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 )
But the board of the Tallahassee Classical School pressured Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the “David” was shown to a sixth-grade art class. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.
Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the “David,” a 17-foot nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.
Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.
Carrasquilla said in a phone interview Sunday that she is “very honored” by the invitations to Italy and she may accept.
“I am totally, like, wow,” Carasquilla said. “I’ve been to Florence before and have seen the ‘David’ up close and in person, but I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”
Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, where the “David” resides, expressed astonishment at the controversy.
“To think that ‘David’ could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.
She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.
Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.
About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.
Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical’s school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate, while defending the decision.
“Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.
Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla’s ouster at Monday night’s school board meeting, but Carrasquilla said she isn’t sure she would take the job back even if it were offered.
“There’s been such controversy and such upheaval,” she said. “I would really have to consider, ‘Is this truly what is best?’”
Marla Stone, head of humanities studies at the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.
“What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear, fear of beauty, of difference, and of the possibilities embedded in art.”
Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted the “David” from 1501 to 1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia, and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.
“It is incredibly sought-after by Americans who want to do selfies and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” Director Hollberg said.
The museum, like many in Europe, is free for student groups. There was no indication that any trip would be subsidized by the city or museum.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Patna: Hundreds of passengers waiting to board trains at the Patna railway station faced an awkward situation when a porn clip played at all the TV screens installed across the 10 platforms for three minutes.
The incident took place on Sunday night.
The contract for telecasting videos and films on the railway stations of the Danapur division is given to a private company.
Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials immediately contacted them and stopped the telecast.
Confirming the incident, Prabhat Kumar, official spokesperson of the DRM office in Danapur, said: “We have initiated an inquiry into the incident and started the process of cancellation of contract. We have registered an FIR against the company officials… It is an intolerable incident. We will blacklist this company.”
Sources said that a similar incident had also occurred on Sunday morning in the same railway station.
