Donald Trump says he will be 'arrested' on Tuesday and calls for protests

Europe 1 with AFP 14:41 p.m., March 18, 2023

Donald Trump assured Saturday on his social network Truth Social that he would be "arrested" Tuesday and called for demonstrations, before a possible indictment in a case of payment in 2016 to buy the silence of a pornographic actress with whom he would have had an affair.

Referring to a "leak" from the prosecutor's office of the State of New York, for the district of Manhattan, the former US president wrote in capital letters: "The candidate of the Republican Party far ahead (his rivals in the primary, editor's note) and former president of the United States of America will be arrested Tuesday of next week. Protest, take back our nation!"

Signs and rumors have multiplied in recent days about a possible criminal indictment of Donald Trump by a grand jury -- a panel of citizens with broad investigative powers and charged with endorsing an indictment -- in this phase of investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democratic elected magistrate. This would be a first for a former US president.

On Friday, one of Donald Trump's lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, had told the media that his client would "surrender" to the New York justice system if he were to be charged.

A payment of $130,000

Targeted in several legal cases, but never yet charged, the former Republican president (2017-2021) and presidential candidate of 2024, could therefore see this threat materialized in court in New York, because of a payment in 2016 to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Last week, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and now one of his worst enemies, testified at least twice before the grand jury in this investigation related to a non-disclosure agreement concerning Ms. Clifford.

The investigations of New York prosecutors focus on the payment in 2016 of $ 130,000 by Michael Cohen to the pornographic actress to buy her silence on an alleged relationship she would have had with Donald Trump. Former faithful of the Republican billionaire, Michael Cohen has already been convicted in this case.

Convinced that the 2020 election had been "stolen" from him by Joe Biden, Donald Trump had already called on his supporters to mobilize ahead of January 6, 2021, fueling the political crisis that culminated in the assault of his supporters against the Capitol, where Congress sits. On December 19, 2020, the former businessman had called in a tweet for the crowd to gather in the American capital during the certification of Joe Biden's victory. "Big demonstration in Washington on January 6. Be there, it will be crazy," he wrote on Twitter, his favorite megaphone, before being banned. The same day, he then called on his supporters, during a speech, to "fight like devils".