Former President Donald Trump on Saturday called on his supporters to protest and “take our nation back” as he girds for an expected effort by the Manhattan district attorney to bring an unprecedented criminal charge over his handling of a hush money payment during his 2016 presidential campaign.
“Protest, take our nation back!” the former president and 2024 GOP presidential candidate exhorted his followers Saturday morning on his social media platform Truth Social, after pointing to news reports about the possibility he could be arrested Tuesday or soon thereafter.
Trump provided no clear basis for his expected arrest, beyond citing what he called “illegal leaks” about the ongoing investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
It’s unclear if Trump’s legal team has informed him of an impending indictment or whether he’s speculating based on news coverage.
A Trump spokesperson clarified that there had been no actual “notification” about an imminent arrest. The spokesperson added that he would “be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!”
A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment Saturday. A Secret Service spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment.
Organization’s business practices. That probe resulted in tax evasion charges against two Trump business entities and the group’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. He pleaded guilty last year and a jury convicted the Trump companies on the charges.
However, the probe did not result in any charges against Trump himself before Vance was replaced by Bragg at the start of last year. One of the prosecutors leading that investigation quit, saying that Bragg had balked at proceeding with a broad tax fraud and business fraud case.
However, Bragg’s investigation has intensified in recent months on a far narrower issue: whether Trump committed a crime by disguising a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 as a legal expense rather than as an expenditure aimed at boosting his then-ongoing presidential campaign.
The former Trump attorney who made the arrangements, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including one admitting to a federal campaign finance law violation in connection with the payment. However, Trump was never charged over his role.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in connection with the payment and has denied Daniels’ claim that the pair had sex on one occasion in 2006.
Trump’s legal straits aren’t limited to the Manhattan probe. He’s facing an anticipated indictment in Fulton County, Ga., where a district attorney has been investigating his effort to subvert the 2020 election. He’s also facing increasingly acute legal threats from a special counsel probe into his election subversion attempt and efforts to prevent the government from reclaiming scores of sensitive national security documents stashed at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
