In a social media post, Donald Trump said he expected to be arrested Tuesday as a New York prosecutor eyes a case probing secret funds paid to women who allege sexual encounters with the former president. doing.
Trump said in a post on his Truth social network early Saturday that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicated that “far and away the leading Republican nominee and former President of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday.” Next week.”
Messages left Saturday with the district attorney’s office were not immediately returned. Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
Trump did not elaborate
Trump did not provide any details on social media about how he learned about the possible arrest. In his posting, he reiterated his lie that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden and urged his followers to “Protest, take back our country!” That language evoked a message from the then president on January 6, 2021, before the riot at the US Capitol.
Law enforcement officials in New York are preparing security for the possibility that Trump could be charged.
There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jury’s secret work in the case, including any possible vote to indict the former president.
Trump’s posting echoed last summer when he reported on TruthSociety that the FBI was searching his home as part of an investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents.
The grand jury in Manhattan is hearing from witnesses including Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he paid two women in 2016 to keep quiet about sexual encounters they said a decade ago with Trump. Did it with
Trump denied the allegations
Trump denies the encounters, says he did nothing wrong and calls the investigation a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is apparently investigating whether any state laws were broken regarding the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet. Compensation was given.
Daniels and at least two former Trump aides – one-time political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks – are among witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.
Cohen has said that at Trump’s direction, he arranged payments totaling US$280,000 to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payment was to buy her silence regarding Trump, who was in his first presidential campaign at the time.
(with inputs from AP)