Stormy Daniels case: Donald Trump assures that he will be "arrested" on March 21

Former US President Donald Trump and pornographic actress Stormy Daniels (photomontage). © Alex Brandon & Markus Schreiber, AP

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In a message posted on his social network Truth Social this Saturday, March 18, the former US president claims to have learned, via a "leak" from justice, that he will be "arrested" Tuesday, March 21 and then perhaps charged, in connection with the case of a payment made in 2016 to buy the silence of a pornographic actress, Stormy Daniels, with whom he would have had an affair. Donald Trump is calling for demonstrations.

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Five years after the first revelations, which occurred in early 2018, the Stormy Daniels case is back in the American political news. Donald Trump spoke Saturday on Truth Social, the social network he launched last year.

Referring to a "leak" from the prosecutor's office of the State of New York, for the district of Manhattan, the former US president, candidate for the 2024 election, 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. Manifest, take back our nation!

Signs and rumors have been multiplying in recent days about a possible criminal indictment of Donald Trump by a grand jury in this phase of investigation led by the Manhattan prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, a Democratic elected magistrate. This would be a first for a former US president. On Friday, March 17, one of Donald Trump's lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, had told the media that his client would "surrender" to New York justice if he were to be charged.

A payment of $130,000 in the crosshairs of justice

Targeted in several court cases, but never charged, the former Republican president, in office at the White House from 2017 to 2021 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 Stephanie Clifford. The investigations focus on the payment in 2016 of $ 130,000 by Michael Cohen to the 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.

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• Donald Trump
• United States
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