A grand jury in New York voted Thursday to indict former President Donald Trump. It is the first time in U.S. history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges, sources familiar with the case said.

The 76-year-old former president, who is running again for president of the United States in the 2024 elections, is being investigated by the $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to allegedly buy his silence over an alleged extra-marital affair a decade earlier, which the tycoon has always denied.

The grand jury convened Monday and heard testimony from a witness, former National Enquirer editor David Pecker, who had testified as far back as January, according to the New York Times.

In recent days, there has been speculation about the eventual indictment of Trump, who announced on March 18 on his Truth Social network that he would be “arrested,” sparking a frenzy among the press stationed in front of the prosecutor’s office. in lower Manhattan.

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On Monday, the Republican assured that the investigation conducted against him by Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg is “electoral interference” orchestrated by “bandits.”

The grand jury’s decision was expected before the district attorney complied and made that decision public.

In the following days, Trump was supposed to “appear” in court in Manhattan to be notified of the charges by a judge, while he was briefly “under arrest” to be photographed and fingerprinted. You would then have to plead guilty or not guilty.

Trump’s then attorney and now enemy Michael Cohenwho testified before the grand jury assured that he was in charge of making the payment to Stormy Daniels on behalf of his then-boss and that he later repaid it.

If the payment had not been credited correctly, it could have resulted in a misdemeanor accounting misdemeanor, although at the same time it would have violated the Election Campaign Financing Act, which It could carry a prison sentence of four years.

According to legal experts, it will not be easy to prove these allegations in court, so it is uncertain whether the former president, who declares himself the victim of a “witch hunt”, can be sentenced to prison.