Upon taking office on Jan. 1, 2022, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he would not seek an indictment against former President Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Trump announced that he expects to be arrested in the coming days on charges by Bragg, who is investigating whether Trump falsified business records by concealing his reimbursement of his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Unlike in past years since he entered the public arena, several conservative members of Congress and "influencers" came to Trump's defense as he charged that the move by Bragg, whose campaign was backed by leftist billionaire George Soros, was a blatant attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday: "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. I knew what that meant — He was being pushed to do something that shouldn’t be done. He wasn’t willing to stand up to Soros and the Marxists that are destroying our Country!"
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a Telegram post: "No other person has undermined our democracy more than George Soros. Why is he still allowed to maintain his citizenship?"
Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., had indicted the former president's family company and its top financial executive over an alleged 15-year-tax fraud scheme.
A prosecutor leading that probe, Mark Pomerantz, resigned in February 2022 after Bragg declined to charge Trump. Pomerantz has relentlessly pushed for an indictment of Trump and has publicly criticized Bragg's decision not to bring charges. He even published a book about the investigation.
Trump wrote on Truth Social: "There was no 'misdemeanor' here either. There was no crime, period. All of the many Democrat law enforcement officers that looked at it, took a pass. So did Cy Vance, and so did Bragg. But then, much latter, he changed his mind. Gee, I wonder why? Prosecutorial Misconduct and Interference with an Election. Investigate the Investigators!"
Lawyer and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz wrote in a March 15 op-ed for The New York Sun that an indictment of Trump would amount to "targeted injustice."
"It is no answer to say, as supporters of this 'get Trump' tactic are arguing, that Mr. Bragg is doing nothing more than fully enforcing the law on the ground that no one is 'above' it. If Mr. Trump or anyone else did the crime, they should do the time. But others have done things similarly to what Mr. Trump is suspected of doing, and no else is being threatened with prosecution," Dershowtiz noted. "It is in the nature of partisan selective prosecution that a target may well be technically guilty of some violation. The question is would he have been prosecuted for that violation if he were not the political target."
Conservative commentator Jack Posobiec said in a Telegram post: "Pay very close attention to which conservatives are silent on the Trump indictment. This isn't about the 2024 primary and all that gaga. This is about the very nature of our country itself."
Republicans also noted how the news that Trump is likely to be indicted came at the same time that the House Oversight Committee has obtained bank records showing that Hunter Biden associate Rob Walker transferred north of $1.3 million in 2017 not only to usual suspects Hunter and presidential little brother Jim but also to daughter-in-law Hallie (son Beau’s widow; Hunter’s brief fling) — plus an unknown simply tagged as “Biden.”
Greene added: "Of course as soon as our Oversight Committee comes out with REAL PROOF that the entire Biden family was getting paid by CHINA for influence and favors from Joe Biden, these communists thugs decide to arrest Trump. And it’s not even political like Trump impeachments, it’s actually deserved."
An attorney for Donald Trump says the former president would not refuse to surrender to authorities if he is indicted.
“There won’t be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DA’s office,” Joe Tacopina told The New York Daily News.
Tacopina said Trump would find a way to use any charges filed against him to help him politically in the end.
“Most people would collapse under the weight of this,” he said. “He seems to turn everything into a positive and everything into a boost for his campaign, so I’m sure this will just join that long list of things that people think no one could overcome, but he will.”
Reaction online to Trump's announcement that he expects to be arrested:
Leftists in the United States are increasingly weaponizing investigations to persecute and prosecute political opponents. It must end.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) March 18, 2023
Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.
I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by… https://t.co/elpbh7LeWn — Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 18, 2023
God Bless President Trump. Real America knows this is all a sham.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) March 18, 2023
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023
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