The Trump Indictment: What You Need to Know

A Manhattan grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump on charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star during the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a crime.

Summary

A Manhattan grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump on charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star during the closing weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a crime.

• The indictment was sought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, although the charges have not yet been made public. In New York State, charges are typically kept under seal until the defendant appears in court. Trump is expected to surrender and his hearing has been scheduled for 2:15pm ET on Tuesday April 4.
• The former President would have to be booked, fingerprinted and have his mugshot taken before his arraignment. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the indictment a “political prosecution.” His attorneys have vowed to fight the indictment in court.
• Any potential trial would likely be more than a year away, in the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign. The specter of a major-party candidate campaigning under indictment is unprecedented in US history and the country is entering uncharted legal waters.
• Trump reportedly is facing more than 30 counts related to business fraud with regards to a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. The DA is expected to argue Trump “falsified business records to cover up another crime, such as violating federal campaign-finance law, which makes it a felony.”
• Daniels, a.k.a. Stephanie Clifford, has said she received the payment to buy her silence over an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump in 2006 in the weeks after his wife Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron. Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen has testified that he paid Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to cover up alleged affairs with Trump.
• No current or former US president had ever been indicted before Trump, but other leaders from wealthy democracies have been indicted or convicted of crimes after leaving office.
  • Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned the presidency last year after serving time in prison for corruption before the charges were thrown out on a technicality.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading his nation while a trial on corruption charges is ongoing. Ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was jailed for nearly two years for bribery and obstruction of justice.
  • Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted of financial crimes and sentenced to prison.
  • Park Geun-hye, the first female president of South Korea, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption and pardoned after five years.

• The New York Times reported that Trump and his aides were caught off guard by the indictment. According to Maggie Haberman, they were under the impression an indictment was still weeks away or might not even happen. In the aftermath of the indictment, Trump was reportedly focused more on the political fallout of his indictment, not any potential legal consequences.
• According to CNN, Trump is facing more than 30 counts related to business fraud, although the indictment remains under seal. The full list of charges are expected to be unveiled at Trump’s first court appearance on Tuesday.
• Bragg’s office sent House Republicans a blistering letter rejecting GOP allegations of partisanship as “baseless and inflammatory,” even though he campaigned for DA by promising to indict the former President. Even so, his general counsel argued that any conclusions that the prosecution is political are “misleading and meritless,” according to Politico.

• Ron DeSantis says he would refuse any extradition request due to the “questionable circumstances” of the indictment, according to Fox News. “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” the Florida governor tweeted on Thursday. “It is un-American.”
• The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland argued the Trump indictment marks the beginning of an “era of police-state politics in America.” While Cleveland acknowledges that the indictment remains under seal, she argues this means America is now in a period of “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” politics, to borrow from the famous boast from Lavrentiy Beria, Joseph Stalin’s secret police chief known for brutal crimes far worse than a white-collar crime indictment.
• National Review’s Andrew McCarthy wrote Bragg “crossed the Rubicon on Thursday” with an indictment hallmarked by “blatant partisanship.” McCarthy argued, “We have to withhold final judgment until we’ve seen the indictment, which may not happen until Trump is arraigned, probably next week. But this appears to be about as execrable an exercise of prosecutorial discretion as one can fathom. Trump may even be the one-in-a-million defendant whose claim of invidious, selective prosecution has a shot of prevailing in court.”

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© Dominic Moore, 2023