Donald Trump says he will be arrested Tuesday
Trump said on social media that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicated that he would be arrested.
Former President Donald Trump said he was open to being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney’s office on March 21, citing unspecified leaks in the investigation, and called for protests to “take back our country.”
In comments on his platform Truth Social on Saturday, Trump launched a new verbal attack on the investigators who he says are solving the “fairy tale” that has been exposed.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is opening a grand jury investigation into hush money Trump allegedly paid porn star Stormy Daniels to stop her alleged decade-long sexual encounter before the 2016 election. And publicly. Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the Prague investigation a “witch hunt.”
Former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to protest and “take back our country” on Saturday as he faces an unprecedented criminal charge from the Manhattan district attorney over his handling of hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Protest, take back our country!” the former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate warned his followers on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday morning after pointing to reports that he could be arrested Tuesday or soon after. Trump did not provide a clear rationale for his expected arrest, citing what he called an “illegal leak” of an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
It was unclear whether Trump’s legal team had briefed him on the impending indictment or whether he was speculating based on news reports. A Trump spokesman clarified that there was no real “announcement” of an impending arrest. The representative added that he “will be in Texas next weekend for a big convention. Make America Great Again! “
A spokesman for Bragg declined to comment on Saturday. A Secret Service spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An NYPD spokesman declined to comment.
Multiple news reports late Friday said Prague had asked New York law enforcement to begin discussions about the security and logistics involved in responding to a potential Trump impeachment. It’s unclear whether the potential criminal charges will lead to Trump’s arrest at his new home in Florida, but one of Trump’s lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, said a grand jury is expected in the coming days.
But Trump’s new call to supporters to “take back our country” shows the kind of civil unrest he could spark if he is impeached. His account of the impending arrest follows a long, grumbling thread in which he claimed the “American Dream is dead” and falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him.
His comments were similar to those he made on January 6, 2021, when he urged supporters to “fight like hell” to prevent Joe Biden from taking office. “If you don’t fight like hell, you don’t have a country,” Trump said at the time, before thousands of supporters marched on the Capitol and stormed the building, threatening Congress and the transition.
Trump issued a clarion call to his supporters early Saturday night in two frenzied social media posts that painted a bleak, dystopian picture of America and suggested he was about to be arrested. “Our country is now 3rd world and dying.
The American dream is shattered! Radical leftist anarchists have sabotaged [sic] our presidential election and with it the heart of our [sic] country. American patriots are being arrested and imprisoned like animals while criminals and leftist thugs are allowed to roam the streets, murdering and burning with impunity,” Trump wrote.
Former Prague District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. conducted a lengthy investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices. The investigation led to tax evasion charges against two Trump business entities and the group’s longtime chief financial officer, Alan Weiselberg.
He pleaded guilty last year and a jury found the Donald Corporation guilty. However, the investigation did not lead to any charges against Donald himself until Vance was replaced by Bragg early last year. The prosecutor leading the investigation declined, saying Bragg was reluctant to open a broad case of tax fraud and business fraud.
However, Prague has stepped up its investigation in recent months into a narrower issue: whether Trump disguised a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 as legal fees rather than to boost the president’s campaign spending, constituting criminal activity.
Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who brokered the deal, pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including one count of violating federal campaign finance laws in connection with the payments. However, Donald was never indicted for his role.
Donald has repeatedly denied making the payments and denied Daniels’ claim that the two had sex in 2006. Donald’s legal troubles extend beyond the Manhattan investigation. He faces charges in Fulton County, Georgia, where prosecutors have been investigating his efforts to undermine the 2020 election.
He also faces mounting legal threats as a special counsel investigates his attempts to undermine the election and works to prevent the government from recovering sensitive national security documents stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate.