Will New York City actually file charges against the ex-president?
Testimony could delay the decision.
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Further
questioning of witnesses
on
Wednesday
: A possible indictment against the former US President could be further delayed.
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Donald Trump could run even after arrest.
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Update from March 22, 5:45 a.m .:
According to US reports, a competent jury panel will meet again this Wednesday (March 22) – a vote on an indictment is then possible.
It is now completely open when – and also if – there will be charges against Donald Trump.
US media do not rule out that charges could be brought this week.
A so-called grand jury votes on this.
In the United States, a jury decides whether to indict a case after the prosecutor has presented evidence.
It is composed of citizens selected at random from voter records or other public registers.
Grand juries are usually involved when it comes to larger and more controversial cases.
+
Prosecution expected in the US: A Trump supporter takes part in a protest near the New York prosecutor's office.
© Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/dpa
However, the grand jury does not act publicly - so it is unclear what happens behind closed doors.
What is certain, however, is that the panel has heard a number of witnesses in the case in recent weeks.
All signs point to an indictment being imminent.
Update from March 22, 3:10 a.m .:
Before a possible indictment against Donald Trump, his team has again asserted the innocence of the former US President.
Regarding a photo of police preparing for possible riots in New York, Trump's campaign team said on Tuesday (March 21): "Barricades are being erected in front of the Manhattan Courthouse at a moment as our nation awaits an announcement as to whether President Donald Trump will be impeached will - even though he has not committed a single crime."
US Senator warns - will 'blow up our country'
Update from March 21, 7:50 p.m .:
US Senator Lindsey Graham warned of possible charges against Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.
Arresting the ex-president will "blow up our country and that's a load of crap".
The prosecutor responsible, Alvin Bragg, is “under pressure” because his predecessors decided against indictment and had to take criticism for it.
Graham is a Trump supporter in the Republican Party.
Charges against Donald Trump?
Further witness questioning on Wednesday
Update from March 21, 1:10 p.m .
: As the
Fox News
broadcaster reports, another witness is to testify on Wednesday (March 22) before the Grand Jury in Manhattan.
There Donald Trump's role in the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels is examined.
According to information from the broadcaster, this could further delay a possible indictment against the former president.
Charges against Donald Trump: decision only on Wednesday?
March 21 update, 12:25 p.m
.: Will Trump be arrested today?
Donald Trump assumed that on Saturday (March 18) when he said he would be arrested on Tuesday in connection with the grand jury's investigation in Manhattan into the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
His attorneys later retracted the schedule, saying they had no knowledge of exact dates.
Donald Trump: The biggest scandals and missteps
Donald Trump: The biggest scandals and missteps
However, Politico
magazine
reported on Monday evening (local time) that the grand jury would not meet until Wednesday - meaning an indictment could not come before tomorrow at the earliest.
Three people, whom
Politico
calls "insiders," said the report said a grand jury indictment was "expected soon."
Donald Trump rages against investigations in video
Update from March 21, 11:20 a.m
.: Donald Trump sharply attacked the four criminal investigations against him.
In one he
published on
Truth Social
video - in which the exceptionally tanned former president stands in front of a US flag - he targeted what he calls "the most disgusting witch hunt in our country's history".
"These four horrifying, radical left-wing investigations by the Democrats into your favorite President of all time - me - are just the continuation of the most disgusting witch hunt in our country's history," he ranted.
"It's an absolute disgrace.
Whether it was the Mar-a-Lago raid, the unelected committee scam, the perfect phone call from Georgia that was absolutely perfect, or the blackmailing of Stormy 'Horseface' Daniels... .They're all sick and it's fake news."
Trump vowed to "defeat" the investigation and claimed he stands in the way of his supporters as a political "enemy."
"They're not after me - they're after you.
I just stand in their way.
And I will always stand in their way," he said.
Update March 21, 11 a.m.
: Donald Trump's attempt to keep key evidence out of his civil rape trial next month has now been dismissed by a federal judge.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan ruled that key witnesses should be allowed to testify.
In addition, misogynist statements made by Trump in 2005, when he apparently did not know that he was being recorded, can be played to the jury.
Trial in the case filed by E. Jean Carroll is scheduled to begin on April 25.
Carroll and Trump are expected to testify.
