Trump said he expected to be arrested on the hush-money charge, prompting an uproar on social media

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NEW YORK (AP) Donald Trump claimed Saturday that he was about to be arrested and issued a rare call for his supporters to protest as a New York grand jury investigates hush money payments to women who allegedly y having sex with the former president.

Although a Trump lawyer and spokeswoman said there had been no communication from prosecutors, Trump revealed in a post on his social media platform that he expected to be jailed on Tuesday.

His message seemed designed to avoid a formal announcement from prosecutors and to stir anger from his base of supporters ahead of the widely expected charges. Within hours, he sent out a fundraising email to supporters while influential Republicans in Congress issued statements in his defense.

In a later post that went beyond encouraging loyalists to protest his legal jeopardy, the 2024 presidential candidate pointed to his outrage at the all-caps Biden administration and raised the prospect of chaos civil: IT’S TIME!!! he wrote. WE JUST CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE. THEY ARE KILLING OUR COUNTRY WHILE WE SIT AND WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!

All of this evoked, ironically, the rhetoric used shortly before the uprising at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. After hearing from the then-president at a rally in Washington that morning, his supporters marched on the Capitol and tried to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House victory, smashing the building’s doors and windows and leaving officials battered and bloodied.

District Attorney Alvin Braggis is thought to be seeking charges in the hush money investigation, and recently offered Trump the chance to testify before a grand jury. Local law enforcement officials are preparing for the public safety implications of an unprecedented prosecution of a former American president.

But there has been no public announcement of any timeframe for the grand jury’s secret work on the case. At least one more witness is expected to testify, further indicating there is no vote yet to file charges, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

This did not stop Trump from taking to his social media platform to state the illegal leaks from Bragg’s office indicating that THE FAR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.

A Trump attorney, Susan Necheles, said Trump’s post was based on media reports,” though the source of Trump’s reference Tuesday was unclear. The district attorney’s office denied the comment.

Trump’s aides and legal team are preparing for the possibility of an indictment. If that happens, he will only be arrested if he refuses to surrender. Trump’s lawyers had previously said he would follow the normal procedure, meaning he would likely agree to surrender at a New York Police Department precinct or directly at Braggs’ office.

READ MORE: New York investigating Trump’s involvement in hush-money case, explained

It is unclear whether Trump’s supporters will heed his call of protest or whether he will retain the same persuasive power he wielded as president. Trumps posts on Truth Social generally get less attention than he used to get on Twitter, but he maintains a deeply loyal base. The aftermath of the Jan. 6 riots, in which hundreds of Trump loyalists were arrested and prosecuted in federal court, may also dampen supporters’ penchant for confrontation.

The indictment of Trump, 76, would be an unusual development after years of investigation into his business, political and personal dealings.

Even as Trump continues his latest campaign in the White House, his first rally is scheduled for Waco, Texas, later this month and he is scheduled to make a public appearance Saturday night at the NCAA Division I wrestling championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. there’s no question that an accusation would be a distraction and provide fodder to opponents and critics who are tired of the legal scandals that have long surrounded him.

In addition to the hush money inquiry in New York, Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election.

A Justice Department special counsel is also presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate. It’s unclear when those investigations will end or if they could result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the continuing gravity and broad geographic scope of the legal challenges which the former president is facing.

Trump’s post Saturday echoed 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 finding prompted a flood of contributions to Trump’s political operation, and on Saturday, Trump sent a fundraising email to his supporters saying MANHATTAN DA COULD BE CLOSE TO TRUMP’S IMPLEMENTATION.

After his post, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy denounced any plans to prosecute Trump as an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who he claimed was seeking political revenge. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, issued a statement with similar sentiments.

The grand jury is hearing from witnesses, including Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to keep them quiet about sex they said they had with Trump. a decade ago.

Trump has denied the encounters happened, said he did nothing wrong and has turned the investigation into a witch hunt by a Democratic prosecutor who sabotaged the Republicans’ 2024 campaign. Trump also labeled Bragg, who is Black, a racist and accused the prosecutor of letting crime in the city run amok while he focused on Trump. New York remains one of the safest cities in the country.

Braggs’ office is apparently investigating whether any state laws were violated in connection with the payments or the way Trumps company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.

Porn actor Stormy Daniel and at least two former Trump aides former political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks are among the witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

Cohen said that at Trumps direction, he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. According to Cohen, the payments were to buy their silence about Trump, who was then in the thick of his first presidential campaign.

READ MORE: Former Playboy model settles with tabloid company over alleged Trump affair

Cohen and federal prosecutors said Trump’s company paid him $420,000 in reimbursement for the $130,000 payment to Daniels and to cover bonuses and other related expenses. The company classifies those payments as legal expenses. The $150,000 payment to McDougal was made by the then publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, preventing his story from coming to light.

Federal prosecutors agreed not to prosecute the Enquirers’ parent company in exchange for its cooperation in a campaign finance investigation that led to charges against Cohen in 2018. Prosecutors said the payments to Daniels and McDougal amounts to unauthorized, unrecorded gifts to Trumps election effort.

Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors have never charged Trump with any crime.

News that law enforcement agencies are preparing for a possible indictment was first reported by NBC News.

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

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