Washington.- Eight hundred days after Donald J. Trump left the White House, he became the first former president to start his morning as a criminal defendant.
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump Thursday afternoon, and he is likely to be arraigned Tuesday, when the charges against him will be formally unsealed. But already, the case against him has launched an unprecedented moment in the country’s politics, one that will profoundly affect the 2024 White House race and test the country’s institutions and the rule of law.
While Trump has tried to capitalize on criminal charges to energize his base, the ignominy of becoming a defendant, especially after decades of evading prosecution despite numerous repeat investigations, marks a profound shift for a global celebrity with a track record of to make fun of others and that he is singled out for misbehavior.
Trump has been indicted on more than two dozen counts, according to two people familiar with the matter. He still faces other investigations. A Georgia prosecutor is in the final stages of an investigation into Trump’s attempts to reverse the state’s election results. And his actions surrounding his 2020 election loss, as well as his handling of confidential documents, are the focus of a separate federal investigation.
Unlike those investigations, the Manhattan case dates back to the period before Trump ascended to the White House, when he was fighting for the presidency. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg brought the case over Trump’s role in a hush money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who later agreed to keep quiet about her history with him. Prosecutors are expected to argue that the payment, which came in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign, functioned as an illegal donation to Trump’s candidacy.
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In a statement Thursday night, Trump called Bragg, a Democrat, “an embarrassment” and described the case as the continuation of a politically motivated witch hunt. “This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said in the statement, describing himself as “a completely innocent person.”
Trump is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday for arraignment for the impeachment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, according to one of his lawyers. The New York Police Department has issued an order to all officers to be “prepared for deployment” as part of enhanced security measures being implemented across the city.
The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Trump’s role in the secret payments to Daniels has spanned nearly five years.
After months of colder coverage of Trump, Fox News hosts rallied around him Thursday, denouncing his impeachment as an attempt to hamper his re-election chances (he remains a frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination). ) and suggesting this case could lead to riots.
