Grand Jury Indicted Donald Trump

New York – Grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump for his involvement in a hush-money payment of $130,000 to an adult-film star Stormy Daniel during his 2016 election campaign. Mr. Trump is expected to appear at the Manhattan District Attorney office on Tuesday April 4 for his arraignment.

The former president said on Truthsocial media platform on the indictment that “this is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”

He said the Democrats are weaponizing the justice system to punish him as a political opponent, “who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before.”

Revived by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the case is related to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohens who pledged guilty to several federal felonies in 2018, including campaign finance violation and financial transactions to Stormy Daniels to keep her silence about sexual encounter with Mr. Trump during his 2016 campaign. Cohens testified that he did so under Mr. Trump’s direction. The former President denied having any relationship with the adult-film star.

Mr. Trump’s indictment, if convicted he still can run as a presidential candidate according the U.S. constitution. Mr. Trump begins his campaign in Oklahoma this weekend ahead of the arraignment on Tuesday. Analysts said if he does appear in New York, it will be likely a circus and he would gain significant support as a presidential candidate. Meanwhile, considering the president has lived mostly in Florida, it may be out of New York jurisdiction should Mr. Trump choose not to appear in New York next week. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis twitted that if the latter would be the case, the State of Florida will not collaborate to extradite Mr. Trump to New York.