Prosecutors make stunning U-turn in tense standoff with Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s expected arrest is in turmoil after prosecutors made a stunning U-turn amid intense scrutiny over the alleged porn star hush money showdown.
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Donald Trump’s expected arrested has been thrown into uncertainty after prosecutors hesitated to bring the case back to a grand jury.
Days after the former president claimed he would be arrested, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office did not bring the potential charges for more testimony or deliberation.
It comes amid intense scrutiny over prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who delayed convening the grand jury to hear Trump’s case for the third consecutive day.
Multiple media outlets reported that an unrelated case was instead heard by the grand jury, which considers what is brought before them by prosecutors.
In what appears to be a stunning U-turn, Mr Bragg claimed that Trump had created a “false expectation” of an arrest.
As the grand jury does not sit on Fridays or Mondays, any indictment of the former president has been pushed deep into next week at the earliest.
The cancellation on Wednesday, local time, came after “major dissension” within Mr Bragg’s office, sources familiar with the district attorney’s “weak” case told Fox News, adding he has been unable to convince the grand jury to recommend potential charges.
While it was unclear if Thursday’s session was delayed for the same reason, it comes after Trump released what he called “exculpatory” evidence from former fixer turned witness Michael Cohen.
The 2018 letter from Mr Cohen’s lawyer, who paid the so-called hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, said the 2016 Trump campaign did not fund the payment. The charges being considered are whether the payment violated campaign finance laws.
Mr Cohen, a key witness alongside Ms Daniels, later changed his story after being sentenced to three years in prison.
In response to an inquiry by the US Congress’s House Committee on the Judiciary, Mr Bragg confirmed his office is investigating Trump over “violations of New York State penal law”. He added that the Committee’s letter demanding an explanation was an unprecedented inquiry into a “pending local prosecution”.
“The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” Mr Bragg wrote.
“Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”
As an arrest hangs in the balance, Trump took to ALL-CAPS his anger online with a storm of consciousness against Mr Bragg, rival Ron DeSantis, and miscellaneous grievances.
“WHY WON’T BRAGG DROP THIS CASE? EVERYBODY SAYS THERE IS NO CRIME HERE. I DID NOTHING WRONG!” Trump said.
“He is doing the work of Anarchists and the Devil, who want our Country to fail,” Trump, continued, dropping to lower case to directly address Ms Daniels’ allegation. “The ‘Horseface’ agenda is dead, even by the most Radical Left Haters, but he doesn’t care, he wants to go with it anyway.”
As movement on the indictment stalled, meme makers filled the void with deep fake images of the president going viral online.
Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump's arrest. pic.twitter.com/4D2QQfUpLZ
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 20, 2023
TRUMP FACES FURTHER LEGAL TROUBLE`
Donald Trump’s imminent arrest may be delayed until next week but the former president is facing further legal trouble in a separate case over his handling of classified files.
A grand jury hearing in New York – to finalise the indictment over hush money paid to a porn star who claims she slept with Mr Trump – was abruptly cancelled on Thursday (AEDT) as prosecutors finalised plans to lay the first criminal charges against a US president.
While the grand jury was set to meet again on Friday (AEDT), sources said they would likely hear evidence from another witness, and that even if they voted to indict Mr Trump, he would now be unlikely to surrender in Manhattan until next week.
The former president kept up his attack on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he should “get on with prosecuting violent criminals, so people can walk down the sidewalks of New York without being murdered”.
Posting on his social media platform, Mr Trump questioned why Mr Bragg was “searching for yet another witness”, saying there was “NO CRIME, NO AFFAIR, NO BOOKKEEPING ERROR OR MISDEMEANOUR, NO NOTHING” in the $US130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
He also seized on a letter written in 2018 by lawyers for his former fixer Michael Cohen – who paid the hush money to the adult film actor – which said Mr Trump’s campaign did not facilitate or fund the payment.
