Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released a statement Thursday evening confirming that former President Donald Trump has been indicted and that plans are being made for him to surrender.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” a spokesperson for Bragg said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date in selected.”
The New York Times reported that the felony indictment over Trump’s alleged $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels came after prosecutors in the case met with the grand jury on Thursday and read them the criminal statutes before they voted. A few hours later the prosecutors walked into the court clerk’s office and began filing the indictment.
The news comes as The Wall Street Journal reported that District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has started examining an alleged $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly responded to news by condemning the investigation and saying that the state of Florida, where Trump lives, will not provide any assistance to Bragg’s office.
“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head,” DeSantis said in a statement. “It is un-American. The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent.”
“Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” DeSantis added.
After saying two weeks ago that he was going to be “arrested on Tuesday,” Trump said over the weekend, “I think they’ve already dropped the case.”
The former president even praised the grand jury in a statement posted Wednesday on social media.
“I HAVE GAINED SUCH RESPECT FOR THIS GRAND JURY, & PERHAPS EVEN THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE,” Trump said. “THE EVIDENCE IS SO OVERWHELMING IN MY FAVOR, & SO RIDICULOUSLY BAD FOR THE HIGHLY PARTISAN & HATEFUL DISTRICT ATTORNEY, THAT THE GRAND JURY IS SAYING, HOLD ON, WE ARE NOT A RUBBER STAMP, WHICH MOST GRAND JURIES ARE BRANDED AS BEING, WE ARE NOT GOING TO VOTE AGAINST A PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE OR AGAINST LARGE NUMBERS OF LEGAL SCHOLARS ALL SAYING THERE IS NO CASE HERE. DROP THIS SICK WITCH HUNT, NOW!”
Trump quickly changed his tune once news broke that he had been indicted by the grand jury.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said. “From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats — the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country — have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.”
A couple of the examples of political persecution that Trump mentioned in his statement were the investigations into his campaign’s ties to Russia and his first impeachment.
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” Trump claimed. “Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done.”
Trump claimed that Democrats “have cheated countless times over the decades” and that they have weaponized law enforcement agencies to go after him.
“Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace,” Trump said. “Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!”
Trump predicted that he believes that “this Witch-Hunt” will backfire on the Democrats.