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On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office announced that a grand jury had indicted former President Donald Trump for directing hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, making him the first former US president indicted. The indictment, which is expected to be unsealed at Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday, has the potential to reshape the American political landscape ahead of next year’s election.
Joe Tacopina, Trump’s lawyer, confirmed that the former president plans to surrender to New York authorities but has not been informed of the specific charges against him. The White House declined to comment on the matter.
Trump, who is running for president again and facing multiple legal probes, issued a statement describing the indictment as “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.” He added that the case is the latest effort by Democrats to “destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”
However, Trump’s specific charges remain unclear, and whether he may spend time in jail. Neither criminal charges nor a conviction would disqualify him from running or serving as president.
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Trump, 76, already has a clear lead among Republican voters over likely contenders for the nomination. The announcement prompted rivals like former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to make remarks criticizing the indictment.
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DeSantis trails Trump in polls for the Republican nomination but fares better than the former president in a hypothetical 2024 general election matchup against Biden, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week.
In the case brought by Bragg, Trump and his company are alleged to have falsified records to conceal the payments to Stormy Daniels. His one-time lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to repress claims that she had a sexual relationship with Trump and was reimbursed by the Trump Organization. Trump has denied the affair and any involvement in the payoff.
The case rests on a novel legal theory, according to some experts. Falsifying business records can be a misdemeanor under New York law. However, for prosecutors to prove Trump committed a felony, they would have to show he was involved in the falsification to commit or conceal a second crime.
During his administration, federal prosecutors decided against seeking Trump’s indictment over the hush money, citing Justice Department guidance that a sitting president can’t be charged. Trump said earlier in March that the district attorney’s office had invited him to testify before the grand jury Bragg convened in the case, but he declined the offer.
Bragg initially decided in February 2022 not to pursue an indictment, spurring the resignation of two senior prosecutors on the case. One of them, Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor who led the investigation under Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., sharply criticized Bragg for failing to charge Trump at the time.
Bragg’s office has come under fire in recent weeks, including from Trump, who predicted “death and destruction” if he were indicted. Several prominent Republican congressmen, including Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, demanded that the Manhattan DA respond to requests for documents justifying his investigation of Trump.
However, the threats and pressure have galvanized Bragg’s office, according to a former prosecutor who has stayed in touch with Bragg’s people. The former prosecutor, now in private practice, asked not to be named because the conversations were private.
Trump attorney Alina Habba predicted her client would prevail, calling him a “victim of a corrupt and distorted version of the American justice system and history” who will be “vindicated.”
