NEW YORK: A New York grand jury on Thursday indicted Donald Trump over hush money payments made to a porn star, making him the first-ever serving or former US president to face criminal charges.
The historic indictment of the 76-year-old Republican — who denies all wrongdoing in connection with the payments made ahead of the 2016 election that sent him to the White House — is certain to upend the current presidential race in which Trump hopes to regain office.
And it will forever mark the legacy of the former leader, who survived two impeachments and had kept prosecutors at bay over everything from the US Capitol riot to missing classified files — only to land in court over a sex scandal involving Stormy Daniels, a 44-year-old adult movie actress.
Prosecutors in Manhattan will likely ask Trump to surrender and face arraignment, with the felony charges against him to be revealed at that hearing, according to The New York Times, which cited four people with knowledge of the matter.
Trump slammed the indictment as “political persecution and election interference,” and vowed it would backfire on his successor Joe Biden, while the former president’s son Eric assailed the “opportunistic targeting of a political opponent.”
An attorney for Daniels meanwhile welcomed the news as proof that “no one is above the law.”
“The indictment of Donald Trump is no cause for joy,” Clark Brewster tweeted. “Now let truth and justice prevail.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said the indictment had “irreparably damaged” the country.
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Source: thenews.com
