Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that his arrest is imminent and issued an extraordinary call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments with the former president.
Even as a Trump’s lawyer and spokesperson said there had been no communication from prosecutors, Trump declared in a post on his social media platform that he expects to be taken into custody on Tuesday.
His message seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement from prosecutors and to galvanize outrage from his base of supporters in advance of widely anticipated charges. Within hours, his campaign was sending fundraising solicitations to his supporters, while influential Republicans in Congress and even some declared and potential rival candidates issued statements in his defense.
In a later post that went beyond simply exhorting loyalists to protest about his legal peril, the 2024 presidential candidate directed his overarching ire in all capital letters at the Biden administration and raised the prospect of civil unrest: “IT’S TIME!!!” he wrote. “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
It all evoked, in foreboding ways, the rhetoric he used shortly before the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is thought to be eyeing charges in the hush money investigation, and recently offered Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury. Local law enforcement officials are bracing for the public safety ramifications of an unprecedented prosecution of a former American president.
But there has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jury’s secret work in the case. At least one additional witness is expected to testify, further indicating that no vote to indict has yet been taken, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
That did not stop Trump from taking to his social media platform to say “illegal leaks” from Bragg’s office indicate that “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.”
A spokesperson and a lawyer for Trump said his Truth Social post was based on media reports — though they did not say which ones — rather than any actual update from, or communication with, prosecutors. The district attorney’s office declined to comment Saturday.
Should Trump be indicted, he would be arrested only if he refused to surrender. Trump’s lawyers have previously said he would follow normal procedure, meaning he would likely agree to surrender at a New York Police Department precinct or directly to Bragg’s office.
It is unclear whether Trump’s supporters would heed his protest call or if he retains the same persuasive power he held as president. Trump’s posts on Truth Social generally receive far less attention than he used to get on Twitter, but he maintains a deeply loyal base. The aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, in which hundreds of Trump loyalists were arrested and prosecuted in federal court, may also have dampened the passion among supporters for confrontation.
The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings.
Even as Trump pursues his latest White House campaign — his first rally is set for Waco, Texas, later this month and he was scheduled to make a public appearance Saturday evening at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma — there is no question an indictment would be a distraction and give fodder to opponents and critics tired of the legal scandals that have long enveloped him.
In addition to the hush money inquiry in New York, Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election.
A Justice Department special counsel has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate. It is not clear when those investigations will end or whether they might result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the ongoing gravity – and broad geographic scope – of the legal challenges facing the former president.
Trump’s post Saturday echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his Florida home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents.
News of that search sparked a flood of contributions to Trump’s political operation, and on Saturday, Trump sent out a fundraising email to his supporters that said the “MANHATTAN D.A. COULD BE CLOSE TO CHARGING TRUMP.”
After his post, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decried any plans to prosecute Trump as an “outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA” whom he claimed was pursuing “political vengeance.” Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, issued a statement with a similar sentiment.
The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about inappropriate relationships they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies the allegations, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 campaign. Trump also has labeled Bragg, who is Black, a “racist” and has accused the prosecutor of letting crime in the city run amok while he has focused on Trump.
Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.
(AP)
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19 Responses
Well we all know how well it turned out the last time he asked people to show up and ‘protest’ his perceived wrongs.
Alving brag allows criminals to roam free in NYC but when it comes to Trump, he is all of the sudden “tough on crime”
This is where democracy dies. Our politicians are corrupt and it’s only a matter of time they will come after our communities…actually never mind they already have….tomorrow there will be another NYT article about yeshivas
How does protesting an indictment save America?
If true , an arrest on such a minor infraction would prove his point. Even those who don’t care for Trump would sympathize against overzealous prosecuters digging up little dirt to make a shrink
The Democrats impeached Trump twice and he was STILL going to win reelection in a landslide. For despite their best efforts, America enjoyed four years of peace and prosperity during his presidency. No war and a roaring economy. That is a legacy any president would covet.
Yet it was all too much for the Democrats, and they took decisive action. Trump kept shining a light on the pay-for-play politicians and their corrupt minions in the press. He exposed the Deep State and the phoniness of Comey and the F.B.I. Many of these scofflaws and hypocrites felt that their legal end was nigh.
Something had to be done. At just the right moment, they gave the signal to high-ranking apparatchiks in Beijing – some, no doubt, personal friends to Joe and Hunter Biden. COVID-19 was unleashed upon the world and the Democrats were now in reach of unseating Trump from office.
As the intelligence community now confirms, this deadly virus was created artificially in a Chinese government laboratory. But to the Democrat Party, the millions of innocent men, women and children around the world who lost their lives to the pandemic were collateral damage. The crucial objective was booting Trump from office.
Mission accomplished.
Since Biden took office, Donald Trump has been the scapegoat for all the ills of society. A severe economic downturn? Blame it on Trump. Civil unrest? Trump’s fault. Biden’s abysmal approval ratings? Again, DJT.
