Former US President Donald Trump has claimed that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in connection with a case involving allegations that he paid hush money to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called on his supporters to protest ahead of his alleged arrest, but did not specify what the charges would be. The investigation centres on a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Daniels claimed she was paid to keep quiet about an affair she says she had with Trump years earlier, which he denies. The investigation is focused on whether these payments were an infringement of campaign spending funds.
If indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Trump would become the first former president to be charged with a crime. Cohen has already pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations linked to arranging payments to Daniels and another woman, among other crimes, and has said that Trump directed him to make the payments. Daniels’s lawyer has said that she spoke with prosecutors last week.
Trump is facing several legal challenges as he seeks the Republican Party’s nomination for the presidency. He is also confronting a state-level criminal investigation in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 results in that state. A special counsel is currently investigating Trump’s handling of classified government documents after leaving office, as well as his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The Trump Organization, his real estate company, was convicted of tax fraud in a civil case in December, but he was not charged, prompting two prosecutors who worked on the investigation to resign.
Trump leads his early rivals for his party’s presidential nomination with the support of 43% of Republicans in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll, compared with 31% for his nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy.
The former president has chosen to highlight this case and has called for protests, which is similar to the call he made back on January 6 when his supporters broke through doors and windows of the US Capitol building and left police officers beaten and bloodied as they tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Trump is also facing investigation over his role in the Capitol riot.
In summary, Trump is facing several legal challenges as he seeks the Republican Party’s nomination for the presidency. He has claimed that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in connection with a case involving allegations that he paid hush money to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election. The investigation centres on whether these payments were an infringement of campaign spending funds. If indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Trump would become the first former president to be charged with a crime.