NY- Donald Trump said Saturday that he believes he will be arrested next Tuesday, while a New York prosecutor studies the possibility of filing charges in a case that investigates whether he ordered the payment of money – in exchange for silence – to women who previously they alleged to have had sexual encounters with the now former president of the United States.
Trump said in a message written partially in all caps on his Social Truth network that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicate that ‘THE LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY NEXT WEEK.’ ”.
The AP sent messages to the district attorney’s office on Saturday seeking comment, but no one has immediately responded. Trump’s representatives also did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Trump did not provide any details on the social network about how he allegedly found out that he will be arrested. In his writings, the former president repeated his lies that the 2020 presidential election and that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden were stolen.
Trump urged his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION!” Those kinds of terms evoked the then-president’s messages before the deadly riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Law enforcement authorities in New York have been making security preparations in anticipation of Trump being formally indicted.
No timeline for the grand jury’s secret work on the case, including any potential vote on whether or not to indict the former president, has been publicly announced.
Trump’s post Saturday echoed one he made last summer when he announced on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of documents with confidentiality seals.
The grand jury in Manhattan has been hearing witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who alleges he arranged payments in 2016 to two women to stop talking about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies any such encounters occurred, maintains he did nothing wrong and that the investigation is actually part of a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor hell-bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has apparently been examining whether state laws were violated in connection with the alleged payments or the way Cohen was compensated by Trump’s company for his work to silence the two women.
Cohen has said that, under Trump’s orders, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payments were to stop them from talking about their relationship with Trump, who was in the midst of his first presidential campaign.
Daniels and at least two former Trump aides, former political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks, are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.
