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Edited by: Fern Sidman
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of prosecutorial misconduct over his office’s investigation into an alleged hush money payment and called for an investigation into whether Bragg is interfering in the 2024 election, according to a report on Sunday on The Epoch Times web site.
On Saturday, Trump said he would be arrested Tuesday on charges connected to the investigation amid anonymously sourced reports that Bragg was looking into procedural rules around indicting the former president. The Epoch Times reported that a day later, he wrote on Truth Social that “there was no crime” and again accused Bragg of acting in a politically motivated manner.
“All other of the many Democrat law enforcement officers that looked at it, took a pass. So did former Manhattan DA Cy Vance, and so did Bragg. But then, much later, he changed his mind. Gee, I wonder why? Prosecutorial Misconduct and Interference with an Election. Investigate the Investigators!” Trump wrote on Sunday, as was reported by The Epoch Times.
In another post on Sunday, the 45th president asserted that Bragg, a Democrat, initially decided not to pursue the investigation before reversing his decision. Then, according to Trump, Bragg was pressured by the Biden White House, Democrats, and other entities into bringing a case against him.
“When Alvin Bragg first attained office, he made it very clear that, like many other prosecutors, there was no case against Donald J. Trump. Then the Biden Administration, the Democrats, and the Fake News Media began pushing him, and pushing him hard, and low and behold he said that there might just be a case after all,” Trump wrote, as was reported by The Epoch Times.
The indictment stems from Bragg’s ongoing probe into alleged hush money that Trump paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 election, the Epoch Times reported. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied.
Days before the 2016 presidential election, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence on claims she had an affair with Trump years earlier, which the former president denies. The Epoch Times reported that Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2018 for arranging payment to Daniels and another woman claiming to have had an affair with Trump. Cohen claims to have done so at the direction of Trump and was reimbursed by the Trump Organization through routine legal expenses, the report stated. Bragg is investigating whether Trump falsified business records by concealing his reimbursement.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he’s a victim of extortion.
Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, did not say in Truth Social posts whether he had been formally notified of forthcoming charges and did not discuss the possible charges in the post. A spokesperson for Trump, Steven Cheung, told The Epoch Times that his team hasn’t been formally notified of any pending arrest.
The New York Post reported that Trump, in announcing his alleged pending arrest Saturday morning, chided “ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE.”
”THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he wrote. Trump added that, “THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!.”
In lieu of his possible arrest on Tuesday, Trump attempted to rally his troops on Saturday as he called on supporters to stage raucous protests in the streets of every city in the United States. On Sunday, the sight of throngs of Trump supporters lining up on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue where Trump Tower is located is a portent of things to come on Tuesday, commentators speculated.
On Sunday, the Post reported that the NYPD and the US Secret Service are preparing for any civil unrest or possible violence that may occur at pro-Trump, anti-Bragg demonstrations that look likely to take place on Tuesday if the arrest should occur.
Police sources told the Post that the FBI, state court officers and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have also been kept in the loop on security discussions, with New York City bracing for the worst after Trump exhorted his followers to “take our nation back” in light of his looming indictment.
Also on Sunday, one NYPD source told the Post. “We will use all of our available resources,”, noting that the department’s Strategic Response Group — which responds to civil unrest and major events — “has a role in this agency and when needed they will be called in.”
Sources also told the Post that officials from several agencies met on Sunday and are expected to confer again on Monday to discuss security measures that include restricting vehicle access to the Manhattan courthouse, and deploying inside and outside the building.
NYPD Chief Kevin Maloney told The Post on Sunday that, “We’ll handle it like we do anything else. It’s lower Manhattan, there’s always plenty of police presence down there, anyway. So we’ll monitor the situation. We’ll have ample resources. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.”
Maloney also told the Post that said he “would assume there will be conversations with our intel bureau and stakeholders in the federal courthouse and the DA’s office.”
The Post reported that Maloney added that “We’ll have an advanced heads-up, I’m sure, on the timing of this whole thing. We’ll make sure that the entrance and exits to the courthouse are secure and if the protesters are there we’ll support their rights to peacefully protest. If they’re not there, even better.”
While the FBI did not comment on potential turmoil that could possibly erupt amongst Trump supporters at any demonstration that would take place, a Secret Service spokesman said: “To maintain the highest levels of integrity for our operations, we are not able to comment on specific protection plans or movements for any Secret Service protectee,” the Post reported.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that there was no immediate indication that there were violent protests planned by Trump supporters, but said the White House was keeping an eye on the situation, according to the Post report.
Kirby told Fox News that “we’re always monitoring the situation here as best we can. And we obviously don’t want to see any activity grow violent, certainly nothing to the extent that we saw during the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, but we’re watching this closely.”
No U.S. president, while in office or afterward, has faced criminal charges, as was reported by the Epoch Times. Trump has said he will continue campaigning even if charged with a crime, and he is expected to hold a rally later in March in Waco, Texas.
Trump is also confronting a state-level criminal probe in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 results in that state. The Epoch Times report indicated that a special counsel named by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is currently investigating Trump’s handling of government documents after leaving office and the aftermath of the 2020 election.
According to prominent legal expert and retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s reported impending prosecution of former President Donald Trump is based on “made-up laws,” as was reported by The Epoch Times. Dershowitz thinks that Trump would still be convicted, saying he’s unlikely to receive a fair trial in the city that leans heavily blue.
Speaking to the Epoch Times, Dershowitz said, “I don’t think that Trump can get a fair trial in New York,” pointing to the predominantly Democrat population in the city.
A criminal conviction, he said, is thus the “most likely outcome.” Dershowitz also told The Epoch Times that the conviction is likely to be “reversed on appeal, but by that time, will be deep into the election cycle.”
The famed constitutional rights attorney also told the Epoch Times, “They’re searching for crimes to get him. They’re just rummaging through the law books and doing everything they can to get him, but I don’t think they’ve succeeded.”
