Thursday March 23, 2023
Own arrest announced Prosecutor: Trump fueled “false expectations”
Trump is being investigated because of an alleged hush money payment to the porn actress Stormy Daniels.
(Foto: IMAGO/USA TODAY Network)
The decision on whether the US judiciary will indict Donald Trump is still pending. Despite this, the ex-president falsely announced his arrest. In a letter, the responsible public prosecutor criticizes this behavior and also defends himself against allegations of abuse of office.
Manhattan’s Attorney General Alvin Bragg has criticized former US President Donald Trump’s behavior in the investigation into a hush money payment to a porn actress. Trump fueled the “false expectation” of an impending arrest over the weekend, Bragg’s office wrote in a letter to three Republican congressmen.
Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social on Saturday that he should be arrested on Tuesday. Previously, there were increasing signs of charges against the 76-year-old Republican in the affair of a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels. However, no charges have yet been filed against Trump.
According to media reports, a decision should not be made until next week at the earliest. The responsible grand jury, a lay body responsible for indictments, therefore did not want to deal with the Trump case this Thursday, but rather next Monday at the earliest.
MPs speak of abuse of office
Republican MPs Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil accused Bragg of “unprecedented abuse” of his official powers after Trump’s Truth Social statement over the weekend and asked him to testify before Congress about his investigation and provide relevant documents.
The Manhattan Attorney’s Office has now rejected this in a letter to the three deputies. “The letter came after Donald Trump created the false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and after his attorneys reportedly urged you to intervene,” the agency said of the Republican letter sent Monday. None of these facts constitute a legitimate basis for a congressional investigation.”
The investigation against Trump involves a hush money payment of $ 130,000 (around 120,000 euros) to the porn actress Stephanie Clifford, known under the name Stormy Daniels. The payment before the 2016 presidential election was apparently intended to prevent the porn star, who claims to have had a sex affair with Trump in 2006, from going public, which could have harmed the presidential candidate.
The question is whether the payment was booked illegally and to what extent it violated campaign finance laws. Trump has denied both an affair with Stormy Daniels and any wrongdoing in connection with the hush money payment. The right-wing populist, who wants to retake the White House in 2024, repeatedly describes the investigations and other allegations as a politically motivated “witch hunt”.
Those: ntv.de
mdi/AFP
*Data protection