Donald Trump is “deeply anxious” about the possibility of being arrested and fingerprinted, as legal sources say the New York City district attorney still has one more witness to interview, which means his arrest could occur later.
The former president claims he will be arrested Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair. If Trump’s claims of impending arrest are true, he would make him the first former president to face criminal charges.
Trump’s first legal encounter occurred in the 1970s and he has reportedly been deeply anxious about the prospect of arrest ever since, a source told reporters from The New York Timesincluding Maggie Haberman, who published several scoops on Trump during his presidency.
His concerns grew after his former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was arrested in 2021 and he was heavily covered by the media as he was escorted to court in handcuffs. Seeing his former close confidant handcuffed and flanked by officers shook him to the core and those close to him said he couldn’t believe what was being done to Weisselberg.
However, prosecutors inside District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told the Times they did not know why Trump thought his arrest would come as soon as Tuesday. Insiders said there is still one more witness to testify before a grand jury, which could delay his possible arrest.
Donald Trump is “deeply anxious” about the possibility of being arrested and fingerprinted, as legal sources say the New York City district attorney still has one more witness to interview, which means his arrest could occur later than Tuesday.
His former CFO Allen Weisselberg (pictured wearing a white mask) was arrested in 2021 and was heavily covered by the media as he was escorted to court in handcuffs, terrifying Trump.
A source close to Trump’s advisers told the Times that his best guess was on Tuesday and that someone must have relayed that to the Republican before he went to Truth Social to make his claims.
“There has been no notification, other than illegal leaks from the Department of Justice and the DA’s office, to NBC and other fake news providers, that the George Soros-funded Radical Left Democrat prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to take his witch hunt to the next level,’ a Trump spokesperson told DailyMail.com in a statement.
“President Trump is rightly highlighting his innocence and the gunplay of our system of injustice. He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally. Make America Great Again!’
His claims come more than six years after Trump’s lawyers paid Daniels a total of $130,000 to keep quiet on the matter, and New York prosecutors are considering whether he should face charges. Trump denies the affair and knowledge of the payments.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social account that the Manhattan district attorney’s office will arrest him in a few days, calling the investigation “corrupt and highly political,” calling the alleged hush money payment an “old and old fairy tale.” completely discredited.”
He wrote on his own social media platform: ‘THE LEADING FAR & AWAY REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE ARRESTED TUESDAY NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION!’
His post came hours after it was claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg planned to indict Trump next week.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, responded to the development on Saturday by saying that if impeached, Trump would be “re-elected with a landslide” in the 2024 presidential election.
The former president claims he will be arrested Tuesday over claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair. If Trump’s claims of impending arrest are true, he would make him the first former president to face criminal charges.
Last week, the former president and 2024 hopeful was invited to testify before a Manhattan grand jury, and his mediator and former attorney Michael Cohen testified Monday.
Cohen served jail time after pleading guilty in two criminal cases, one of which involved the use of campaign funds in connection with Daniels and another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump.
He said he had been acting on his orders and that the bribes were supposed to keep love stories out of the public eye ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen
Daniels met with prosecutors Wednesday to answer more questions about the case, and his attorney, Clark Brewster, said he would also be available as a witness in the future, if necessary.
Cohen has also indicated that he has given the grand jury damning testimony implicating Trump. He testified for three hours on Monday.
He called them “corrupt and highly political”, calling the alleged secret money payment an “old and thoroughly discredited fairy tale”.
Prosecutors inside District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office told the Times they did not know why Trump thought his arrest would come as soon as Tuesday. Insiders said there is still one more witness to testify before a grand jury, which could delay his possible arrest.
Speaking beforehand, he said: ‘This is all about accountability. He has to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.
Speculation that charges were imminent also rose when Bragg told Trump’s team that the former president could testify before the grand jury if he wanted, a notification usually late in a process that could mean impeachment is near.
Legal experts have said that Trump could face one of two charges over the payments, but also concede that both would be difficult to prove.
He could be charged with falsifying business records if it is alleged that Trump knew his retainer agreement with Cohen was a sham to facilitate payments. That would be a misdemeanor under New York law unless prosecutors prove the records were falsified to hide another crime, which would make it a felony.
That other offense could be that the payments violated state election law because the alleged payment was intended to benefit his campaign.
Trump could face up to four years in prison on those charges.
Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, also said this week that an indictment was “more likely” because of recent events.
“But the only thing I still cling to is the hope that justice will prevail,” he said.
Tacopina also said he hopes Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office “won’t stoop to the level of Mark Pomerantz, who was looking for a crime that fit the person.”
Tacopina was referring to a memoir by former Manhattan Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz, who led the office’s investigation into Trump for a year beginning in February 2021.
In a letter sent last Friday to the commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation, Trump’s attorney accused Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, Jr., of conducting a “politically motivated investigation.”
Prosecutors “armed” their office, Tacopina wrote, “reviewing every aspect of President Trump’s personal life and business affairs, going back decades, hoping to find some legal basis, however implausible, novel or complicated, to prosecute him.” ‘. ‘
Vance has said that “it is difficult to argue that the previous investigations were politically motivated.”