Charges stem from payments made to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter
New York City police officers line up outside Manhattan criminal courts building, Thursday in New York. Pic/AP
Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House. The exact nature of the charges was unclear Friday because the indictment remained under seal, but they stem from payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Prosecutors said they were working to coordinate Trump’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 Trump from seeking and assuming the presidency. The indictment, the first against a former U.S. president, 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.
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Trump, who has denied wrongdoing and repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. Defense lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Trump “did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.” Tacopina said Trump is “likely” to turn himself in on Tuesday. The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors for months scrutinized 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.
Trump has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at District Attorney Alvin Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people.
Also Read: NY grand jury appears near end of its work in Trump case
What was the case
The grand jury in Manhattan had been probing hush money payments at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, one of the witnesses who testified, says he orchestrated payments totaling $2,80,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments. Federal prosecutors said the payments amounted to illegal, unreported assistance to Trump’s campaign. But they declined to file charges against Trump himself. The Manhattan district attorney’s office appeared to be investigating whether anyone committed crimes in arranging the payments, or in the way they accounted for them internally at the Trump Organization. But the specific charges remained under seal late Thursday.
Voices
Susan-Anne Miller, activist, New York
‘As far as Trump being indicted is concerned, sure they’ll handcuff him, they’ll take a mug shot and then he will be good to go. This has made Trump’s base stronger’
Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader
‘Mr. Trump is subject to the same laws as every American. He will be able to avail himself of the legal system and a jury, not politics, to determine his fate according to the facts and the law’
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