NEW YORK — Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, his lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.
The charges center on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. They mark an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings.
The indictment injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, represents Georgia’s 10th Congressional District that includes part of Newton County.
Collins said in a statement, “America should be the last place on Earth allowing political prosecutions, yet here we are ... the weaponization of our justice system by the radical left is destroying our country.
“With this witch hunt, (Manhattan district attorney) Alvin Bragg is betraying the trust of all Americans while failing to do his job of protecting New Yorkers from violent criminals. This is a disgrace.”
New York until recently had been seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute Trump, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by Trump that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to much-publicized efforts to overturn a presidential election.
Atlanta-area prosecutors are considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges in connection with Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, including making phone calls to the Secretary of State and Georgia House Speaker.
In the Manhattan case Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024.
In a statement confirming the charges, defense lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Trump “did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”
The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors scrutinized money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.Trump was expected to surrender to authorities next week, though the details were still being worked out, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.
The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to Trump campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges was likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and had filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day.
News Editor Tom Spigolon of The Covington News contributed to this report.