Trump still expects an arrest today
Update from March 21, 10:30 a.m
.: Donald Trump has sharply criticized Ron DeSantis for his cautious reaction to the possible charges against the former president in the Stormy Daniels hush money affair.
In a post on
Truth Social
, Trump wrote: "Ron DeSantis is likely to learn about FALSE CHARGES and FALSE STORIES ('fake news') at some point in the future, as he gets older, wiser and better known, when he being unfairly and illegally accused by a woman.
Even from classmates who are 'underage' (or possibly a male!).
I'm sure he wants to fight these misfits as much as I do!”
The former president expects to be arrested later in the day and has called for protests to "take back our nation".
New York is preparing for massive protests
Update from March 21, 7.15 a.m
.: In view of the impending indictment, Donald Trump has already called on his supporters to “protest” – but are they also following him?
"We got organized at the last minute," Gavin Wax, executive director of the local youth organization for young Republicans, told
Politico
.
However, only 50 protesters gathered in New York on Monday (March 20).
According to the report, Wax justified this by saying the protest was intentionally "low profile."
"The overwhelmingly leading Republican candidate and former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday next week.
Protest, take back our nation!” Trump wrote on March 18 on his social media platform Truth Social.
Update from March 21, 5:10 a.m .:
New York is preparing for possible protests ahead of an expected indictment against former US President Donald Trump.
There were increased security measures in front of the courthouse in downtown Manhattan on Monday (local time) – metal fences were erected and the police presence increased.
"We are monitoring the comments on social media," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The New York Police Department is making sure there are no "improper actions" in the city, Adams said.
He was "confident" that it would be able to do this.
Trump rumbles against prosecutor - "Woker tyrant"
Update from March 20, 9:10 p.m .:
Donald Trump continued his attacks against the responsible prosecutor before a possible indictment because of a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
Trump's campaign team on Monday called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a "woken tyrant who has politicized the justice system."
Bragg is also a leftist "activist," has "stalked innocent victims," is "soft on career criminals," and has been targeting Trump for "years."
Trump himself said on Saturday that he should be arrested on Tuesday.
However, there was no confirmation that the ex-president would be indicted that day.
It is unclear why Trump spoke on Tuesday.
According to media reports, a defense witness was to testify before the so-called grand jury on Monday, which will decide on a possible indictment against Trump.
Update from March 20, 8:30 p.m.:
Will Donald Trump really be arrested on Tuesday?
According to a media report, a well-known approach by the ex-president could be behind the warnings.
DeSantis comments on Trump's arrest: rival supports - and scoffs
Update from March 20, 5:10 p.m .:
The prominent US Republican Ron DeSantis has criticized the New York prosecutor for their investigations into ex-President Donald Trump.
The governor of the state of Florida accused prosecutor Alvin Bragg of running a "political spectacle".
When a prosecutor ignores everyday crimes and instead deals with a case from years ago involving hush money payments to adult stars, they are pursuing a "political agenda" and using their office as a weapon.
"That's fundamentally wrong."
DeSantis is currently considered Trump's biggest internal competitor.
He is also expected to run as a presidential candidate in the November 2024 election.
Although DeSantis now dished out against the prosecutor, he did not let Trump take a dig at his appearance on Monday.
He couldn't say anything about how it came about that a porn star was being paid hush money to ensure silence about an alleged affair of some kind.
This earned DeSantis laughter from the audience.
Update from March 20, 3:31 p.m .:
Donald Trump could try to avoid being charged in the Stormy Daniels case with the help of his wife Melania.
This is reported by
tz.de
from
IPPEN.Media
.
Lawyers for the ex-president are already working out the argument that Trump paid the hush money to save his marriage - and not his election campaign.
That could invalidate the allegation of campaign finance violations and turn a felony into a misdemeanor.
Trump's confidants put pressure on DeSantis
Update, 2:36 p.m .:
The team of President Donald Trump, who was voted out, seems to want to use the rumors about an impending indictment of the 76-year-old in several cases for their own political purposes.
Trump's call from the weekend not only ensured that radical fans of the former president warmed up again to resist an alleged injustice.
The matter is also driving a further wedge in the already deeply divided Republican party.
According to a report in the
New York Times,
representatives of Trump's team have made several attempts since Sunday to involve Trump's competitor Ron DeSantis.
