Donald Trump assured Saturday that he was going to be “arrested” on Tuesday and called for demonstrations, before a possible indictment concerning a case of payment just before the 2016 presidential election, to buy the silence of a pornographic actress with whom he would have had an affair.
“The Republican Party candidate” in the 2024 presidential primary, “and former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week”, launched Donald Trump on his social network Truth Social, speaking of him in the third person and writing, as is customary, in capital letters.
Such an arrest, or even his indictment in this case, would be a first for a former US president.
“Protest, take back our nation!” Mr. Trump added.
Asked by AFP, one of her lawyers, Susan Necheles, replied that her client had decided to speak on her Truth Social platform “on the basis of press information” published for a few days on a possible indictment. next week.
“Because this is a political prosecution, the District Attorney’s Office [de Manhattan]resorts to leaks to the press rather than contacting President Trump’s lawyers as it normally should be, ”denounced Ms. Necheles.
In fact, Donald Trump on Saturday denounced “leaks” that would be orchestrated by the New York State prosecutor’s office for Manhattan.
Rumors of a possible criminal indictment have increased since Mr. Trump was asked to testify before a grand jury – a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers and responsible for confirming an indictment. A possible sign of the desire of the prosecution to prosecute the former president in the so-called “Stormy Daniels” case.
In question, 130,000 dollars paid to this actress and director of pornographic films, Stephanie Clifford of her real name, for – accuses the New York justice – to buy her silence and thus not to harm the candidate Trump during the presidential election of November 2016, finally won by the Republican billionaire against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The payment of this sum, in itself legal, poses a problem because the New York prosecutor’s office considers that it is a hidden donation to the president’s campaign, in violation of electoral financing laws.
“Protest! »
A few hours after his first publication on Saturday, Donald Trump renewed his call: “We must save America, demonstrate, demonstrate, demonstrate!!! »
These messages echo the one he launched at the end of 2020, convinced that he had been “robbed” of the election against Joe Biden, so that his supporters would demonstrate in Washington on January 6, 2021, a prelude to their assault on the US Capitol, seat of legislative power, which had shocked America and the world.
Banned from Twitter and other mainstream social networks in the wake of what had been seen as incitement to violence, he was recently reinstated to the blue bird network, as well as Youtube and Facebook. He posted for the first time in two years on these last two networks on Friday.
But it was on Truth Social that he posted his allegations on Saturday.
‘Corrupt’ Democratic prosecutor
On his social network, he called the services of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected magistrate and Democrat, “corrupt and very political”.
And Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy denounced on Twitter an “outrageous abuse of power by an extremist district attorney who lets violent criminals run wild while pursuing political revenge against President Trump.”
Targeted in several court cases, but never yet charged, the former Republican president (2017-2021), could see this threat materialize soon.
It was his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had become one of his worst enemies, who was responsible for paying the 130,000 dollars to Mrs. Clifford so that she silenced this supposed 2006 relationship with Donald Trump.
Last week, Michael Cohen, already convicted in this case, testified at least twice before the grand jury in this investigation.
On Friday, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, told the media that his client “would go” to New York justice if he were to be charged.
Donald Trump, campaigning for the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential election, will hold a rally next Saturday in Waco, Texas.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who had enabled the reinstatement of the former president on Twitter, estimated on Saturday that if an arrest materializes, “Trump will be[it] re-elected in a landslide victory” in November 2024.