Former President Donald Trump is expected to appear before a New York judge Tuesday as a sealed indictment is opened. Trump is already in New York after arrived from Florida. The charges will be made public during the arraignment when Trump, who has maintained his innocence, is expected to plead not guilty.
NY District Attorney Alvin Bragg and former President Donald Trump. Photo collage.
On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him in relation to payments by his then-attorney Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels seven years ago. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who had ran on a campaign to indict Trump and send him to jail, investigated the charges and sat a grand jury after federal investigators chose not to do so. Critics of Bragg and the indictment said, even if true, the actions fall outside the statute of limitation and the funds were not paid out of campaign coffers but from the Trump corporation.
Experts widely expect the charges to include falsification of business records which would require the prosecution to prove that the fraud was intended to cover up a violation of federal campaign finance laws—which some legal analysts believe to be a high-risk legal strategy.
Former Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards went to trial over funneling $1 million in donor funds to his pregnant mistress. He was criminally charged, and went through a trial in which he was acquitted on some charges while the jury deadlocked on others. He ended up paying an FEC fine. For her part, the Hillary Clinton campaign paid a fine for bookkeeping errors.
The divergence of opinion on the Trump indictment has revealed deep national divisions. In a Quinnipiac University poll released a day before the indictment, 62 percent of respondents thought the Manhattan district attorney’s case was politically motivated: 93 percent of Republicans, 70 percent of independents, and 29 percent of Democrats. Only 32 percent believed the case was motivated by law.
Trump will be fingerprinted, but not cuffed, all the while in the protection of the Secret Service.
The former president will hold a speech on Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort, a senior 2024 campaign adviser confirmed on Sunday morning.
Trump adviser Jason Miller confirmed to Newsmax on Sunday he would deliver the speech at his Florida residence after he is arraigned by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg following a grand jury indictment last week.
“Trump is going to be giving a speech on Tuesday night at Mar-a-Lago 8:15 p.m. I think the entire world will be watching just how strong and just how fervent he is, that we must continue this Make America Great Again movement, because you can’t have Trump policies without President Trump,” Miller told the channel.
–Wire services and Metro Voice
