United States Former President Donald Trump, 76, predicted Saturday that there are plans to arrest him next week on Tuesday.
The impending arrest is a culmination of an investigation by a New York grand jury into alleged hush money payments to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president.
If Trump’s claims prove true, it would mark the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced criminal charges, legal experts say.
The indictment of Trump, would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings.
Besides the hush money inquiry in New York, Trump faces separate criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington over his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election.
A Justice Department special counsel has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida estate.
It is not clear when those investigations will end or whether they might result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the ongoing gravity – and broad geographic scope – of the legal challenges facing the former president.
Trump says he’ll still run for president again if he’s indicted in any of the several current investigations into his conduct.
Trump himself was invited to testify before the grand jury, which prosecutors say is a sure sign that the investigation is in its final stages and likely to produce an indictment. After that invitation came to light, Trump’s own lawyer in the case, Joe Tacopina, acknowledged the possibility of a looming indictment.
“You know, it’s becoming more probable, I think now,” Tacopina told press in an interview Tuesday night, adding, “But the one thing I still hold on to is hope that justice will prevail.”
Trump himself has, in recent days, admitted to making the payment to stop Daniels from publicly disclosing an alleged affair with him just before the election. Previously, Trump denied complicity in a series of public statements.
“I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social social media platform. “I relied on counsel in order to resolve this extortion of me.”
