Former President Donald Trump said that his arrest is imminent and issued an extraordinary call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.
Trump’s lawyer and spokesperson said there had been no communication from prosecutors, but Trump declared in a post on his Truth Social website that he expects to be taken into custody on Tuesday.
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His message seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement from prosecutors and to galvanize outrage from his base of supporters in advance of widely anticipated charges.
Experts have disagreed over the rumored charges; many have dismissed them as flimsy. Since the announcement, Trump has repeatedly asked supporters for donations and to protest the imminent charges.
“IT’S TIME!!!” Trump wrote in all-capital letters. “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
In another post on Monday morning, he again claimed that the pending charges were politically motivated —
THE LEAD PROSECUTOR FOR THE CORRUPT MANHATTAN D.A.’s OFFICE WORKED AS A LAWYER FOR CROOKED HILLARY CLINTON AND HER LAW FIRM, LEFT THIS DEMOCRAT FIRM WITH OTHERS TO VOLUNTEER TO “GET DONALD TRUMP” AT THE D.A.’s OFFICE, FOR FREE. HE QUIT IN A HUFF WHEN D.A. BRAGG SAID THERE WAS NO CASE HERE. HE THEN UNETHICALLY & ILLEGALLY WROTE & PUBLISHED A BOOK ABOUT THE CASE WHILE IT WAS GOING ON. THIS IS UNHEARD OF “STUFF.” THE CASE IS NOW COMPLETELY COMPROMISED & REPORTS ARE THAT MARK POMERANTZ IS IN TROUBLE
Pomerantz is the former special assistant to the New York County District Attorney that resigned in 2022 over frustration that Trump hadn’t been indicted.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is thought to be eyeing charges in the hush money investigation, and recently offered Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury. Local law enforcement officials are bracing for the public safety ramifications of an unprecedented prosecution of a former American president.
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In an internal email following Trump’s statements, Bragg said law enforcement would ensure that the 1,600 people who work in his office would remain safe, and that “any specific or credible threats” would be investigated.
“We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York,” he wrote, and added: “In the meantime, as with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate.”
There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the grand jury’s secret work in the case. At least one additional witness is expected to testify, further indicating that no vote to indict has yet been taken, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
That did not stop Trump from taking to his social media platform to say “illegal leaks” from Bragg’s office indicate that “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.”
A Trump lawyer, Susan Necheles, said Trump’s post was “based on the media reports,” and a spokesperson said there had been “no notification” from Bragg’s office, though the origin of Trump’s Tuesday reference was unclear. The district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Trump’s aides and legal team have been preparing for the possibility of an indictment. Should that happen, he would be arrested only if he refused to surrender. Trump’s lawyers have previously said he would follow normal procedure, meaning he would likely agree to surrender at a New York Police Department precinct or directly to Bragg’s office.
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It is unclear whether Trump’s supporters would heed his protest call or if he retains the same persuasive power he held as president. Trump’s posts on Truth Social generally receive far less attention than he used to get on Twitter, but he maintains a deeply loyal base. The aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, in which hundreds were arrested and prosecuted in federal court, may also have dampened the passion among supporters for confrontation.
The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into every facet of his life.
Even as Trump pursues his latest White House campaign — his first rally is set for Waco, Texas, later this month and he shook hands and took selfies with fans during a public appearance Saturday evening at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma — there is no question an indictment would be a distraction.
Whether it will solidify support behind Trump, or galvanize his Republican rivals, is still unknown.
Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election.
A Justice Department special counsel has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of classified documents at his Florida estate. It is not clear when those investigations will end or whether they might result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the ongoing gravity – and broad geographic scope – of the legal challenges facing the former president.
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Trump’s post Saturday echoes one made last summer when he broke the news on Truth Social that the FBI was searching his Florida home as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents.
News of that search sparked a flood of contributions to Trump’s political operation, and on Saturday, Trump sent out a series of fundraising emails to his supporters, including one that claimed, “I’m not worried in the slightest.”
After his post, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decried any plans to prosecute Trump as an “outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA” whom he claimed was pursuing “political vengeance.” Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, issued a statement with a similar sentiment.
The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong , and has cast the investigation as a political “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 campaign.
Trump also has labeled Bragg a “racist” and has accused the prosecutor of letting crime in the city run amok while he has focused on Trump.
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Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether state laws were broken in connection with the payments or how Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.
The Horn News editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article