The indictment against Ex, Donald Trump makes him the first former US President to face criminal charges after leaving office.
According to a British online newspaper, The Independent, Trump has been indicted by a New York City grand jury on charges of falsifying business records stemming from payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to prevent her from revealing an affair he had with her before the 2016 election.
A source told The Independent that grand jurors voted to indict the ex-president at some point this week, and that indictment is currently under seal.
Africa Today News, New York reports that wasn’t until late on Thursday, right before the court clerk’s office closed for the day, that it was filed with the New York Supreme Court.
Once the indictment was made public, sources informed CNN that Mr. Trump was facing more than 30 counts of corporate fraud.
A criminal case becomes official when the indictment, which has been signed by the grand jury foreperson, is filed with the clerk of court. Nevertheless, because the indictment is now sealed, it will stay sealed until it is eventually made public by district attorney Alvin Bragg.
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Africa Today News, New York recalls that Trump has previously said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he had expected to be arrested on 21 March, but that date came and went without an indictment being handed down from the grand jury.
Mr. Bragg said in a statement on Thursday 30 March that his office has been in touch with Mr. Trump’s attorneys over the former president’s surrender.
‘This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DA’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected,’ Mr. Bragg said.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have indicated that he will surrender to New York authorities early next week.
During an airplane flight to the Texas rally, Trump told a group of reporters traveling with him that he believed Mr. Bragg had ‘dropped the case’ against him and called the entire matter ‘a fake case’.
But at the event later that evening, Mr. Trump described the Manhattan prosecutor’s effort to hold him to account for alleged crimes as interference in next year’s presidential election.