Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on more than 30 counts related to business fraud

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CNN —

Donald Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in an indictment from a Manhattan grand jury, according to two sources familiar with the case, the first time in American history that a current or former president has been facing criminal charges.

Trump is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.

The indictment has been filed under seal and will be announced in the coming days. The charges are not publicly known at this time.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs’ office is investigating the former president for his alleged role in a hush money and cover-up scheme involving adult film star Stormy Daniels who dated 2016 presidential election. The grand jury proceedings are secret, but a source familiar with the case told CNN that one witness gave about 30 minutes of testimony before it voted to indict Trump.

The decision is sure to send shockwaves across the country, jolting the American political system that has never seen one of its former leaders face criminal charges, let alone run for president again in an unspecified year. water.

Trump issued a statement in response to the accusation saying it was Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.

I believe this Witch-Hunt is going to backfire heavily on Joe Biden, the former president said. Americans have realized exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party united and strong first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we defeat Joe Biden, and we throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can be WELL again AMERICA!

Trump was caught off guard by the grand jury’s decision to indict him, according to a person who has spoken directly to him. As the former president prepared for an indictment last week, he began to believe news reports that a potential indictment was weeks or more away.

Is this a shock now? Hell yes, said the person, speaking on condition of anonymity as Trumps team calculated its response.

The Braggs’ office said it was in contact with the Trumps’ lawyers.

This evening we contacted the lawyer of Mr. Trump to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DAs Office for arraignment in a Supreme Court lawsuit, which remains under seal, the district attorneys office said in a statement Thursday. Guidance will be provided once the arraignment date is selected.

Joe Tacopina, the defense attorney for Trump, said the former president was first asked to turn himself in to authorities in New York on Friday, the day after a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict him.

But Tacopina said he was surprised by the timing of the indictment and that more time was needed, as the Secret Service protecting the former president needed to coordinate his surrender in New York.

The legal action against Trump has pushed the 2024 presidential campaign into a new phase, as the former president has vowed to continue running in the face of criminal charges.

Trump has often called the various investigations surrounding him a witch hunt, trying to convince public opinion of them by casting himself as a victim of what he claims are political investigations led by Democratic prosecutors. As the indictment looms, Trump has urged his supporters to protest his arrest, repeating his calls for action following the 2020 election as he tries to reverse his loss to President Joe Biden.

Trump has long avoided legal consequences in his personal, professional and political life. He has settled several private civil cases over the years and has paid his way in disputes involving the Trump Organization, his namesake company. As president, he was twice impeached by the Democratic-led House, but avoided conviction by the Senate.

In December, the Trump Organization was convicted of multiple tax fraud charges, although Trump himself was not charged in that case.

Trump’s Republican allies as well as his GOP rivals in 2024 have condemned the Manhattan district attorney’s office over the impending indictment.

I think the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the United States on a campaign finance issue is an outrage, former Vice President Mike Pence told CNNs Wolf Blitzer in an interview Thursday night. It appears to millions of Americans as nothing more than a political prosecution driven by a prosecutor who literally ran for office on a promise to indict the former president.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised to launch an investigation into the matter, and congressional Republicans quickly rallied to Trump’s defense, attacking Bragg on Twitter and accusing the district attorney of a political witch hunt.

Outraged, tweeted House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the Republican committee chairmen who asked Bragg to testify before Congress about the Trump investigation.

Called Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, called the accusation completely unprecedented and said it was a catastrophic weaponization of the justice system.

But at least one moderate Republican told CNN he trusts the legal system.

I believe in the rule of law. I think we have checks and balances and I trust the system, said Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska.

We have a judge. We have judges. There are appeals. So I think in the end, justice will be served. If he is guilty, it will show. But if not, I think that will show as well, Bacon told CNN.

‘An outrage’: Pence responds to Trump’s accusation

Braggs’ office signaled as recently as early March that they were close to filing charges against Trump after they invited the former president to testify before a grand jury investigating the hush money scheme. Potential defendants in New York are required by law to be notified and invited to appear before a grand jury that weighs charges. But Trump ultimately refused to appear before the panel.

The protracted investigation first began under Braggs’ predecessor, Cy Vance, when Trump was in office. It relates to a $130,000 payment Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in late October 2016, days before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her from speaking publicly about a alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

At issue in the investigation are the payment made to Daniels and the Trump Organizations payment to Cohen.

According to court filings the Cohens own in federal prosecution, Trump Organization executives authorized payments to him totaling $420,000 to cover his original $130,000 payment and tax liabilities and reward him with a bonus. The Trump Organization noted the reimbursements as a legal expense on its internal books. Trump denied knowledge of the payment.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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