Trump indicted ny grand jury move shakes american politics

Trump indicted ny grand jury move shakes american politics

He was indicted in connection with paying off adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter

Donald Trump has become the first former American president to be indicted and is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday for arraignment. The inditement came in connection with paying off adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter. The payment was made in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.

On Thursday, a grand jury in New York indicted Trump on criminal charges, the district attorney’s office and Trump’s lawyers confirmed.

While the specific charges will only be made publicly available when he turns himself in, Trump has likely been charged with falsifying business records and violating campaign finance laws.

CNN reported he faces more than 30 counts related to fraud. The indictment comes after a five-year-long investigation and will both test the legal system and shape American political dynamics within the Republican fold and between Republicans and Democrats in the run-up to presidential elections next year.

The political battle

The indictment introduces additional uncertainty in the Republican field for the presidential nomination in 2024. Trump has announced his candidature. The indictment does not pose any legal bar on him from continuing his fight for the nomination. But political observers are divided about whether it will benefit him by consolidating his base further — or push Republican donors and voters towards other potential candidates, particularly Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Trump called the indictment “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history”, and said that ever since he announced his candidacy in 2016, “Radical Left Democrats” had been engaged in a “witch-hunt” against the “Make America Great Again Movement”.

“The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish 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. Ever,” said Trump.

He alleged that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who has led the case, was “handpicked and funded by [billionaire] George Soros” and said the move will backfire on Democrats.

In a sign of how the indictment may have forced all Republicans to unite in opposition to the decision, DeSantis, who has been facing Trump’s attacks, too called the indictment “un-American”. He alleged that the “Soros-backed Manhattan attorney” was stretching the law to target a political opponent. DeSantis did not specifically name Trump in his tweet.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who fell out with Trump over the legitimacy of the 2020 elections, also called the indictment an “outrage”.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy threatened to hold Bragg and “his unprecedented abuse of power” to account.

Democrats emphasised the importance of letting the law take its course. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who is from New York, said that Trump is subject to the same laws as every American. Schumer added Trump will be able to avail of the legal system and a jury according to facts and the law. “There should be no outside political influence, intimidation or interference in the case.”

The legal context

The charges will only be unsealed on Tuesday after Trump turns himself in. But here is what’s known. The case does not hinge on Trump paying off Daniels — neither does the former president deny that the payment was made (though he denies having any sexual encounter with Daniels), nor is hush money in itself illegal.

Instead, the case, in all likelihood, hinges on Trump reimbursing his long-time confidant and lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid off Daniels and then provided phony invoices to show this as legal expenses, thus hiding the intent of the payment. It is thus possibly built around this falsifying of business records.

Trump’s lawyers deny that he knew about the misleading records, even though Cohen has claimed the former president was completely aware of it.

In 2018, Cohen admitted in court that he had made payments to two women “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office…for the principal purpose of influencing the election”. Daniels was among them.

But this would constitute a misdemeanour, not a crime. For it to be a crime, it is possible that the case hinges on showing that the payment was a violation of election law since the pay-out, in effect, served as a donation to the Trump campaign by silencing Daniels and averting a scandal to influence the poll.

The payment of $130,000 violated the maximum donation limit for a campaign, capped at $2700. Cohen made the payment on October 27, 2016, just 12 days before the elections.

If this is the charge, the Manhattan prosecutor may have used a state election law that defines a campaign contribution as “anything of value, made in connection” with an election.

Besides the case in Manhattan, Trump confronts other legal challenges. These revolve around his possession of classified files, efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia, role in instigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, and business practices of the Trump organisation.