Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Adler Theatre on March 13, 2023 in Davenport, Iowa. Trump's visit followed those by potential challengers for the GOP presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who hosted events in the state the previous week.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Adler Theatre on March 13, 2023 in Davenport, Iowa. Trump's visit followed those by potential challengers for the GOP presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who hosted events in the state the previous week.
A lawyer for Donald Trump said Thursday he’s been told that the former president has been indicted in New York on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.
It becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.
Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, told The Associated Press he had been told that a grand jury that had been meeting for months voted to indict Trump. The specific charges were not immediately made public.
Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has attacked the investigation, was expected to surrender to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.
The grand jury indictment of Trump, 76, is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.
Trump and his lawyers have said the charges are politically motivated and have suggested he was a victim of extortion.
Trump is the focus of multiple investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. Those investigations include one to determine whether Trump should face criminal charges for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the attempt to block the peaceful transition of power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
The House Jan. 6 committee presented evidence from witness emails, texts and testimony that showed Trump’s role trying to create alternate slates of electors and trying to get battleground state officials to overturn the election results; a plan to install an attorney general willing to push election fraud claims, and calling his followers to the Capitol.
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