A Manhattan grand jury has just voted to indict former president Donald Trump in connection with his role in paying “hush money” to a porn star before the 2016 election. According to reports, this will initiate a legal battle where Trump will face charges in New York.
The grand jury’s vote marks the first time a former president will have faced criminal charges. The charges against Trump are not publicly known as it is common legal practice for New York judges not to reveal them until the defendant makes an initial appearance in court. According to the Wall Street Journal:
The case brought by Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, is far from a sure bet. Mr. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., and federal prosecutors each passed on charging Mr. Trump in a stand-alone case related to the hush money. If the case goes to trial, a conviction would almost certainly require a jury to credit the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who has faced his own legal troubles and pleaded guilty to an array of federal felonies in 2018. Among them was a campaign-finance offense for the porn-star payment, as well as charges of lying to a bank and to Congress.
The indictment against Trump centers around Cohen’s testimony that the former president instructed him to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election for her silence regarding an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump. It is noted that the case New York has brought against Trump can’t have any effect on his 2024 candidacy as the U.S. Constitution never mentions it is required for a presidential candidate to have a clean criminal record. Further legal consensus dictates that states cannot impose their own regulations on a presidential candidate also.
The effect of a criminal indictment of Donald Trump is unclear. Some have claimed it is helping him in the polls and rallies his supporters against a deep state trying to prevent him becoming president again. However, it could simultaneously drive some Republican voters toward a more tame candidate like Ron DeSantis. The Wall Street Journal continues:
The indictment could cut different ways for Mr. Trump politically. He has shown resilience among his supporters amid numerous legal issues and controversies and has already used the threat of prosecution as a rallying point to raise campaign funds and argue that he is being charged unfairly for political reasons. At the same time, Mr. Trump’s standing has eroded among some Republicans, numerous polls have shown, and the case could make some voters more likely to support another candidate.
Trump recently said at CPAC in reference to an indictment, “I wouldn’t even think about leaving; probably it will enhance my numbers.” “President Trump was already leading the field by a wide margin, but now Republicans are realizing the fight to save America is a task too big for any conventional candidate,” Taylor Budowich, Trump’s former spokesman who nowadays heads up MAGA Inc., the top super PAC supporting the former president’s 2024 White House campaign, touted to Fox News.
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