The governor of Florida, who probably also wants to run for the next Republican presidential candidacy, should position himself against the allegations by the New York authorities, is repeatedly demanded loudly.
Impending arrest of Donald Trump: No danger from "friends from the NYPD"
Update from Monday, March 20, 11:30 a.m .:
At the weekend Donald Trump was still sure that he would have to go to jail on Tuesday.
Now the former president is striking a different note.
On his social media platform, Trump wrote (again in all caps) that he couldn't imagine the New York police actually arresting him because she was one of his supporters.
"Can you imagine that the great New York City Police Department [...] will put their greatest supporter and friend [...] in jail," Trump said.
Nevertheless, his supporters are preparing for resistance.
Trump supporters who want to form a circle of armed "patriots" around Trump's residence in Mar-A-Lago are organizing themselves on the online platform Reddit.
When asked what they would do if the police used helicopters, a Trump supporter replied that they would simply shoot them down.
Presidency from prison - Donald Trump could still run
Update from Sunday, March 19, 9:06 a.m .:
The well-known Trump understander and lawyer Alan Dershowitz considers it very likely that Donald Trump will be charged shortly.
"In New York, they can charge a ham sandwich," Dershowitz told
newsmax
.
However, a lawsuit would not mean that Trump would have to bury his hopes of running for the Republicans in 2024.
"Trump can run even if he's indicted," Dershowitz said.
"He can even be president from prison."
Charges against Donald Trump: Evidence is condensing
Update from Saturday, March 18, 11:53 a.m .:
The signs of Trump’s imminent indictment are increasing.
The investigation, led by prosecutor Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, centers on a 2016 hush money payment by Trump's then-private attorney Michael Cohen to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.
The payment itself is legal, Columbia University law professor John Coffee told the AFP news agency.
On the other hand, it is illegal to falsify a company's commercial documents.
The Trump Organization has declared the reimbursement of the hush money to Cohen as legal fees – this is a fake, he explained.
Law professor evaluates charges against Trump: administrative offense or criminal offense?
If the charges only relate to the payment to Daniels, that could be treated as a misdemeanor, Coffee said.
However, if prosecutors can convince the jury that the forgery was done to conceal another crime - concealing a campaign donation - it could be considered a felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.
Trump announces his own arrest: calls for an uprising are now coming from Russia
Update from Saturday, March 18, 8:50 p.m .:
After Donald Trump’s announcement of a possible indictment, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also spoke on Telegram and asked fans of the US President who had been voted out to revolt.
They should – as Donald Trump himself had previously demanded – “take the country back” and “go into battle”, appealed the Russian politician, who most recently spoke out for his blind support for his predecessor and successor, Vladimir Putin headlines was.
According to a report by the German Press Agency, Medvedev's text also referred to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, which was announced on Friday.
"The idiots in Europe want to arrest a stranger, and on March 21 in America their own will be arrested," Medvedev wrote.
"Take back our country!": Trump announces arrest in a few days
Initial reporting from Saturday, March 18, 2:05 p.m.:
Washington, DC – Donald Trump has announced his own arrest on Truth Social.
He will be arrested "on Tuesday" by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, according to the former US President.
In a message consisting only of capital letters, Trump called on his supporters to protest the arrest.
After a furious sweep at the “radical left” for “stolen the election” and “locking up patriots like animals”, Donald Trump wrote: “By far the leading Republican nominee and former President of the United States of America will be next on Tuesday be arrested this week.” He urged his fans to protest to “take back our nation!”
Donald Trump announces his own arrest - and refers to "illegal disclosures"
Donald Trump referred to "illegal revelations" in his message.
According to
Fox News,
prosecutors are indeed planning to meet with law enforcement next week to "discuss the logistics for next week, which would mean they expect an indictment next week."
The broadcaster is citing sources from the district attorney's office.
The charges against Donald Trump refer to the investigations that have been ongoing for years against the ex-president for alleged hush money payments to erotic actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, wired Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her from discussing her affair with the then-Republican nominee.
Trump, in turn, is said to have paid the money back to Cohen in installments, but may have violated campaign finance laws.
Donald Trump's spokesman speaks up
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Donald Trump, described the investigation to
Fox News
as a "witch hunt".
The Manhattan prosecutor is part of the "radical Democrats" and would therefore pursue his own agenda against the former president.
(Talk to agencies)
List of rubrics: © Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/dpa