Court indicts ex-Pres. Trump for paying hush money to porn star, to be arraigned Tuesday for sentencing

Immediate past President of the United States, Mr Donald Trump has been indicted by a New York State grand jury over charges of paying a sum total of $130,000 in hush money to a female pornography star, identified as 44 year-old Stormy Daniels.

Mr Trump, who was ousted from power after just one term in office in 2020 by Mr Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, is a front-runner ahead of the primary election by the Republican Party for the ticket to contest the Presidential election next year.

The indictment will upend the 76 year-old Trump’s ambition in the forthcoming presidential race in which he hopes to regain office.

Trump was indicted by the Grand Jury, late Thursday, and represents the first time a former president of the United States will be indicted in a criminal case.

He faces arraignment for possible sentencing, next Tuesday.

The protracted legal battle in among a long list of criminal charges investigated by the New York State against Trump who is also under scrutiny for inflating costs his real estate properties to influence value and drive maximum profit.

Trump huddled with lawyers and advisers at his Mar-a-Lago home on Thursday evening after news broke that a Manhattan jury had voted to indict him over a $130,000 hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Reacting, Trump blasted the indictment and said Democrats would regret persecuting an innocent man when his supporters dumped them out of office.

Although the indictment is sealed for now, it reportedly contained more than 30 criminal charges.

‘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 said in an emailed statement.

‘Never before in our nation’s history has this been done.’

The indictment marks the end of a five-year investigation into cash paid to the adult movie star in 2016, allegedly to buy her silence about their affair.

And it takes the country into uncharted political and legal territory. Although being charged with a crime would not disqualify him from running for office, it does mean a leading 2024 candidate faces the humiliation of arrest.

An attorney for Daniels welcomed the news as proof that “no one is above the law.”

“The indictment of Donald Trump is no cause for joy,” Clark Brewster tweeted. “Now let truth and justice prevail.”

On March 18, Trump had declared he expected to be arrested within days over the payment to Daniels — who received $130,000 weeks before the election that brought Trump to power, to stop her from going public about a tryst she claims they had a decade earlier.

In predicting his indictment, Trump also issued a call for demonstrations and dark warnings that it could lead to “potential death & destruction” that “could be catastrophic for our Country.”

Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, who has testified before the grand jury, told Congress in 2019 that he made the payment to Daniels on Trump’s behalf and was later reimbursed.

Meanwhile, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it was in touch with Trump’s lawyers to arrange his surrender in New York.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said talks had begun to bring Trump to New York.

‘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,’ they said.

Earlier, Trump played nine holes of golf at his Florida club as usual on Thursday morning. But the 76-year-old did not stay for lunch even though his usual table was reserved.

A source close to his Mar-a-Lago home said the Trump team was ready with statements and social media messaging as soon as the indictment dropped.

‘We had a plan in place and the plan was executed,’ he said. ‘Getting surrogates out, getting content out.’

Trump is leading most polls of Republican voters for the party nomination. But the Manhattan case is just one of the legal obstacles he faces, including probes into efforts to overthrow the result of the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

On the matter of raising the cost of his real estate properties in order to drive value for maximum profit, a csse which the New York attorneys have been investigation for many years now, the state’s attorney general Letitia James stated: ‘We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit.’

“We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit,” James added after the filing was lodged in a New York court.

James is pursuing her investigation as a civil case, which means that were Trump to be found liable it could cost him heavily in fines and penalties. More seriously, James is working in coordination with the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a similarly tenacious and relentless prosecutor equipped with a large and highly experienced team of investigators.

Bragg is asking exactly the same questions as James; did the Trump Organization commit accounting, bank, tax or insurance fraud? The critical difference is that Bragg’s investigation is criminal, threatening Trump not with fines but prison time.

“The criminal case is more dangerous since it involves potential incarceration. But it requires criminal intent and that is difficult to prove, particularly in complex financial frauds involving organizations,” said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor, now a partner at McCarter & English, LLP.

The family’s best hope is that the prosecutors will struggle to meet the high bar that is set for criminal cases. That is especially so when it comes to the critical issue of intent, said Mintz.

Prosecutors will have to prove that Trump knowingly and willfully violated the law. That can be tough – showing discrepancies in financial statements, juicy though they may be, is not enough.