Pro IQRA News Updates.
Donald Trump said in a social media post that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday as the New York attorney general looks forward to charges in a case examining hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president. Trump has provided no evidence to suggest he was directly informed of a pending arrest nor say how he learned of such plans.
But in a Saturday morning message on his Truth Social network, Trump cited “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan attorney general’s office, which he said indicated that “the far-leading Republican nominee and former President of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday.” From next week.”
Danielle Felson of the District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors “will decline to confirm or comment” on questions about Trump’s position, as well as potential charges. A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
Indicting Trump, 76, would be an unusual development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump, the 2024 presidential nominee, lied and cheat his way to the top and to embolden supporters who feel the Republican is unfairly targeted by the Democratic attorney general.
In his social media post, Trump repeated his lies that the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was stolen and urged his followers to “protest our homeland again!” That language evoked the message from the then president that preceded the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 when his supporters breached the doors and windows of that building and left battered and bloodied officers as they tried to stop the certification of the election.
New York law enforcement officials are making security preparations for the possible indictment of Trump.
There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jury’s secret action in the case, including any possible vote on whether to indict the former president.
Trump’s post echoes one last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his home as part of an investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents.
A Manhattan grand jury heard witnesses, including Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who said he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies the confrontations took place, says he did nothing wrong, and has called the investigation a “witch hunt” by a Democratic attorney general bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential campaign.
It appears the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Alvin Bragg, was examining whether any state laws were violated regarding the payments or how Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.
Daniels and at least two former Trump aides — one-time political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks — are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.
Cohen said that at Trump’s direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to pornographic actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payments were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the midst of his first presidential campaign.
Cohen and federal prosecutors said the company paid him $420,000 to reimburse Daniels for $130,000 and to cover supposed bonuses and other expenses. The company has classified these payments internally as statutory expenses. McDougall was paid $150,000 by the then-publisher of the National Enquirer’s Supermarket, who kept her story from coming to light.
Federal prosecutors agreed not to sue the Enquirer’s parent company for its cooperation in the campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal were unauthorized and unrecorded gifts to Trump’s campaign efforts.
Cohen pleaded guilty, served time in prison, and was dismissed from the ban. Federal prosecutors have not charged Trump with any crime. ___
Associated Press writer Meg Kennard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
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