Donald Trump, the ex-president and frontrunner to be Republican nominee in 2024, is set to face a mug shot, finger-printing and court appearance next week after being indicted over a probe into hush money paid to a porn star in a historic U.S. first.
The possible spectacle of Trump’s appearance in Manhattan on Tuesday before a judge as the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges could further divide the world’s most powerful country.
Trump is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year, and even before news of the indictment broke had been seeking to use the legal threats to raise money and rally his most faithful supporters.
The first U.S. president to have tried to overthrow an election defeat, whose false claims of election fraud inspired the deadly U.S. Capitol assault on Jan. 6, 2021, signaled that he will continue to campaign even as he faces charges.
Those specific charges have not yet been made public as the indictment remains under seal, but CNN on Thursday reported Trump faced more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
Trump, 76, said he was “completely innocent” and accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the Democrat who led the investigation, of trying to hurt his electoral chances.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump claims political motivations for all four criminal investigations he is known to face – including federal probes into his retention of classified documents and attempts to overturn his election defeat, and a separate Georgia probe into his attempt to overturn his loss in that state.
He has also accused Bragg, who is Black, of racial bias.
Reuters
