New York grand jury decision to indict Donald J. Trump for his alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels
A New York grand jury has voted to indict former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, said in a statement that the office, quote, “contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DA’s office.” The charges remain under seal but will likely be made public in the coming days.
“President Donald J. Trump has just been indicted by an extremist NY District Attorney. The United States’ president has never been indicted. Trump Derangement Syndrome has infiltrated our judicial system and if they can come for him, they can come for anyone,” Rep. Andy Biggs tweeted.
The former president is under investigation by the district attorney’s office for his alleged role in a cover-up with adult film star Stormy Daniels. The office of the Manhattan District Attorney will contact Trump’s lawyers to discuss the surrender.
The grand jury has been looking into the payments that Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in exchange for her not going public with allegations she had an affair with Trump.
The new criminal case related to that second Stormy Daniels conspiracy, brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, also is a reminder of the historic mistake by the US Justice Department to not pursue its own charges against Trump in the same matter. This was mind- tical abdication of responsibility since it was the Justice Department that charged Cohen in the first place, and Donald Trump was named as Individual 1 in the charges.
The Donald Trump Witch Hunt Backfires Massively on Joe Biden and Alvin Bragg, and We Are Going to Lead the Left Democrat Party
Two people familiar with the investigation tell NPR that there is going to be a break next week, that coincides with Easter, Passover, and Quranic ceremonies.
The proceedings of the grand jury are not public. Prosecutors can’t talk about their cases, so jurors can ask for more evidence or time for deliberations, so there is uncertainty around the end of grand jury investigations.
When Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, he said he made payments at the direction of Trump. Records show that Trump personally reimbursed Cohen for the payment, in which his company, false to say a “retainer” for legal fees. That could be a felony in New York, which could lead to up to four years in prison.
“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. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Thursday evening.
Prosecutors have said the statute of limitations does not apply in this case because Trump has resided out of state since 2017, and because of COVID-19.
Donald Trump will become the first former president to face criminal charges — and it’s happening right in the middle of a presidential primary campaign.
The decision will cause a lot of ripples across the country and put the American political system in an unknown place, as it has never seen a president faced with criminal charges while in office.
Trump has frequently called the various investigations surrounding him a “witch hunt,” attempting to sway public opinion on them by casting himself as a victim of what he’s claimed are political probes led by Democratic prosecutors. As the indictment was imminent, Trump told his supporters to protest his arrest as he tried to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 election.
“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden,” the former president said. “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!”
When Donald Trump is Indicted: On the Importance of Judgment Process in High-Sensitivity Elections
Americans have to set aside their politics and respect the legal system in order to form judgments on these cases. While Mr. Trump routinely called for his enemies to be investigated by the F.B.I., to be indicted or to face the death penalty, his indifference to due process for others shouldn’t deny him the system’s benefits, including a fair trial and the presumption of innocence. At the same time, no jury should extend to him any special privileges as a former president. He should have to follow the same procedures as any other citizen.
The legal actions against Trump make him ineligible to run in the next presidential election, where the former president has vowed to keep running despite criminal charges.
The decision to bring charges is not without risk nor does it guarantee a conviction. Trump’s lawyers could challenge whether campaign finance laws would apply as a crime to make the case a felony, for instance.
Trump’s Republican allies – as well as his 2024 GOP rivals – have condemned the Manhattan district attorney’s office over the looming indictment, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to launch an investigation into the matter.
The three Republican chairmen, including Jordan, sent a letter to Bragg requesting testimony and information related to their investigation before he was indicted. Bragg’s office was pushed back by the Republican chairmen.
The number two House Republican, Steve Scalise, called it outrageous. In a tweet, Scalise called the indictment “one of the clearest examples of extremist Democrats weaponizing government to attack their political opponents.”
“I trust the system,” Rep. Don Bacon told CNN. “We have a judge. They have jurors. There is appeals. So I think in the end, justice will be done. If he’s guilty it will show up. I think that will also be shown if not.
Prosecutors have asked at least one witness questions about a $150,000 payment the publisher of the National Enquirer made to the model, Karen McDougal, to buy her story about the alleged affair with Trump, the people said.
The witness was asked about other stories bought by American Media Inc. – which publishes the Enquirer – and later killed. Trump had a history, with his long-time friend and former chairman of AMI, David Pecker, of buying negative stories and planting positive ones, the people said. The Manhattan grand jury had heard testimony from Pecker before.
