A lawyer for Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been informed that the former president has been indicted in New York on charges related to payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter.
A New York grand jury voted Thursday to indict former President Donald Trump in a case related to paying the porn actress stormy daniels in exchange for his silence, according to the newspaper The New York Times and confirmed minutes later by other media.
It is the first criminal trial against a former president of the United States and shakes Trump’s claims to return to the White House in 2024.
Joe Tacopinaa lawyer from Trump, told The Associated Press that he has been informed that a grand jury that has been sitting for months voted to indict the former president. Specific charges were not immediately disclosed.
It is planned that Trumpwho has denied wrongdoing and attacked the investigation, will turn himself in to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remains under seal.
The grand jury’s indictment against Trump, 76, is an extraordinary breakthrough after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. He will almost certainly boost critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top, and at the same time embolden his supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.
On the other hand, the newspaper NYT, which quotes four people familiar with the matter, points out that the first indictment for criminal offenses against a former president of the United States will be announced in the coming days and by then the Manhattan Prosecutor’s Office will have asked Trump to turn himself in to be cited for the charges, which are not yet known.
The grand jury, a body that studies cases and decides whether or not there is a basis for holding a trial, has been followed with great media attention since Trump himself assured ten days ago that its 23 members were going to confirm his accusation and immediately afterwards he would be arrested, which finally did not occur.
Until yesterday, it was believed that the grand jury would postpone its decision until the end of April.
For its part, The Wall Street Journal maintains that the grand jury has examined in its latest meetings -which are not public, so their content is only known through leaks- a second case of another Playboy model who also accuses Trump of having paid him in exchange for keeping quiet about a sexual relationship.
The model Karen McDougalwho was “Playboy girl” of the year in 1998, says she had a sexual relationship with Trump for ten months in 2006, and reached an agreement to publish his story with The National Enquirer in exchange for US $ 150,000, but the newspaper – whose owner is a friend of Trump- bought his testimony to hide it.
The detail is important, because it would mean that the accusation of stormy daniels it is no longer isolated and that there is a pattern of conduct on the part of Trump, which makes his guilt more likely.
With information from The Associated Press and EFE
Source: Gestion
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