And now, it’s 2023. Trump wants to run again. We mustn’t let that happen, right? And so, Soros-backed D.A.s from Georgia to New York have gotten to work. The photo of a handcuffed Trump will pay dividends to their mind.
Or will it? Perhaps the image of our forty-fifth president in shackles will jostle the sleeping American electorate out of its slumber. Perhaps now they will see how cynical and mendacious Trump’s foes have been all along.
Say what you will about President Trump’s personality, his egotism, his foibles. I, for one, shall not forget how he stood up and recognized the Jewish People’s singular claim to Jerusalem. Some of us still fail to realize how monumental the embassy move truly was. And the imprisoned Jews whom President Trump pardoned? Another kindness we should never forget. The deregulation and other economic policies that turned the United States into a net exporter of natural gas and crude oil for the first time in more than fifty years? Extraordinary, especially considering the two bogus impeachments and the fact that the press never gave him a fair shake on anything he said or did.
Believe me, I’ve had my fill of tarts when it comes to President Trump’s abrasive and bellicose character. But he delivered results for the American People. And he was a true friend of Israel to boot.
Trump is not my first choice for 2024. His meeting with two Hitler-lovers at Mar-A-Lago was an asinine move. Governor DeSantis is far more stable and would likely be a more effective leader. However, I will continue to defend Trump vis-a-vis Letitia James and the other rabid Lilliputians nipping at his heels.
For the Democrats’ persecution of Trump; for their continued pitting of one racial group against another for their own political benefit; for their insistence on upending nature in order to score points with the woke psychopaths; for all this and more, I hope the Democrats are brought to shame and disgrace.
This guy Bragg is a leftist lunatic. Even if the allegations are true, either we embrace the enforcement of laws or we don’t. You can’t let all the criminals in NYC go without prosecution and then prosecute Trump. As far as Cohen is concerned, this is all about throwing Trump under the bus to save himself.
the current state of america is rotten to the core
There are two types of persons that people sympathize with, a martyr and an underdog. This indictment will only help Trump. It also places Republican challengers in a tight spot. Some of Trump’s rivals would love to use this to knock Trump, but doing so will alienate former Trump supporters who feel there is a witch hunt against Trump.
Amil Zola
there’s no reason to prosecute him, instead of prosecuting the criminals running around in NY the moron Alvin Bragg is prosecuting a former president in Florida. there will be a protest, people will not stand for this garbage. all thanks to that jerk Soros
Why is hush money a crime if its adults
Alvin Bragg ימח שמו וזכרונו needs to be locked up for failing t prosecute summer 2020 looters, as well as for terrorizing a totally innocent person:- President Donald Trump שליט”א.
If Heaven for Alvin Bragg ימח שמו וזכרונו even so much as lay a single finger or hand on President Donald Trump שליט”א there shall almost instantaneously be civil riots across the entire land of America, the likes of which mankind has never witnessed ever beforehand.
The demise of America. The socialists and anarchists have taken over and turned the USA into Venezuela. BDE America. I will still support and vote for President Trump. He is the only one who actually knows how to drain the swamp.
Yes, Amil Zola, we know what happened. A full-blown blood libel, hundreds of political prisoners held without bail in inhumane conditions, show trials, innocent people harassed and persecuted, and a made-for-TV “investigation” that would have made the USSR proud.
If this arrest happens, there SHOULD be massive protests, blocking streets, disrupting traffic, putting this corrupt DA on notice that he will not get away with it.
The deep state
Stench of Swamp
Has decided for one reason or other that Trump can’t breath.
Is Trump such a threat to Democrats?
Why the Hillary smashed all her phones and computers and sold vast majority of uranium To an enemy states, and created dossier against Trump and had CIA lie to the nation for 4 years to stop his every action.
They are still after Trump to make it impossible for him to have a opportunity to run and win the next election.
I for one hate bullies
Specifically political bullies who want to destroy the land and legally target only ONE side.
Therefore no matter what I will vote Trump 2024 if he runs and for sure Republican even though they are bunch of weak putts who can’t unite on a single issue.
Ppl in NY could have gotten rid of this criminal DA, but failed. You are all responsible
No body is going to anything about this, even if they do paid provocators will use the infirm to create a scene and cause widespread condemnation.
It’s twilight in America.
Just wait until he gets arrested in Georgia on another criminal charge and by the Justice Department for two more criminal charges.
Them watch him lose against E Carrol , Michael Cohen and many more civil cases.
Then we can watch the thousands of “protesters” who didn’t learn from January 6th, break the law for him again, and get arrested, pay thousands of dollars for defense lawyers and sit in jail for years.
Next 2 years will be exciting.
He is warning all of us, point-blank, that he will violate the law if he wants to, and if you don’t like it, you can take it up with the mob that he can summon at will.
Jackk, you are a thug, nothing more. I look forward to the day when YOU are in a cell like all the Jan 6 political prisoners, subject to daily beatings and abuse and denied bail, until your show trial on charges that nobody ever heard of before you supposedly committed them.