- Sarah Fowler and Anthony Zurcher
- By BBC correspondents from London and Washington
Former US President Donald Trump said he expected to be arrested next Tuesday local time and urged his supporters to launch mass protests.
Trump’s lawyers, however, said there was no communication from law enforcement and that Trump’s post via social media platforms was based on media reports.
The Manhattan District Attorney in New York has been studying possible lawsuits against Trump. US media reported that Trump could be indicted next week.
If Trump is indicted, it would be the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.
At the heart of the case is allegations that Trump paid, through his lawyers, $130,000 in hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
It is one of several cases in which the 76-year-old former U.S. president is currently under investigation, although Trump has not been charged in any of the cases and has denied wrongdoing in each case.
Trump has pledged to continue his campaign as the Republican nominee for president in 2024, even if he is indicted.
Past efforts to investigate him, including two impeachment trials, the Russia probe and the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, have often made Trump more popular with his supporters, so related indictments could have a similar effect .
It’s unclear whether he will face criminal charges this week, or even what those charges might be.
But it will be a journey into uncharted territory as the former president says he himself will be arrested next Tuesday and calls for mass protests from his supporters.
Trump has a loyal following base, and on January 6, 2021, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol after he repeatedly called for protests, proving that a worrying situation can quickly escalate to violence.
Trump wrote on his own social media platform “Truth Social” on Saturday (March 17) that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office “indicate” that he will be arrested next Tuesday.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has yet to comment. Trump’s attorney, Susan Necheles, said her team had heard nothing from law enforcement officials.
“Because this is a political prosecution, the district attorney’s office took the approach of leaking everything to the media rather than communicating with President Trump’s lawyers as it would normally do,” she said.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, slammed the probe, calling it a “brazen abuse of power by a radical district attorney.”
McCarthy also tweeted that he promised to investigate whether federal funds were used to interfere in the election, that is, whether “politically motivated prosecutions.”
Any indictment would present complex calculations for Trump’s rivals in the Republican Party as they decide whether to ramp up attacks on the former president at a time when he may be distracted, or to keep a low profile and hope for the best .
If history is any guide, it will be the latter.
What’s next?
Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen and former aides Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks are understood to have given evidence. The Trump campaign had said the former president’s refusal of an invitation to appear was a sign the case was drawing to a close, according to experts. A final witness could testify before the grand jury on Monday, the report said.
- Prosecutor decides whether to charge
Once the investigation is complete, the grand jury will vote on whether to recommend criminal charges. However, their judgments are not binding. Ultimately, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will decide what charges, if any, will be brought, with no deadline. It’s a legal decision about what he believes and whether he can prove he can win a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt — but it’s also a deeply political one.
- Trump likely to appear in court in New York
The former US president has never been prosecuted before, but Trump’s lawyers said he would follow the normal process. Typically, defendants are either arrested or surrender to authorities. If they face more serious felony charges, they will be handcuffed. They are then photographed and fingerprinted. After an initial hearing (called an arraignment), defendants in white-collar crime cases like this are usually released until the next court date.
At the heart of the case is how Trump repaid Cohen after Trump paid ex-adult star Daniels $130,000 in hush money through former attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen’s payment records show that the payment was for legal work. Prosecutors may say it amounts to Trump falsifying business records, a misdemeanor in New York.
US media reported that law enforcement agencies in New York were preparing for the possibility of Trump being indicted and appearing in a Manhattan courtroom as early as next week.
According to the Associated Press, local and federal law enforcement officials in New York are expected to meet early next week to discuss security issues and related arrangements related to Trump’s expected indictment.
In addition to the New York hush money probe, Trump faces a separate criminal investigation into trying to reverse his narrow loss in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, but it was unclear whether the former president was directly under investigation.
The U.S. Justice Department is also investigating whether classified government documents were mishandled after Trump left office, as well as broader efforts to undermine the results of the presidential election three years ago, including the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.