Former President Donald Trump is reportedly facing more than 30 criminal charges in the Manhattan grand jury’s sealed indictment.
CNN reported that sources familiar with the matter have informed the network that Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
The report said that the former president was caught off guard by the indictment, according to sources around him. That would match public statements that Trump has made in recent days.
The former president is now the first former president in U.S. history to ever face criminal charges.
“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,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date in selected.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis released a statement condemning the indictment and saying, “Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.”
The lead 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.
Trump responded to the news by claiming that the entire situation was “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”
“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,” he said.
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.”
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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.