Trump predicts arrest for Stormy Daniels payment

Former US President Donald Trump warned that he will be “arrested on Tuesday” in an all-caps post on the social media platform Truth Social on Saturday, crediting “illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office” for his advance knowledge.  

“With no crime able to be proven, & based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors) fairytale, the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” Trump predicted, urging his followers to “protest, take our nation back!” 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office would neither confirm nor deny whether he was planning to issue an indictment on campaign finance violations for then-candidate Trump’s alleged payment of hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 when reached for comment by Fox News on Friday.  

Trump was invited to testify before a grand jury earlier this month regarding the Stormy Daniels scandal, a move many interpreted as a prelude to an indictment. If so, he would be the first former US president to be criminally indicted. Several law enforcement agencies are reportedly discussing “security preparations” should he be indicted. 

Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopino, excoriated prosecutors for having “completely weaponized” the legal system, pointing out that the crime as alleged – falsifying records – was a misdemeanor and only becomes a felony if prosecutors can prove it was done intentionally and maliciously. Additionally, Tacopino said, Trump cannot be prosecuted in the state of New York for a federal election charge, and since Trump’s personal funds were used to pay the porn actress, the payment was not a campaign expense at all. 

Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels so that she would not share her affair with the real estate mogul with the public after the porn star’s representatives attempted to sell her story to the National Enquirer. However, the former president has denied actually having an affair with Daniels.  

Michael Avenatti, the attorney who represented Daniels in her effort to extricate herself from the non-disclosure agreement she signed with Cohen, was sentenced last year to four years in prison for defrauding the adult film actress of some $300,000.

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