Trump to be arraigned Tuesday to face hush money indictment

Gulf Today Report

Former President Donald Trump will appear, on Tuesday, before the Criminal Court in New York, after he was formally charged in the case of buying silence in 2016, in an unprecedented event for a former US president.

When Trump turns himself in, he'll be booked mostly like anyone else facing charges, mugshot and all. But he isn’t expected to be put in handcuffs, he'll have Secret Service protection and will almost certainly be released that day.

An official associated with the case said, “Trump will be fingerprinted, a mug shot will be taken, investigators will complete arrest paperwork and do a check to see if he has any outstanding criminal charges or warrants. That all happens away from the public.”

Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg, whose office belongs to New York State, formally charged Trump, who is eager to return to the White House, in the case of paying $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to silence her before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump's attorney, Susan Nechelis, announced, "We expect the indictment to be read on Tuesday." A spokesman for the Manhattan Public Prosecutor's Office had previously reported that Trump's lawyer had been contacted to "coordinate his surrender" for appearing to read the indictment,” after a jury upheld his indictment in this criminal case. He added that the indictment is still sealed.

CNN revealed about 30 charges of violations, with the aim of concealing the payment of $130,000 and concealing its entry in the accounts in late 2016.

In a statement, the 45th President of the United States denounced "political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history."

He vowed that “this prosecution will backfire on Joe Biden,” whom Trump has been accusing for more than two years of “stealing” the elections from him.

A violation of American values

The billionaire, who has caused a coup since 2015 in the American political system, resorted to his social networking "Truth Social" to denounce his opponents and wrote: "They are persecuting me in a weak and shameful way, because they know that I am on the side of the American people, and that I cannot get a fair trial in New York."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump's most prominent competitor for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, considered the accusation "contrary to American values," stressing that his state in which the former president resides would not respond to an "extradition request" from New York.

The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, also expressed the same support, stressing that "the American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power accountable."

No one is above the law

Daniels, who has been cooperating with the judiciary for nearly six years, wrote in a tweet, "I receive an amount of messages to an extent that I cannot respond to," while her lawyer, Clark Brewster, declared that "no one is above the law."

On the Democratic side, Representative Adam Schiff considered that "the indictment and arrest of a former president are unique events in American history."

The New York judiciary has been seeking for years to determine whether Trump, 76, made false statements, which is a minor offense, or violated laws about campaign financing, which is a felony, by paying a sum of money to Daniels so that their relationship would not be exposed in 2006, before his victory in the election. 2016 elections.

Trump will have to "turn himself in" to a Manhattan courthouse, where a judge will read the charge sheet to him before he is briefly placed "under arrest", photographed and fingerprinted.

The main witness in the file is Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who became his sworn enemy, and he paid the amount to Daniels in 2016, and it was later repaid to him. After serving his prison sentence, Cohen cooperated with the investigation as of the end of 2018, and repeatedly testified before the grand jury.