Donald Trump.
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Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury.
The Manhattan DA’s investigation was said to have centered on a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.
Trump is the first former president to be criminally charged.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Former President Donald Trump complained on Thursday about being “indicated” in New York, adding in all caps that “THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE.”
A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed Trump’s team was notified of his indictment Thursday evening.
“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,” the spokesperson said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
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Trump and his aides were caught off guard by news of his indictment, believing the decision wouldn’t come for weeks, according to The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman.
The former US president is currently at Mar-a-Lago planning his next moves after the New York grand jury’s decision to indict him, per the Times. Some advisors had been confident that the vote wouldn’t come until the end of April.
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Former President Donald Trump’s Republican allies in Congress are rallying to his defense after a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday voted to indict him — the first former president in American history to face criminal charges.
“A majority of Americans know Alvin Bragg’s witch hunt is a politically motivated prosecution,” Gaetz continued, referring to the Manhattan district attorney. “I continue to stand with President Trump as he has always stood with us.”
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Trump is expected to surrender to authorities next week, according to his lawyer Joe Tacopina.
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Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer-turned-nemesis, said in a statement Thursday that “no one is above the law.”
He went on to say that he stands by his testimony to the Manhattan DA’s office.
Cohen previously pleaded guilty to making a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election and was called as a witness before the grand jury that ultimately indicted Trump.
Cohen also told MSNBC he believes Trump is “petrified” and that “this is one of his biggest fears.”
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Fox News anchors gasped in the studio as news broke about Trump’s indictment.
But some Fox News hosts immediately rallied around Donald Trump on Thursday evening.
“It is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen, and I feel bad for the guy,” co-host Jesse Watters said during the live taping of “The Five.”
As Trump has done previously, other hosts turned their ire on Bragg himself.
“He’s such an incompetent boob,” host Greg Gutfeld chimed in when another host was discussing how the indicted will now be part of history.
Gutfeld also called the prosecutor “the MAGA Republican of the year,” predicting that the charges have now secured Trump the GOP presidential nomination.
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Donald Trump is the first former president to ever be criminally charged in US history.
A Manhattan grand jury has indicted Trump, his attorney, Joe Tacopina, confirmed to Insider.
His indictment will likely interfere with his third bid for president in the upcoming 2024 election.
The indictment comes after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Trump’s business dealings and whether he violated New York state laws when his lawyer paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels.
Daniels says she and Trump had an affair in the 2000s, and that he and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her to keep quiet during the 2016 election campaign. Cohen took a plea deal with prosecutors and has said that Trump approved of the payment.
Trump has denied that there was ever an affair and said he has done “absolutely nothing wrong,” calling the probe politically motivated.
Adult film star Stormy Daniels met with New York prosecutors last Wednesday over their probe into former President Donald Trump’s hush money payment to her in 2016, her lawyer, Clark Brewster, said.
Brewster said Daniels “responded to questions and has agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed.”
—Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) March 15, 2023
Daniels said she had an affair with Trump in the mid-2000s and that he and former Trump lawyer Micahel Cohen paid her in exchange for her silence during Trump’s first presidential campaign.