The Cohen-Trump Puzzle in the Light of Access Hollywood and the Russia Investigation of the 2016 Campaign: a Keystone to Keeping the Republican Party in the White House
It was not clear whether prosecutors were considering the payment as a part of their investigation or if they used it to establish a pattern of entering into such deals.
As part of its non-prosecution agreement, AMI admitted to making the $150,000 payment in cooperation with some members of Trump’s campaign in order to prevent McDougal’s claims of an affair from becoming public. Pecker met with Cohen “and at least one other member of the campaign” in August 2015, the agreement states.
While it may seem like news of such an affair would have ended up being a nothingburger amid the campaign’s final weeks, it’s worth remembering the specific context that Cohen and the Trump orbit faced in those finals hours of the campaign. They were performing a fraught and knife’s-edge balancing act to hold onto support from conservatives and evangelicals in the wake of the devastating Access Hollywood tape, a moment where vice presidential nominee Mike Pence seriously considered throwing in the towel himself. The follow-on of more non-family-values-friendly stories might well have begun an unrecoverable spiral. The interplay between the two threads is not over, as evidenced by how the Washington Post scoop on the Access Hollywood tape and the US intel leaders announcement about Russia being behind the election meddling.
The potential GOP primary field on Thursday coalesced around a strategy to attack the Manhattan District Attorney but stop short of praising former President Donald Trump.
The reaction of the former president’s possible GOP opponents to the news about his business fraud charges was familiar, and if it was unprecedented it was. The Republicans were willing to take on a liberal foe rather than risk backlash from their base voters. It’s a tactic that underscores the former president’s hold over the Republican Party – even when under indictment.
DeSantis’ careful efforts to keep Trump at arm’s length while competing for some of his supporters became increasingly fraught in the shadow of an anticipated indictment. The Florida governor road-tested his response in mid-March – criticizing Bragg while also poking at Trump.
He said he wouldn’t assist in a request to extradite Trump, a Florida resident. Trump is expected to appear in court on Tuesday in New York, where he had lived most of his life.
The 2021 January Sixtriot, Bragg’s Outrage, and the Prospects for a Presidential Representation: Comments on the Case of Mike Pence
After the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, one of his most ardent defenders for years, former Vice President Mike Pence, called the indictment of his former boss an outrage and suggested that Bragg was politically motivated.
He told that the Attorney General of New York was targeting one American in their campaigns and that it offended people who believe in fairness and equal treatment.
The governor of Virginia sent a message on social media. Like DeSantis and others, he focused on Bragg and ignored the substance of the charges against Trump.
Youngkin said that it is beyond his belief that a former President and current President have been indicted for political gain. Arresting a candidate on a political basis should not happen in America.
There is only one Republican who is formally declaring her candidacy, and that is Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump ambassador to the United Nations. She too toed a middle ground, tweeting, “This is more about revenge than it is about justice,” and posted a clip of a recent Fox News interview in which she denounced Bragg’s case as a “political prosecution.”
Another Trump Cabinet official considering a primary run, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accused Bragg of “undermining America’s confidence in our legal system.”
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who has been making swings through Iowa, called Trump’s indictment a “travesty” and railed against Bragg and the “far left” in a statement.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is considering seeking the Republican nomination for President, offered a more measured take on Trump, although he still offered his strongest criticism for the prosecutor.
He said that the next President should be decided at the ballot box and not in the court system. Donald Trump should not be the next President, but that should be decided by the voters.”
But even as the GOP falls in line behind Trump, the political fallout remains unclear. Trump leads in most early primary polls. Still, voters largely rejected his favored candidates during the midterms and his indictment will raise further questions about his viability in 2024.
The Deep State isn’t the Crime of the Century, but It Does Happen: Chris Christie, Chris Sununu, and the New Jersey Gov. Chris Bragg
“The Deep State will use anything at their disposal to shut down the one political movement that puts YOU first,” his campaign said in a Thursday evening email to supporters.
Some people are still quiet after a 24 hour period. History will judge their silence,” a Trump campaign account tweeted after Trump first said earlier this month that he would be arrested.
At the news conference in Panama City, the Republican said he was unaware of how money is paid to keep a porn star quiet over an alleged affair. “I just, I can’t speak to that.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – who ran against Trump in 2016, then became an ally ahead of the 2020 election before reversing course and insisting this week that he would never back Trump again – was silent on Thursday night. But in a Fox News interview last week, he predicted an indictment would help the former president among Republican voters and criticized Bragg.
