Trump indicted, first former US president to face criminal charges

NEW YORK: A grand jury indicted Donald Trump late Thursday over hush-money payments made to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, making him the first former US president to face criminal charges. 

The historic indictment of the 76-year-old Republican – who denies all wrongdoing in connection with the payments made ahead of the election that sent him to the White House – is certain to upend the current presidential race in which he hopes to regain the office. And it will forever mark the legacy of the former leader, who survived two impeachments and kept prosecutors at bay over everything from the US Capitol riot to missing classified files – only to land in court over a sex scandal involving Stormy Daniels, a 44-year-old adult movie actress.

Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles told AFP she expects he will be arraigned on Tuesday next week. According to US media, it is expected to happen at 2:15 pm (1815 GMT). A lawyer representing Trump, Joe Tacopina, said Friday morning that he understood from prosecutors that the former president will not be put in handcuffs when he surrenders to the authorities next week. “We’ll go in there and we’ll proceed to see a judge at some point, plead not guilty, start talking about filing motions, which we will do immediately and very aggressively regarding the legal viability of this case,” Tacopina said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed that it had contacted Trump’s lawyers Thursday evening to “coordinate his surrender” in New York – with the felony charges against him to be revealed at that point. Trump slammed the indictment as “political persecution and election interference,” raging against prosecutors and his Democratic opponents and vowing that it would backfire on his successor, President Joe Biden. Heavy security has been put in place around the Manhattan courthouse where Trump is to be booked on charges that have not been made public yet. “I’m sure they’ll try to make sure they get some joy out of this by parading him,” Tacopina said of the New York prosecutors who filed the case against Trump. Following his booking, the 76-year-old Trump will be arraigned before a judge at which time he will be presented with the charges and enter a plea. The judge then decides whether a defendant should be released on bail or taken into custody.

Tacopina said Trump will plead not guilty. Once Trump is arraigned and enters a plea, there will be a series of preliminary court hearings to set a date for a trial and decide on witnesses and evidence. Tacopina said he would seek to have the charges dismissed without going to trial but that there is “zero” chance the former president enters into a plea agreement with prosecutors.

“President Trump will not take a plea deal in this case,” he told NBC’s Today show. “It’s not going to happen. There’s no crime.” While the criminal charges remain sealed, it is difficult to predict whether a potential conviction could see the unprecedented situation of a US president being sentenced to prison. On Friday morning,, Biden stopped to speak with reporters as he left for a trip to survey tornado damage in Mississippi -- instead of walking right past as he often does. “I’m not going to talk about the Trump indictment,” he said to multiple shouted questions. “I have no comment on Trump.”

Biden’s staff have also declined to react to the revelation on Thursday that Trump would become the first-ever former president to face criminal charges, over a hush money payment to a porn star during the 2016 election. “We’re just not going to comment on any ongoing case,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated Friday. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a long-time critic of Trump, tweeted that “No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.”

Trump earlier took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to say that he does not expect a fair trial. “They only brought this Fake, Corrupt, and Disgraceful Charge against me because I stand with the American People, and they know that I cannot get a fair trial in New York!” he wrote.

In the Republican camp, Trump’s allies and sons denounced what they say is a vendetta aimed at derailing his 2024 campaign -- while his expected challenger for the party nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, slammed the indictment as “un-American.”

Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, said the indictment had “irreparably damaged” the country. Trump’s former vice president and possible 2024 challenger Mike Pence called it an “outrage” that would only “further serve to divide” the United States. But the top Democrat Adam Schiff – lead prosecutor of Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 – called it “a sobering and unprecedented development.”

“The indictment and arrest of a former president is unique throughout all of American history,” Schiff said in a statement. “But so too is the unlawful conduct for which Trump has been charged.”

Daniels welcomed the development with her characteristic aplomb. “I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond... also don’t want to spill my champagne,” she tweeted while also plugging her #TeamStormy merchandise.