WASHINGTON – In the first criminal case against a former president, Donald Trump has been indicted on charges involving payments made during the 2016 campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.
Prosecutors in New York investigated money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep the women from going public with claims that they had sex with him.
Trump, who’s running for the White House again in 2024, called the decision by a Manhattan grand jury to indict him “political persecution and election interference at the highest level.”
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TRUMP CALLS IT A WITCH HUNT
Minutes after the indictment was announced Thursday, Trump released a lengthy statement calling it the next step in a campaign from the left “to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” Trump’s statement said.
Trump accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of “doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on.”
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said the former president is a victim “of a corrupt and distorted version of the American justice system and history. He will be vindicated.”
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MANY REPUBLICANS LINE UP BEHIND TRUMP
Republicans from the former president’s sons to GOP senators lashed out at the indictment. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the conservative chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a one-word reaction: “Outrageous.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed “the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
One of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, said, without citing evidence, that Trump was innocent and “the only one standing in the way of these modern day tyrants.”
Eric Trump, the former president’s son, said: “This is third-world prosecutorial misconduct.” In a text to The Associated Press, he called the indictment an opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year.
“This is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot — it would make them blush. It’s so flagrant. It’s so crazed,” Donald Trump Jr., said in a live-stream video shortly after the news broke.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had served as Trump’s press secretary at the White House, said Bragg should resign.
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DEMOCRATS CITE THE RULE OF LAW
Democrats, meanwhile, said if Trump broke the law, he should face charges like any American. Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, said in a tweet: “The indictment of a former president is unprecedented. But so too is the unlawful conduct in which Trump has been engaged.”
Schiff said: “A nation of laws must hold the rich and powerful accountable, even when they hold high office. Especially when they do. To do otherwise is not democracy.”
Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman, who served as lead counsel in the first impeachment trial of Trump, said in a statement that “no person is above the law.” Goldman added that elected officials on both sides should “make unequivocally clear that there is no room for political violence or interference,” Goldman said.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a former federal prosecutor, said the justice system has an obligation to pursue the facts and law wherever they lead. “Former President Trump will have the same rights as any criminal defendant and the justice system will presume him innocent until proven guilty,” he said.
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TRUMP’S POTENTIAL CAMPAIGN RIVALS WEIGH IN
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s exploring running for the GOP nomination for president, said on Twitter that the indictment was based on politics.
“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” he added. “It is un-American.”
Asa Hutchinson, a potential 2024 Republican candidate and the former governor of Arkansas, called it “a dark day for America.” Hutchinson said it is important that Trump be presumed innocent while the case plays out.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia Republican often mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, on Twitter called it “beyond belief” that Bragg had sought to indict Trump “for pure political gain.”
Another possible rival to Trump, biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, said the indictment threatens to undermine public trust in our electoral system and our justice system.
Mike Pompeo, who had served in the Trump administration, sent a fundraising email to potential supporters noting the indictment.
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WILL TRUMP BE EXTRADITED?
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said prosecutors said it wasn’t immediately clear when Trump would be arraigned.
“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. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,” the statement said.
DeSantis said in his tweet that Florida will not assist in an extradition request for Trump.
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TRUMP’S EX-ATTORNEY TESTIFIED IN THIS CASE
Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging the payouts to Daniels and another woman, Karen McDougal, and for lying to Congress. Cohen became a key witness testifying before the Manhattan grand jury earlier this month.
“Michael Cohen made the brave decision to speak truth to power and accept the consequences,” his lawyer Lanny J. Davis said in a statement. “And he has done so ever since. I am proud to have been his lawyer and his friend through this long journey on the path to justice and accountability.”