“I don’t think this is the crime of the century,” Christie said, “and it’s certainly not a case that is going to improve, as I said, the everyday lives of the citizens of Manhattan.”
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month that he needed more information before making a judgment, instead turning his ire at political opponents and the press.
“I just think that the – not just the media, but really a lot of the Democrats have misplayed this, in terms of building sympathy for the former president,” Sununu said. It does change the paradigm as we get closer to the election.
The Mueller investigation of the Manhattan grand jury indictment of the former president Donald Trump on December 1st: a political witch hunt for America
Things that happen in a first appearance can be different. A plea is expected in a first appearance. Release conditions such as travel restrictions or home confinement are discussed at a first appearance to give defendants an idea of their rights. The lawyers for the government and the defendant also often enter their appearance at this stage of the court proceedings.
Multiple sources told CNN that Trump will be allowed to turn himself in, and the former president is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
Key House Republican leaders lined up to defend former President Donald Trump on Thursday following the news that Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury – a sign of the powerful grasp Trump still has on his party on Capitol Hill.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted that “The American people will not tolerate this injustice,” as he criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “The House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account,” he said.
The indictment was described by the House GOP conference chair as being a political witch hunt and a dark day for America.
The news of the indictment broke just hours after lawmakers on Capitol Hill departed for a two-week Easter recess. There were noisy halls of the Capitol. Republicans were louder on social media.
Donald Trump, Michael Cohen and First Degree Forgery – The Case against Donald Trump and the New York Penal Code: A New Perspective on Tax Fraud
President Donald Trump has always supported us. He puts the American people above corrupt interests. For that reason, the powerful will never cease coming for him.
Trump has denied having had an affair with Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, although he has admitted reimbursing Cohen for money paid to her.
WEHLE: Well, it looks like there’s a violation of the New York Penal Code, Section 175.10 that deals with first degree forgery, which is what people are expecting. It’s illegal to lie about business records. It makes it a felony if that was done with an intent to commit another crime. And I think there’s some speculation that that other crime would be Michael Cohen – his former lawyer’s payoff of adult film star Ms. Daniels for keeping silent in the lead-up to the 2016 election. According to Michael Cohen, Donald Trump paid him back in installments as a legal retainer fee even though there was no actual legal services provided. So the question is, why would you hide that if it didn’t matter to the 2016 presidential election and how voters were going to assess the presidential candidates, which is quite serious, even if the charge itself does not seem to reach kind of the heights that some people would expect for a former president.
The two lead prosecutors on the case quit. One wrote in his resignation letter, “a decision made in good faith may nevertheless be wrong. I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest.”
Bragg moved forward with prosecutions in a more limited tax fraud conspiracy. He obtained convictions againstTrump’s former chief financial officer and two of his companies for evading taxes by giving them things they didn’t really need. The former president was never charged, but the checks signed by him were presented at trial.
Many legal experts say they think the criminal case Bragg is likely to bring could be tough to prove in court. While Cohen was convicted under federal law, New York state statutes might be an awkward fit for the alleged crimes.
Mark Pomerantz was a prosecutor who led the investigation of the Manhattan district attorney office into Trump’s actions.
Pomerantz told NPR’s Fresh Air that the money wasn’t for legal services. “That’s how the payments were documented. So the documentation of the reimbursement involved the creation of false business records, which is a crime under New York law.”
In Cohen’s testimony to Congress in 2019, he said he and Trump discussed the payments at the White House, when Cohen visited the Oval Office one month into Trump’s presidency.
Cohen said that he was being shown all around and pointing to different paintings. “And he says to me something to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, Michael. Reimbursement checks are due in January and February. They were FedEx’d from New York. It takes a while to get through the White House system.
Cohen said that he got the first check for the reimbursement not long afterwards, referring to the payment that combined two monthly installments.
What is the response to the indictment of the 2016 presidential election? An analysis with Bernstein of the New Jersey Public Radio Radio Broadcaster Radio Station
The summer months: The former president has been talking about it for a long time. Now, what is his response to the indictment?
Trump’s social media response is much more heated. He writes that political persecution and election interference are at the highest level in history. I believe this witch hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people know what the radical left Democrats are doing.
