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There are several references in The 1975’s hit song “Love It If We Made It” about former United States president Donald Trump.
One of them? “Excited to be indicted.”
Is he, though? We will find out next week …
The 2024 presidential election is about to be turned on its ear as New York district attorney Alvin Bragg is preparing to indict Trump – one of the frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination – for his alleged payoff of adult entertainer Stormy Daniels in 2016. If indicted, Trump would become the first sitting or former president in American history to face criminal charges.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he expects to be indicted Tuesday – citing “illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office” as his source.
According to Trump, the payoff allegations are “based on an old and fully-debunked fairytale.”
“PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” Trump urged his supporters in response to the looming indictment. “WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
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How did we get here?
Disbarred lawyer Michael D. Cohen – Trump’s longtime personal attorney – paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 as part of a private settlement agreement prohibiting her from discussing her “intimate relationship” with the former president. Cohen acknowledged paying Daniels the money in 2018, claiming he neither sought nor received reimbursement from Trump, any of his businesses or his political campaign.
“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with (Daniels) and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen told The New York Times in early 2018. “The payment to (Daniels) was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”
That wasn’t true, though. And Cohen admitted as much when he was sentenced to three years in federal prison on December 12, 2018 after pleading guilty to eight criminal charges – five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate intending to influence an election.
(Click to View)
Several of those charges were related to payouts to two of Trump’s alleged ex-lovers – Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. As part of his plea agreement, Cohen admitted paying Daniels “in coordination with and at the direction of (Trump)” – and doing so for the “principal purpose” of impacting the 2016 election.
After signing the agreement and taking the alleged “hush money,” Daniels repeatedly denied having sexual relations with Trump – however she previously gave an interview to InTouch magazine in 2011 which detailed the alleged affair.
According to the interview, Daniels claimed she first had sex with Trump at a Lake Tahoe, Nevada hotel suite in 2006 – four months after Trump’s wife, former first lady Melania Trump, gave birth to their son, Barron Trump. Subsequent encounters were alleged to have taken place at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
The affair continued “well into the year 2007,” according to Daniels, who sued Trump in 2018 seeking to invalidate the hush money deal.
Daniels met with prosecutors in Bragg’s office on Wednesday. Cohen has met with them on several occasions this past week. Trump was invited to meet with prosecutors, but declined.
(Click to View)
How will the indictment go down? According to Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, the former president would surrender to authorities at the Manhattan criminal courts building in accordance with the law. That means he would be booked, fingerprinted and photographed prior to being arraigned on any charges filed against him.
“There won’t be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DA’s office,” Tacopina told reporters with The (New York) Daily News.
Trump is expected to be granted a personal recognizance bond on any charges filed against him. His booking process is also expected to take place inside district attorney Bragg’s office.
Trump’s rush to make the looming indictment political could find some success. Just ask David Axelrod – the top political strategist to former U.S. president Barack Obama.
“Of all the offenses for which Trump is under investigation, the Stormy Daniels hush money is probably the least meaningful,” Axelrod tweeted. “If he’s going to be indicted in any of these probes, this the one he probably would want first to try and color all of them as politically-motivated.”
In addition to the Manhattan probe over the payout to Daniels, Trump is facing an investigation in Georgia over allegations related to the 2020 election as well as an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) inquiry into the January 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Stay tuned to this news outlet for the latest on developments related to Trump’s impending indictment and its potential impact on the 2024 presidential circus …
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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16 comments
Lock him up.
lmao the bidens will be there before teflon don
Of course he’s excited, finally someone will be paying attention to him again. Make Prison Great Again.
Charges sound chuckensh!t to me but at this point, I do not care what they do with this lying POS.
Some say it is all a big sh!t show and I do tend to believe it. Trump is working for the same people as Biden, Bush, the Clinton’s, Obama, etc.
It is obvious to me that this charge is totally political. That being said, what bothers me even more is Trump is literally inciting his followers to “protest”. I’ve seen where MANY plan to do just that and not in a nice way.
I am a conservative, but there are things I’m seeing Trump saying as being WAY off base. I am also seeing where he literally has formed a cult-like following. I’ve said this many times: Trump is NOT God!!! I’ve been blasted for that comment a few times. LOL
yea okay shilly mcshill . how do those blm boots taste
Hope the orange jumpsuit doesn’t clash with all the orange make-up that fat pig slathers on his blubbery face!
Trump world shouts in unison that this indictment will assure him the Presidency. But no one can explain why an indictment will make anyone who was not going to vote for him before the indictment more likely to vote for him after the indictment. The guy is a criminal. He has been a criminal his whole life. He bragged about bribing politicians when he ran in 2016. Why weren’t Republicans incensed when Trump promised to lock up his political opponent in 2016?
Also Presidential Candidate, John Edwards, was charged with the exact same crime, on way less evidence than they have against Trump. Why no Republican protests?
C’mon, affairs are only OK if you’re a Republican, everyone knows that.
Trump literally said that Russia isn’t the enemy.
Americans are the enemy.
Trump is the Republican Party, so Republicans support Putin over our own country. A sad fact.
Ronald Reagan must be spinning at warp speeds in his coffin right now.
which is it william or bob
Trump literally said that Russia isn’t the enemy.
Americans are the enemy.
Trump is the Republican Party, so Republicans support Putin over our own country. A sad fact.
Ronald Reagan must be spinning at warp speeds in his coffin right now.
Is this all their is? Just a bunch of Trump hating CNN fans ranting over BS.
Its a corrupt court system. Even SC has its own corrupt attorneys, prosecutors and judges. Take the case of former 9th Circuit Solicitor Swackee were one of his assistances was caught illegally snooping into the computers of other staff in his office. She got fired!
And then take the case whereas a black SC Circuit Court Judge, dozens of Charleston Lawyers and a few prosecutors did not like him following the letter of the law in their cases. So they joined together in the formation of a conspiracy to have him removed.
IMO, if the NY DA decides to indict, he needs to hold off until the Georgia and DOJ cases are concluded. He holds the lessor charges and Trump and his cult will lose their shit over how he’s being targeted etc etc over such menial charges. We all know the drill with his nonsense. A Georgia or DOJ indictment will bear much worse charges so no one will even notice if NY indicts later.
If he is indicted, I expect Trump’s lawyers will transform him into a drooling, gray haired old man in a wheel chair covered in his little woobie. Far fetched?? Not yes but hell yes!!
we already got one of those now. easter bunny called he said lil’ joey made shepherds pie in his knickers
Go ahead indict him . I dare ya