaign from the left "to destroy the Make America Great Again movement." "The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to 'Get T****,' but now they've done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference," he said. T**** accused Bragg of doing the "dirty work" of U.S. President Joe Biden, and "ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on." Alina Habba, a lawyer for T****, said the former president is a victim "of a corrupt and distorted version of the American justice system and history. He will be vindicated." In a statement confirming the charges, defence lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said T**** "did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court." T****'s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani (A-HAHAHAHA), said on Twitter that Bragg has made "irresponsible and politically motivated efforts to take [T****] down," calling it "a sad day for America." The indictment is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into T****'s business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanise critics who say he lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor. — Alvin Bragg (@ManhattanDA) March 30, 2023 For any New York defendant, answering criminal charges means being fingerprinted and photographed and spending some time being detained. But there's no playbook for booking an ex-president with Secret Service protection. In bringing the charges, Bragg is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking T****'s indictment. In the weeks leading up to the indictment, T**** railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse. T**** faces other potential legal perils as he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination. The district attorney in Atlanta has for two years been investigating efforts by T**** and his allies to meddle in Georgia's 2020 vote count. And a U.S. Justice Department special counsel is investigating T****'s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and his efforts to reverse his election loss.
D***** T***** indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime
NEW YORK — D***** T**** has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defence lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
The charges remained under seal late Thursday, but the investigation centred on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Prosecutors said they were working to coordinate T****’s surrender, which could happen early next week. They did not say whether they intended to seek prison time in the event of a conviction, a development that wouldn’t prevent T**** from seeking or winning the presidency. The indictment, an extraordinary development after years of investigations into T****’s business, political and personal dealings, injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape duelling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like T****, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor. T****, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. In a statement confirming the charges, defence lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said T**** “did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.” A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to T****’s defence team to coordinate a surrender. T**** was asked to surrender Friday but his lawyers said the Secret Service needed additional time as they made security preparations, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The people, who couldn’t publicly discuss security details, said T**** is expected to surrender early next week. District Attorney Alvin Bragg left his office Thursday evening without commenting. The case centres on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when T****’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors for months scrutinised money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him. The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to T**** campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges were likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day. For a man whose presidency was defined by one obliterated norm after another, the indictment sets up yet another never-before-seen spectacle — a former president having his fingerprints and mug shot taken, and then facing arraignment. For security reasons, his booking is expected to be carefully choreographed to avoid crowds inside or outside the courthouse. The prosecution also means that T**** will have to simultaneously fight for his freedom and political future, while also fending off potentially more perilous legal threats, including investigations into attempts by him and his allies to undo the 2020 election as well into as the hoarding of hundreds of classified documents. In fact, New York was until recently seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute T****, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by T**** that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to his much-publicised efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The indictment comes as T**** seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who may threaten his bid for the presidential nomination. An expected leading rival in the race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, called the indictment “un-American” in a statement Thursday night that pointedly did not mention T****’s name. In bringing the charges, Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is embracing an unusual case that was investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking T****’s indictment. The case may also turn in part on the testimony of a key witness, T****’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges arising from the hush money payments. The probe’s fate seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited T**** to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges. T****’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut Cohen’s credibility. T**** himself raised anticipation that he would be indicted soon, issuing a statement earlier this month in which he predicted an imminent arrest and called for protests. He did not repeat that call in a fresh statement Thursday, but the New York Police Department told its 36,000 officers to be fully mobilised and ready to respond to any potential protests or unrest. Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about what she says was a sexual encounter with T**** a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament. Cohen was then reimbursed by T****’s company, the T**** Organisation, which also rewarded the lawyer with bonuses and extra payments logged internally as legal expenses. Over several months, Cohen said, the company paid him $420,000. Earlier in 2016, Cohen also arranged for the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to squelch her story of a T**** affair in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill.” The payments to the women were intended to buy secrecy, but they backfired almost immediately as details of the arrangements leaked to the news media. Federal prosecutors in New York ultimately charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance laws, arguing that the payments amounted to impermissible help to T****’s presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to those charges and unrelated tax evasion counts and served time in federal prison. T**** was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements — obliquely referred to in charging documents as “Individual 1” — but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a long time policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court. Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., then took up the investigation in 2019. While that probe initially focused on the hush money payments, Vance’s prosecutors moved on to other matters, including an examination of T****’s business dealings and tax strategies. Vance ultimately charged the T**** Organisation and its chief financial officer with tax fraud related to fringe benefits paid to some of the company’s top executives. The hush money matter became known around the D.A.’s office as the “zombie case,” with prosecutors revisiting it periodically but never opting to bring charges. Bragg saw it differently. After the T**** Organisation was convicted on the tax fraud charges in December, he brought fresh eyes to the well-worn case, hiring long time white-collar prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to oversee the probe and convening a new grand jury. Cohen became a key witness, meeting with prosecutors nearly two-dozen times, turning over emails, recordings and other evidence and testifying before the grand jury. T**** has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people. The criminal charges in New York are the latest salvo in a profound schism between T**** and his hometown — a reckoning for a one-time favourite son who grew rich and famous building skyscrapers, hobnobbing with celebrities and gracing the pages of the city’s gossip press. T****, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.
Comments
|
AuthorStolen from the interwebs Categories |