Former US Republican President donald trump (2017-2021) indicated this Saturday that he believes he will be arrested on Tuesday in the framework of an investigation for the payment of money to the porn star Stormy Daniels, and called on citizens to protest.
“Protest, take back our nation,” he said on his Truth Social social network without specifying the reason for that arrest.
BREAKING: In a social media post, Donald Trump says that he will be arrested Tuesday as a New York prosecutor is eyeing charges in a case examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president. https://t.co/Old36RnqQj
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 18, 2023
Trump’s message uses rhetoric reminiscent of what he used in the days leading up to the storming the capitolin January 2021, when he had also called on his supporters to demonstrate against the results of the elections in which he was defeated by Joe Biden.
The former president based his information on “illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly politicized Manhattan prosecutor’s office that has allowed new records to be set in violent crimes and whose leader is financed by George Soros.”
According to it, he added in his message, “the main Republican candidate and former president of USA he will be arrested on Tuesday (…) without any crime being proven and based on an old fairy tale and completely denied (by many other prosecutors)”.
The Manhattan investigation, which has spanned nearly 5 years, centers on an alleged $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence during her 2016 White House election campaign.
The secret payment supposedly sought to prevent him from making public an alleged sexual relationship with the then presidential candidate.
The prosecutor’s office, according to the media, appears to be focused on the falsification of the Trump Organization’s business records because of how the reimbursement of that payment to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who said he advanced the money to the woman, was included.
The Trump campaign paid $2.7 million for organizing an act that led to the storming of the Capitol
Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor in New York, according to the chain CNNwhile Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, has so far remained silent.
That same channel pointed out this Saturday that the ex-president is expected to appear in Manhattan after the formal accusations and has advanced his intention to give a speech afterwards, something that his advisers have advised him against.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, in any case, said Saturday that the former president has not yet received any official notification from the prosecution, while Susan Necheles, one of his lawyers, confirmed that his words about an arrest are based on press reports that have appeared in recent days.
According to various US media, the New York authorities and law enforcement have been preparing to guarantee security in court in the event that the tycoon is accused, something they believe could happen next week.
This case would mark the first indictment for the former US president and could upend the 2024 presidential race, in which Trump remains one of the top Republican contenders.
Trump attacks Manhattan prosecutor and says he is “completely innocent”
Republican Kevin McCarthy, leader of the US House of Representatives, denounced that the possible action against the former president is a “shameful abuse of power by a radical prosecutor” who seeks “political revenge against President Trump.”
I will direct the relevant committees to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions,” he said via Twitter.
With information from CNN, AP and EFE.
