Donald Trump believes he may be arrested on Tuesday, but his lawyers have called for a new witness in the case against him regarding alleged hush money payments to two women, including Stormy Daniels. Source: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia
During the weekend, Donald Trump went to social media with claims he could be arrested on Tuesday, with calls to his 5 million followers to protest.
Via a series of posts on his social network platform, Truth Social, on Saturday that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan district attorney’s office had indicated he will be taken into custody sometime tomorrow.
“Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office … indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven … the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“Protest, take our nation back!” he also wrote.
Many see his call to action as reflective of his statements prior to his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
A Trump spokesman said the former president had not been notified of any arrest.
Trump did not discuss what he expected to be charged with, nor did he provide evidence of a leak from the district attorney’s office.
According to sources, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has been investigating a US$130,000 hush payment by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, to porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen has already testified that he orchestrated payments to two women in 2016, during Donald Trump’s presidential run, to buy their silence regarding sexual affairs they had with Trump a decade before is presidency.
However, Robert Costello has been asked to appear before the grand jury for the case, at the request of Trump’s lawyers. Costello is a lawyer known for representing former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Trump’s lawyers believe he may have information that calls into question Cohen’s version of events. It is expected that his testimony will focus on the payment to Stormy Daniels and how that occurred.
Trump is currently seeking the Republican nomination to run for presidency again in 2024. No standing or former US president has ever faced criminal charges. Trump has previously said he will continue his presidential campaign, regardless of if he is charged with a crime.
Many Democrat politicians, and a few Republicans, have rallied behind the investigation.
“The former president’s announcement this morning is reckless: doing so to keep himself in the news and to foment unrest among his supporters,” former Democratic House Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence.”
However, many other Republicans have defended Trump.
Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence was among those criticising the investigation, despite recently coming out as a critic of Trump. Pence told the US’ ABC News that it “just feels like a politically charged prosecution here.”
The current Republican House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, criticised the District Attorney’s investigation, describing it as “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA [district attorney] who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump”.
Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.
I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by… https://t.co/elpbh7LeWn
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 18, 2023
But McCarthy remains against the idea of protesting Trump’s potential arrest. “I don’t think people should protest this, no,” he told reporters. “We want calmness out there.”
