New York: The next in-person hearing in a criminal case against former president Donald Trump in New York City has been set for December 4, roughly two months before the official start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary calendar.
Trump, the first former US President to be criminally charged, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records at his arraignment in a Manhattan court on charges relating to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
At the December in-person court appearance, State Supreme Court Justice Juan M Merchan will decide on the expected motions to dismiss the case.
Following Trump’s arraignment, prosecutors said they expect to produce the bulk of the discovery in the next 65 days, CNN reported.
Trump’s team has until August 8 to file any motions and the prosecution will respond by September 19. Judge Merchan said he will rule on the motions at the next in-person hearing on December 4.
Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty said Tuesday he expects “robust” motions to challenge the case and hopes they can succeed in stopping the case.
If not, Trusty said he expects Trump’s attorneys will “figure out if there’s a way to try to push this earlier” than the December 4 hearing.
Trump, 76, has already announced that he will seek the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election.
The Iowa Republican caucuses will be held on February 5, 2024, marking the start of the party’s primary season.
That underscores how Trump’s legal troubles could shadow him into the period when voters are picking a candidate to nominate for president, The Hill newspaper reported.
The New Hampshire primary, the first one on the Republican calendar, is scheduled for February 13.
Trump is expected to use the charges against him to try and rally support among Republican voters, arguing he is a victim of a politically motivated prosecution. A Saint Anselm College poll released Tuesday showed Trump with 42 per cent support among likely Republican primary voters, well ahead of Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who garnered 29 per cent support, the newspaper said.
New York: Former President Donald Trump has become the highest-ranking former US official to be indicted as he pursues his bid to get the Republican Party nomination for next year’s election.
While there has been no formal announcement from the Manhattan prosecutor that he has been indicted, several media outlets reported on Thursday that the grand jury had voted to indict Trump on charges relating to hush money paid to a porn star.
Michael Cohen, the former lawyer for Trump, who handled the payment and was the key witness against Trump, issued a statement confirming the indictment.
Trump in a call to ABC TV said that the indictment was “an attack on our country” and an attempt to “impact an election”.
The exact charges were not immediately known as the grand jury hearings and its vote are secret.
Neither the alleged affair nor the payments are of themselves illegal and the potential charges he faces are falsifying business records for allegedly hiding the payments as lawyer’s fees and illegally using the payments to further his election.
Under New York legal procedures, a grand jury – a panel made up of citizens – holds a secret preliminary hearing on allegations to determine whether there is a prima facie case to bring charges for trial.
Stormy Daniels, the porn star, alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2016.
On the eve of the election in 2016, Cohen paid her to buy her silence and he was himself convicted in relation to the payments.
Trump’s lawyers continued to maintain the former president’s innocence on Thursday.
“President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime,” the attorneys Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles said in a statement. “We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in Court.”
Trump released a statement shortly after the news of the indictment broke, calling it a “witch-hunt,” and saying the move was an attempt by Democrats to interfere in the 2024 election.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump wrote in his statement. “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 also went after District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he was “doing Joe Biden’s dirty work.”
The district attorney’s office requested that Trump surrender on Friday, but Trump’s lawyers replied that the timeline was too tight, saying the U.S. Secret Service needed more time to prepare, according to a law enforcement official. Tacopina confirmed the exchange, adding that no date had been set for the former president’s 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 the district attorney’s office said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
Trump has already tried to use the charges to rally his base, calling on his followers to protest and “take back our nation.” But there’s no precedent for a presidential candidate campaigning during his own criminal trial. And while the case could stretch beyond November 2024, a conviction before then would spark a host of constitutional issues.
Despite concern that Trump’s indictment could spark protests from his supporters, a spokesperson for New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that there were no credible threats of violence.
“The NYPD continues to monitor all activity and there are no credible threats to the city at this time,” Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said. “The NYPD always remains prepared to respond to events happening on the ground and keep New Yorkers safe.”
Dozens of court and police officers swarmed lower Manhattan after the indictment was announced. A chopper hovered overhead. Outside the courthouse, a handful of pro-indictment protesters praised the grand jury’s decision.
Bragg left the courthouse just after 7 p.m., ducking into his car without taking questions from reporters. Police officers surrounded his black SUV. A group of about 10 protesters in favor of the indictment draped a 25-foot banner outside the courthouse that read “Trump lies all the time.”
“I’m out here celebrating the fact that one of the most evil men on the planet has been stopped at least temporarily,” said Robert Hoatson, 71, who drove over from West Orange, N.J., after he saw the news on TV. “I’m so proud to be an American today.”
Hoatson runs a nonprofit for victims of sexual abuse. He held two signs, one that read “Throw away the key” and the other that said “Lock him up.”
Trump’s indictment follows the unrelated December conviction of his family business, the Trump Organization, for tax fraud in a case also prosecuted by Bragg.
