Trump allies and rivals rally to his defence
after he claims arrest is imminent
Former president says he expects to be arrested on
Tuesday but there has been no official confirmation of the likelihood or timing
of charges being brought
Guardian
staff and agencies
Sun 19 Mar
2023 01.27 GMT
Top
Republicans, including some of Donald Trump’s potential rivals for the party’s
2024 presidential nomination, rushed to his defence after the former president
said he expected to be arrested next week.
On
Saturday, Trump announced he would be arrested on Tuesday in a criminal case
involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, but there has
been no official confirmation on the likelihood that charges will be brought.
“The idea
of indicting a former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me,
as it is to tens of millions of Americans,” said former vice-president Mike
Pence, who is widely expected to launch a campaign for the Republican
nomination in the coming weeks.
The
reaction underscores the political risks faced by would-be opponents who are
eager to convince voters that it is time to move on from the former president,
but who must contend with the fact that he remains the most popular figure in
the party.
Trump
garnered similar support last summer after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago club
as part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents. The
search also proved a fundraising boon.
Among those
coming to Trump’s defence on Saturday were House speaker Kevin McCarthy, who
said a possible indictment would be “an outrageous abuse of power by a radical
DA [district attorney] who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political
vengeance” against Trump.
McCarthy
said he would direct relevant Republican-led House committees “to immediately
investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by
interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions”. McCarthy has
not endorsed Trump’s White House campaign, but Trump helped McCarthy secure the
speakership after a contentious campaign that required multiple rounds of
voting.
McCarthy’s
predecessor as speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement, “the former
president’s announcement this morning is reckless: doing so to keep himself in
the news and to foment unrest among his supporters.”
“He cannot
hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and
incitements to violence.”
On
Saturday, Trump posted a message on his Truth Social platform, referring to
himself in the third person, saying: “The far and away leading Republican
candidate and former president of the United States of America will be arrested
on Tuesday of next week.”
Law enforcement
officials in New York have been making security preparations for the
possibility that Trump could be indicted, but there has been no public
announcement of any timeframe or any indictment.
A
spokesperson and a lawyer for Trump said later on Saturday that his post was
based on media reports rather than any actual update from, or communication
with, prosecutors. Trump’s post cited “illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly
political Manhattan district attorney’s office”.
The
district attorney’s office declined to comment.
In his
post, Trump called on his supporters to “PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
The post
evoked the message from the then-president that preceded the insurrection by
extremist supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 which ultimately
failed to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Pence, who
has been escalating his criticism of the former president in recent weeks,
said: “No one is above the law.” He added: “I’m confident President Trump can
take care of himself. My focus is going to continue to be on the issues that
are affecting the American people.”
Pence had
been noncommittal when asked on Thursday if Trump should drop out if he was
indicted. “I think it’s a free country. Everybody can make their own
decisions,” he said.
Trump has
said he would continue his presidential campaign even if indicted.
Representatives
for the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, another potential candidate who is seen
as Trump’s most serious rival, did not immediately respond to requests for
comment. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, another declared candidate, did not
address the investigation while campaigning in South Carolina.
It emerged
in January that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg had made the surprise
move to impanel a grand jury to hear evidence in the Daniels case, which had
previously faded from the spotlight.
Daniels met
with investigators in Manhattan earlier this week to discuss Trump’s role in a
$130,000 payment she received in 2016 aimed at dissuading her from going public
during the election about claims she had a sexual liaison with the married
Trump in 2006 – an infidelity Trump denies.
In 2016
during the election that Trump went on to win, his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen,
made the payment and arranged another payout to a different woman. Cohen has
said that the money was paid at Trump’s direction.
Federal
prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with campaign finance crimes related to
payments to Daniels and to a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, arguing that the
payouts amounted to impermissible gifts to Trump’s election effort. Cohen
pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never
charged Trump with any crime.
Any charges
in this case would most likely involve state crimes of falsifying business
records, typically a misdemeanor but a felony if it was part of a cover-up or
wider criminal wrongdoing, and here could revolve around campaign finance
illegality.
Kevin
O’Brien, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at Ford O’Brien in New
York specialising in white-collar criminal defence, told the Guardian that for
a felony charge, prosecutors would have to prove Trump showed an “intent to
defraud” when his company “falsely accounted” for the payments to Daniels as
legal expenses and effectively argue that the payments were synonymous with
illegal donations to Trump’s 2016 election campaign, which would violate New
York election law.
O’Brien
said that any criminal charges for Trump would be messy and confusing for
voters and potential jurors alike.
“How could
this guy be running for president facing a conviction for an act of dishonesty
that was indictable?” he said.
Trump has
cast the investigation as a “witch-hunt” and says he believes an indictment
would help him in the 2024 race.
Senator
Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally, agreed: “The prosecutor in New York has
done more to help Donald Trump get elected.”
Associated
Press contributed to this article
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