Accused of creating ‘false expectations’, Trump should not be ‘arrested’ this week

Trump is unlikely to end up behind bars. The prosecutor investigating the former US president accused him on Thursday of “creating false expectations” for the media in a case with unforeseen political implications.

The 76-year-old Republican billionaire, who dreams of “reclaiming” the White House in 2024, must answer before New York State Judge and his Manhattan attorney Alvin Bragg in a $130,000 settlement against pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, with whom, he reportedly had an affair.

Donald Trump made headway by assuring on his Pravda social media site Saturday that he would be “arrested” by Prosecutor Bragg on a criminal charge on Tuesday. But nothing happened. This did not prevent New York – its police, its justice and the press – for the whole week to step back from hypothetical speeches, indictments and even a short-term “arrest” of the 45th American president. Which would be unprecedented in the United States.

“Political motivated lawsuits”

Attorney Bragg, an elected Democrat who has headed the Manhattan prosecutor’s office since 2022 and who inherited the Stormy Daniels case, remained silent. But in a letter Thursday addressed to three Republican MPs, his services denounced the media and the political lightning caused by Donald Trump on Saturday.

In this letter, the Manhattan Attorney’s Office responds to these three elected members of the House of Representatives who, in a letter dated March 20, summoned Attorney Bragg to testify before Congress. They accused the left-wing judge of conducting “politically motivated prosecutions.” “Your letter,” Attorney General Secretary Leslie Dubeck counters, “is an unprecedented interference with an ongoing local investigation.”

And this happened “only after Donald Trump created the false expectation that he would be arrested the next day, and after his lawyers obviously got you to intervene.” “No single fact provides a legitimate basis for a Congressional investigation,” she sweeps.

Charge dismissed

New York justice has once again delayed a possible indictment of Donald Trump until next week, according to several media outlets such as the Washington Post. That decision must be voted on by a grand jury, a group of citizens with broad investigative powers that works with the prosecutor, who must comply and file charges formally.

This grand jury did not seem to meet on this case on Thursday, the last day of the trial week. Even if Trump is charged, he still won’t be “arrested” right away. It will take him a few days to show up in Manhattan, where there is undoubtedly an indescribable mess.

Throughout the week, New York authorities erected barriers in front of the courthouse and Trump Tower in Manhattan. To prevent any risk of confrontation in a city with a history of violence, the NYPD has increased the “presence of uniformed police officers.”

Storming the Capitol

Donald Trump on Saturday urged his supporters to “protest,” recalling what he did in December 2020 and January 6, 2021, the day his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, to challenge an unsubstantiated “stolen” presidential election. Joe Biden.

But this week, there were only a few dozen protesters outside the Trump Courthouse and Tower in New York, as well as Donald Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida. In a final post Thursday on Truth Social, the former president confirmed that he is “100% innocent” and that he is being persecuted by “radical left lunatics” and warned: “Our country is collapsing and they are telling us to keep the peace.” At its core, the Stormy Daniels case is complex.

Justice is trying to determine if Trump was guilty of misrepresentation, misrepresentation, or violating campaign finance laws, a felony by paying money to this pornographic film actress, her real name is Stephanie Clifford, shortly before her presidential victory. in November 2016. For what purpose? According to the prosecution, to cover up alleged extramarital affairs ten years earlier.

The key man in the case is named Michael Cohen: a former lawyer turned enemy of Trump, he paid off Stormy Daniels. He testified before a grand jury, and the actress also cooperated with the law.