The indictment of former US president Donald Trump sends a “terrible message” to the world about American justice and will encourage dictators to abuse power, according to former vice president Mike Pence.
Mr Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse on Tuesday as he becomes the first former president to face criminal charges in a case involving a hush-money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign.
Mr Trump, who is mounting a comeback bid for the presidency he lost in the 2020 election, was indicted by a grand jury in New York yesterday.
His lawyer Joe Tacopina said he would not be handcuffed when he surrenders in New York next week under the terms of a deal agreed to between his legal team and Manhattan prosecutors.
Mr Pence has joined fellow Republicans and Mr Trump’s other potential 2024 rivals in condemning the indictment, calling it an “outrage.”
“There are dictators and authoritarians around the world that will point to that to justify their own abuse of their own so-called justice system,” Mr Pence, a potential rival for the Republican Party’s 2024 White House nomination, said during an interview at the National Review’s Ideas Summit in Washington.
The historic indictment of the 76-year-old – who denies all wrongdoing in connection with the payment made ahead of the election that sent him to the White House – is certain to upend the current presidential race in which Mr Trump hopes to regain office.
It will also forever mark the legacy of the former leader, who survived two impeachments and kept prosecutors at bay over everything from the US Capitol riot to missing classified files – only to land in court over a sex scandal involving Stormy Daniels, a 44-year-old adult movie actress.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office confirmed that it had contacted Mr Trump’s lawyers yesterday evening to “coordinate his surrender” in New York – with the felony charges against him to be revealed at that point.
Mr Trump slammed the indictment as “political persecution and election interference,” raging against prosecutors and his Democratic opponents and vowing that it would backfire on his successor, President Joe Biden.
Surrendering for arraignment over what CNN has reported could be as many as 30 counts related to business fraud would normally involve being fingerprinted and photographed, potentially even handcuffed.
In the Republican camp, Mr Trump’s allies and sons denounced what they say is a vendetta aimed at derailing his 2024 campaign – while his expected challenger for the party nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, slammed the indictment as “un-American”.
Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, said the indictment had “irreparably damaged” the country.
The top Democrat Adam Schiff – lead prosecutor of Mr Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 – called it “a sobering and unprecedented development”.
“The indictment and arrest of a former president is unique throughout all of American history,” Mr Schiff said in a statement. “But so too is the unlawful conduct for which Trump has been charged.”
Ms Daniels welcomed the development: “I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond … also don’t want to spill my champagne,” she tweeted while also plugging her #TeamStormy merchandise.
The Grand Jury – a pre-trial screening process in American law – has been hearing evidence presented by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office has spent years investigating Donald Trump over possible campaign finance violations related to the payment of $130,000 to buy the silence of adult entertainment actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Although so called hush money payments are not illegal, Mr Bragg was investigating whether Mr Trump falsified business records connected to the payments in a way that could constitute a campaign-finance violation – a criminal offence in New York.
Mr Trump is expected to appear in court in Manhattan next Tuesday.
As a defendant in a criminal case he will have his fingerprints and mugshot taken by police.
It is expected he will be released on bail, with a trial set for a later date.
Mr Trump said the charges are political persecution, a witch hunt and electoral interference at the highest level.
Former US Vice President Mike Pence said the charges were outrageous and would further divide the nation.
New York is preparing for a major security challenge around the unprecedented charging of a former president.
All police officers have been ordered to turn up for work in uniform today to prepare for possible disturbances.
Read more:
Donald Trump indictment: The storm begins
Surrender, fingerprints, court: What happens next?
Who is Stormy Daniels?
At a glance: Donald Trump’s legal troubles
Possible protests over indictment
On 18 March, Mr Trump had declared he expected to be arrested within days over the payment to Ms Daniels – who received $130,000 weeks before the election that brought Mr Trump to power, to stop her from going public about a tryst she claims they had a decade earlier.
In predicting his indictment, Mr Trump also issued a call for demonstrations and dark warnings that it could lead to “potential death & destruction” that “could be catastrophic for our Country”.
His statement set New York on edge for possible protests but the prospect of a quick indictment appeared to recede as the grand jury panel continued to hear witnesses – until yesterday.
A media scrum quickly gathered outside the district attorney’s office, along with a handful of anti-Trump protesters – but the situation was calm overall.
Mr Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, who has testified before the grand jury, told Congress in 2019 that he made the payment to Ms Daniels on Mr Trump’s behalf and was later reimbursed.
Prosecutors argued the checks were not properly registered, and the jury was asked to consider if there had been a cover-up, intended to benefit Mr Trump’s campaign by burying the scandal.
The New York investigation is the first to reach a decision on charges out of three major probes into the former president.
Mr Trump also faces felony investigations in Georgia relating to the 2020 election and in Washington over the 6 January, 2021 attack on the Capitol by the ex-president’s supporters, who hoped to keep him in office after his election loss to Joe Biden.
Mr Trump, who is seen to be the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee in the 2024 election, has branded all of the investigations political persecution.
The impact of an indictment on his election chances is unpredictable, with critics and adversaries alike voicing concerns about the legal merits of the hush money case.
Detractors worry that if Mr Trump were cleared, it could make it easier to dismiss as a “witch hunt” any future indictment in arguably more serious affairs – such as Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results.
The Manhattan charges will also likely juice turnout among Mr Trump’s base, boosting his chances in the party primary.
Mr Trump staged his first presidential campaign rally in Texas on Saturday, addressing several thousand supporters – far fewer than the 15,000 he had expected – in the city of Waco, Texas.
“The innocence of people makes no difference whatsoever to these radical left maniacs,” he told the fired-up crowd.
Pence says Trump indictment sends ‘terrible message’
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