Donald Trump has been revealed following an investigation into his hush money payment plan. Here is what we know – Roncus

Roncus
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President Donald Trump’s former indictment by a New York grand jury has plunged the nation into uncharted political, legal and historical waters, and raised lingering questions about how the criminal case will unfold.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump in connection with his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult star Stormy Daniels, who is enjoying days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Although the indictment – which is proposed to be sealed – has yet to be revealed, Trump and his allies have already turned to Bragg and the grand jury verdict, calling it “the highest level of political persecution and election interference in history.”

Here’s what we know about Trump’s impeachment so far.

Trump has been charged with more than 30 counts of business fraud, CNN reported. It remains under seal.

The former president is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan court next Tuesday, but the timing of the specifics remains fluid.

The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office began when Trump was still in the White House and silenced a $130,000 payment made by then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels in October 2016, days before the 2016 presidential election. publicly about an alleged affair with Trump a decade ago. Trump denied the matter.

The target of the probe was the payment to Daniels and Cohen’s Trump Organization compensation.

According to the court filing with the federal charges Cohen is facing criminal charges, the Trump Org. Executives authorized payments to him totaling $420,000 to cover the original $130,000 payment and tax liabilities and to reimburse him for the fine. The company recorded the compensation as legal expenses in its internal books. Trump denied the knowledge.

Hush money payments are not illegal. Prosecutors were considering before the indictment whether to charge Trump with falsifying the Trump Organization’s media records, and how compensation would be paid to Cohen, who said he advanced the money to Daniels. Falsifying business records is a crime in New York.

Prosecutors were also considering whether to charge Trump with falsifying business records in the first degree, with the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal another crime, which in this case could be against campaign finance laws. It is a Class A felony and carries a minimum sentence of one year and as much as four years. To prove the case, prosecutors would need to have wanted Trump to commit the crime.

A judge looking ahead to the case against Trump on Thursday ordered Bragg’s sealed petition to publicly disclose the sealed grand jury statement.

The order is the case named above: People of New York v. Donald J. Trump.

Judge Juan Merchan wrote that the disclosure was “a public and appropriate exercise of this Court’s discretion,” according to the document.

Trump was caught off guard by the judge’s decision to indict him, according to someone who spoke with him. While the former president was arrested last week for impeachment, news reports began to believe that the indictment could take weeks or more.

The president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and continued his attacks on Bragg and other Democrats following the news of the impeachment.

“I believe this Witch-Hunt will massively fire Joe Biden,” the president said in a statement Thursday. “The American people know exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone has to see. So our movement and our Party united and strong will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then defeat Joe Biden, and we will throw every last one of these Crotchet Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! ”

The president was first asked to surrender on Friday in New York, his lawyer said, but his defense said he needed more time and was expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

As for the former appearance of the initial tribunal of the president, he will look in one way, as any other criminal, in others he will be looked at very differently.

The first appearances are usually public courts. If the arrest of the accused is not necessary, arrangements are made with them or their lawyers to compel voluntary surrender. At the first appearance in court, books and fingerprints are usually the case. And if the first appearance is an accusation, it is expected that a request will be made.

Trump will have to go through the same process that any other defendant would have to go through when an indictment is brought against him. But Trump’s status as a former president who is now running for the White House will undoubtedly inject greater security and practicality about the next steps in his case.

forks This marks the first time in American history that a current or former president has died of a criminal offense.

That alone makes history. But Trump is expected to be in his third White House in a few months, and the criminal case is moving the 2024 presidential campaign into a new phase, as the former president has vowed not to run on criminal charges.

This is one of many big questions. So far, several congressional Republicans have rallied to Trump’s defense, attacking Bragg on Twitter and accusing the district attorney of political witchcraft.

“Unfair,” tweeted House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the chairmen of the state committee that has gotten Bragg to testify before Congress on the Trump investigation.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas taxman, called the indictment “completely unprecedented” and said it was “a devastating blow to the armory of the justice system.”

And as part of the response to the impeachment, Trump and his team are rolling out surrogates starting to hit Democrats, the investigation and Bragg through various forms of media as they work to shape the public narrative, according to sources close to Trump.

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This story has been updated with additional information.