Donald Trump was indicted by a New York grand jury Thursday, becoming the first former president to face criminal charges.
The grand jury vote, reported by The New York Times, followed investigation of allegations that Trump paid “hush money” to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The charges contained in the indictment are not immediately clear.
Trump is currently running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Last weekend, Trump predicted he would be arrested that Tuesday, March 21.
On his social media site, Truth Social, Trump wrote: “…THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
Anticipating Trump’s possible arrest, New York City placed steel barricades outside the Manhattan criminal court Monday, March 20, CBS News reported.
The possible indictment of Trump set off supporters and detractors. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said he would ask New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg to explain his “outrageous abuse of power” before Congress.
“I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter.
The third-ranking Republican in the house, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, called the actions “disgraceful” in a statement to the Albany Times-Union.
“This is unAmerican and the radical left has reached a dangerous new low of third world countries,” said Stefanik. “Knowing they cannot beat President Trump at the ballot box, the radical left will now follow the lead of socialist dictators and reportedly arrest President Trump.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Trump rival for the Republican nomination, criticized the seven-year investigation but ribbed the former president in his remarks.
“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some kind of alleged affair. I can’t speak to that,” DeSantis said on March 20 in Panama City, as The Miami Herald reported.
“What I can speak to is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office. And I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” DeSantis added.
Some political opponents rebuked McCarthy’s suggestions.
U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) accused the speaker of partisanship in defending Trump.
“Do you even know what the charges are? Have you seen any of the grand jury evidence? No,” Lieu wrote in a tweet directed to McCarthy. “You are being a craven, partisan politician who doesn’t respect the rule of law. In America, no one is above the law, including the person to whom you bend your knee.”
“I would hope that if they brought charges that they have a strong case, because this is, as you said, it’s unprecedented. And, you know, there’s certainly, you know, risks involved here,” U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who served a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations, was a key witness against Trump. He claimed to the grand jury that he paid Daniels $130,000, at Trump’s direction, to keep a sexual relationship secret.
“My position is that, at the end of the day, Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds, if in fact that’s the way that the facts play out,” Cohen said after his grand jury testimony.
Bragg sent a memo to his staff following Trump’s prediction of his imminent indictment. In it, Bragg said his office would not tolerate threats or intimidation tactics, NBC News reported.
“Please know that your safety is our top priority. We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York. Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place, so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment,” Bragg wrote.
An official announcement of the indictment is expected in the coming days.