The indictment of Trump stems from the 2018 federal conviction of his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations for facilitating the payment to Daniels. That payment came during the heart of the 2016 presidential campaign. And both Cohen and federal prosecutors have said that he acted “in coordination with and at the direction of” the former president.
“I stand by my testimony and the evidence that I provided to the district attorney of New York,” Cohen said on Thursday during an interview on MSNBC. While the indictment is “significant,” Cohen said, “it’s extremely important that we let the process work out, and that people do still understand that there is a presumption of innocence in this country.”
The Trump Organization later reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, prosecutors said in court filings. The company’s executives authorized $420,000 in payments to Cohen in an effort to cover his original payment and tax liabilities, and to reward him with a bonus, according to prosecutors. The Trump Organization falsely recorded those payments in their books as legal expenses, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office subsequently pursued a criminal inquiry into whether those payments violated campaign finance law, but they later ended the probe without bringing charges.
The company’s former chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, who was given immunity by federal prosecutors in their investigation of the hush money that led to the charges against Cohen, pleaded guilty to an unrelated tax fraud scheme in August 2022.
Cohen testified before the grand jury in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of Trump. It’s unclear whether Weisselberg, who is now serving a five-month jail sentence, was also called as a witness.
Though the district attorney’s office offered Trump the opportunity to testify before the grand jury prior to his indictment, he declined to do so.
The indictment is sure to cloud Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and triggers a number of unprecedented scenarios. If he pleads not guilty and the case goes to trial, a process that can take many months, he could face the possibility of campaigning for the White House while undergoing a criminal trial. And if he were to win a second term while facing or serving a prison sentence, that would give rise to a host of constitutional issues.
Trump has said an indictment would not stop him from campaigning for another term. When asked whether he would stay in the 2024 race if formally charged, Trump told reporters at CPAC in March: “Oh absolutely. I wouldn’t even think about leaving.” He has said his supporters were “very upset” about the multiple investigations he’s facing, and added that he thought the probes would “enhance” his poll numbers.
Throughout his presidency and in his post-White House life, Trump has cast himself as a victim of partisan “witch hunt” investigations targeting him and his business dealings. His fellow Republicans have largely echoed that claim, though it remains to be seen whether those running for the party’s presidential nomination will rally to Trump’s side or cast him off.
At least one potential 2024 Republican rival, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has said that Trump should end his campaign if charged.
“It is a dark day for America when a former President is indicted on criminal charges,” Hutchinson said in a statement following the news of the indictment. “Donald Trump should not be the next president, but that should be decided by the voters.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New York: New Yorkers are voicing mixed feelings amid the possibility of Donald Trump’s indictment, with some expressing confidence that law enforcement agencies will be able to maintain order in the city while others apprehensive of how the situation will unfold if criminal charges are brought against the former US president.
A grand jury is weighing whether to indict Trump, 76, over hush money payments made to a porn star to keep quiet about an alleged affair during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Barricades have come up at several points near the courthouses in Lower Manhattan as well as outside the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg where police personnel are manning the premises as it was expected that Trump could be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury this past week.
“Barricades are being set up around Manhattan Criminal Court as our nation awaits an announcement on whether President Donald J. Trump will be INDICTED despite having committed NO CRIME,” a Trump email said.
The area outside the courthouses wore a deserted look Friday as the week wrapped up without the grand jury indictment that could charge Trump.
While Trump has called on his supporters to protest against the indictment, there were no demonstrators outside the courthouses as the week concluded.
There are expectations that the grand jury could meet Monday, when pro-Trump supporters, as well as protestors, could gather again in lower Manhattan, along with hordes of camera persons and journalists, intently waiting for the possible indictment and keeping an eye on its aftermath.
On Friday it was business as usual in and outside the court premises as New Yorkers went about their business, tourists stopped by the imposing court stairs to click pictures, newly-wed couples posed for photos after their marriage ceremonies in the court and police and a handful of media persons stood nearby monitoring developments.
Parimal Prasad, part of a marriage party that came out of the courthouse, said Trump should be indicted and “treated just like any other citizen.” “If the court finds him guilty, he should be behind bars,” he said. Prasad said he is not too concerned about the possibility of violence and protests if and when Trump is indicated “because the law enforcement agencies will take care of that.”
Another resident, who did not wish to give his name, said Trump’s indictment is “long-overdue” and voiced hope that “things will be safe” in and around the city.
Benjamin, a student at New York University, who lives across the road from the criminal courthouses, said he has noticed a “lot of hysteria” over the past few days about Trump.
“I’ve lived in the area for about four years and have never seen this much preparation around the courthouses,” he said.
He cited the January 6 Capitol riots and other lapses by Trump during his presidency.
He also said that he is “very concerned” about large-scale protests in the eventuality that Trump is indicted.
“Protests and riots are no stranger to New York City.”
“I feel like what will come to him will come to him,” he said and added, “I hope justice prevails.”