BERNSTEIN: So typically, a defendant is notified and makes arrangements to surrender to authorities. We don’t know when that will happen. It usually takes a few days, but that isn’t usual about this case. The procedure for a person to be turned in is usually early in the morning when they will need to get fingerprints and then walk to the courtroom in handcuffs. We don’t know what is going to happen. Trump will face a judge to be read the charges and plead, we presume, not guilty.
SUMMERS: And of course, this is a developing story. We will be hearing more about this over the next few days from you and our other reporters. Thank you to NPR’s Bernstein.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. It is possible for accuracy and availability to be different. NPR broadcasts its programming on the audio record.
NPR’s Adrian Florido on the Indictment of a Former U.S. Attorney and Professor at the University of Baltimore
NPR’s Adrian Florido talks to Kim Wehle, former U.S. attorney and now professor at the University of Baltimore, about the political and legal implications of an indictment of former President Trump.
WEHLE: I’m not, because we’ve been hand-wringing over it for a long time now. And in a way, it’s good to have it actually happen. And hopefully we will see, in due course, the actual terms of the indictment. It is very hard to do a fair analysis of it until we see that.
There is a city named FlaorIDO. Yeah, I noted that we don’t yet know the specific charges that he faces, but you know the legal code. What charges might the former president be facing?
WEHLE: It’s a Class E felony in New York, and so I think it is up to four years in prison. I believe it’s way down the line. We have to get through many hurdles. You know, due process applies and attaches to Mr. Trump. It’s important to distinguish between political stakes and legal stakes to make sure that the question of fairness is not lost on the jury.
FLORIDO: We have about 20 seconds left. We don’t know precisely when these charges will be formally announced, but can you walk us in about 15 seconds what happens next?
WEHLE: Well, he – I mean, he will either be arrested or would show up for an arraignment, and then he would enter a plea. I was involved in the Whitewater investigation many years ago. When Bill Clinton was before a grand jury, there were a lot of sort of special circumstances…
WEHLE: …That were given to him. And my expectation is, if Donald Trump accepts them, he will be given kind of that respect of the office that I think he would deserve, like any former president.
The First American President to Face Charges in His First Presidential Primary-Run: Trumps’ Historical Indictment Comes During His Presidential Run
And to Trump’s messaging, two-thirds of people overall think that the charges in New York are not that serious, and 6 in 10 say the investigation is politically motivated. This decision isn’t something done by a prosecutor or a judge, but by a grand jury. And remember, a grand jury hears evidence from a prosecutor, then decides whether there’s enough there to file criminal charges against a suspect. If it’s a conspiracy, you know, the jury of his peers appears to be with him.
Montano is not really. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon so that he didn’t face charges. You need to go back to the 19th century to find the president who was arrested. The President was arrested for speeding with his carriage in D.C. Let’s not forget that Trump is the first American president to face criminal charges.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1167254662/trumps-historic-indictment-comes-during-his-presidential-primary-run
What Stephanie Clifford has in Common with the President: The Case for Trump’s Cosmic Affair Involved in a High-Redshift State
So that’s a pretty big wild card, especially when, according to our poll, a significant number of people ranked preserving democracy as high on their list of most important issues facing the country. And that’s true of persuadable voters. Independents, for example, ranked preserving democracy second behind the economy. Trump’s brand, we know, has been toxic in competitive states in the last few elections, and he’s at risk with independents. Majorities have differing opinions about him and believe that he should not be president.
It’s very hard to say. 80% of them have a favorable opinion of Trump. Three-quarters say they want him to be president, and there are not any Republicans who are really making a sustained effort against him.
FLORIDO: Of course, this is a developing story. We hope to hear from you over the course of the next few days. Thanks, Domenico Montanaro.
What Daniels has said: For her part, Daniels, also known as Stephanie Clifford, met in March with prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office probing the payment, according to a tweet sent by her attorney, who said Daniels had “responded to questions and has agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed.”
She wrote a tell-all book in 2018 that described the alleged affair in graphic detail, with her then-attorney saying that the book was intended to prove her story about having sex with Trump is true.
The GRU-Pigozhin War and the Pizzagate Experiment: An Investigation into a Russian-Mercenary Operation
In the final stages of the election, he was aided by victories in three states where he had lost the popular vote: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That effort was funded in part by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is now behind the brutal combat of his Wagner Group mercenary army in Ukraine, which targeted US social media companies and activists on the ground. The US Department of Justice found that in the second arm of the Russian operation, the military intelligence service GRU hacked top Democratic officials and leaked their emails. (Not to mention that this gave rise to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and, arguably, QAnon.)