Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be charged with a crime after a New York grand jury on Thursday indicted him for hush money payments made to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump’s indictment, which comes despite his vehement denial of any wrongdoing in connection with the payments made prior to the election that put him in the White House, will undoubtedly change the course of the current presidential campaign in which Trump hopes to win re-election.
The case against Trump, brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, is centred on a $130,000 payment to an adult film actress, Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had an affair with Trump.
Trump’s lawyers continued to maintain the former president’s innocence on Thursday.
“President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime,” the attorneys, Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles said in a statement, adding “We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in Court.”
The former president released a statement shortly after the news of the indictment broke, calling it a “witch-hunt,” and saying the move was an attempt by Democrats to interfere in the 2024 election.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump wrote in his statement.
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” he added.
Trump also went after District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he was “doing Joe Biden’s dirty work.”
The district attorney’s office requested that Trump surrender on Friday, but Trump’s lawyers replied that the timeline was too tight, saying the U.S. Secret Service needed more time to prepare, according to a law enforcement official.
Tacopina confirmed the exchange, adding that no date had been set for the former president’s surrender.