A New York Grand Jury indicted former President Donald Trump on Thursday, making Trump the first former President ever indicted. The exact nature of the indictment is unknown because it remains sealed at this time. However, it is believed to be about an investigation into payments made during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital, sexual affair.
Trump is expected to turn himself in to authorities next week. The ex-President, a Republican, was expected to try and recapture the White House during the next Presidential election. How this impacts that is unknown at the present time.
Members of the Democratic Party were quick to react to yesterday’s indictment. U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, stated, “The bedrock of our legal system is the principle that justice applies to everyone equally. No one is above the law. This indictment isn’t a trivial matter. It means that a grand jury — an impartial group of citizens sworn by oath to perform their duties faithfully — has decided that there is enough evidence to charge former President Trump with committing a crime. And like every person charged with a serious crime, the former President has due process rights. He will have an opportunity to defend himself in a court of law before a jury of his peers.”
The Chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, LeRoy Jones, said, “The indictment of a former President is unprecedented. The grand jurors reviewed the evidence and found that it warranted indictment, and I thank them for their service and their commitment to the legal process. We should remember that no matter how this concludes, the Republican Party has enabled and celebrated the former President’s attacks on democracy and his policies that punished working families. New Jersey Democrats will continue to do what we always do — advocate for the middle class, protect reproductive freedom, and fight for a stronger and fairer New Jersey.”
Congressman Rob Menendez (D – Dist. 8) added, “I have faith in our legal system to handle former President Trump’s case without interference and with the seriousness it deserves. As the legal process plays out, we must continue to focus on doing the work of the American people. And that is exactly what Democrats will do.”
In not so many words, Trump likened the indictment to a witch hunt, saying it was a Democratic prosecutor’s “political persecution” of “a completely innocent person.”
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been in contact with Trump’s lawyers to arrange for his surrender, likely sometime next week.
In a statement confirming the charges, Trump’s defense attorneys Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina stated Trump “did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”