Mr Cohen later changed his tune as he was sentenced to three years behind bars, and he is now likely to be the star witness in the bombshell New York prosecution of Mr Trump.
The former president remained at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida where he was reportedly spotted DJing at the club, playing tunes from West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera.
But as his arrest loomed, he was hit with further bad news from a separate probe by special counsel Jack Smith into his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.
In a sealed decision, a judge reportedly sided with Mr Smith’s team’s claim that the former president “committed criminal violations”, allowing them to break Mr Trump’s attorney-client privilege with Evan Corcoran.
The lawyer last year drafted a statement to the Justice Department which said there had been a “diligent search” for classified files at Mar-a-Lago, but weeks later, the FBI found about 100 files in an extraordinary raid on Mr Trump’s home.
Mr Corcoran will now be forced to give evidence and hand over documents about his work for the former president, as prosecutors try to establish whether Mr Trump can be charged with obstruction of justice.
TRUMP IN ‘HIGH SPIRITS’ AHEAD OF ARREST
Earlier, Mr Trump said he is “not worried in the slightest” ahead of his imminent arrest, with the former president’s team plotting to use the historic moment to boost his campaign to return to the White House.
In emails to his supporters, Mr Trump claimed the potential criminal charges against him – which would be the first against a US president in history – were a “phony witch hunt” as he maintained there was “NO CRIME OF ANY KIND” in hush money he paid to a porn star.
But in an awkward twist, an old TV clip resurfaced of his lawyer Joe Tacopina declaring the US$130,000 – used to stop Stormy Daniels alleging before the 2016 election that she slept with Mr Trump – was “illegal” and a “fraud”.
Mr Trump remains at his Florida home ahead of a planned rally in Texas this weekend, as the Manhattan District Attorney nears a decision on laying charges in coming days.
New York police are on high alert and have been ordered to dress in uniform and be ready to respond in case protests urged by the former president spiral out of control.
After Mr Trump encouraged his supporters to “take back our nation”, several dozen gathered outside his Florida home on Wednesday (AEDT), with one telling a local newspaper: “I thought there’d be more people here.”
A small crowd also gathered at the New York courthouse while some took part in a convoy in Long Island.
“I think that everything that they’re doing to Donald Trump is a ploy to get him not to run again,” Richard Franco told reporters.
A source told the New York Post that Mr Trump was in “high spirits” and his team was “very pumped about this”.
“The Manhattan District Attorney, NYPD and even the Department of Justice were trying to work out a quiet handover co-ordinated with the Secret Service – and Trump was having none of that. If an indictment and arrest happens, he wants it to be public,” the source said.
“They are loving this stuff,” another source said, adding they believed an indictment would “help him with his base” as he campaigns for the Republican nomination for next year’s presidential election.
Mr Tacopina said in 2018 prior to representing Mr Trump that the payment to Ms Daniels was a “potential campaign finance issue” which was “fair game” for prosecutors.
At the time, he also communicated with the adult film star when she was seeking legal representation, which could now see him sidelined from his defence of Mr Trump.
It came as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – Mr Trump’s top rival to be the Republican nominee for president – revved up his campaign against him, as he said he was confident he could beat Joe Biden.
Mr DeSantis said the former president’s conduct was “outside my wheelhouse” and that he governed without “daily drama” and personal agendas.
Asked by Piers Morgan about Mr Trump’s attacks on him, Mr DeSantis said: “You can call me whatever you want, just as long as you call me a winner, because that’s what we’ve been able to do in Florida.”
Mr Trump took to his Truth Social network over the weekend to say he expected to be arrested on Tuesday in the US, which would make him the first president in history to be hit with criminal charges.
He has since been rallying supporters to sign a petition opposing his arrest and donate to his 2024 campaign, as he vowed to “never surrender”.
“With the very fate of our republic on the line, never has there been a more important time to show these shadowy forces that ALL 74 MILLION Trump voters stand UNITED in peacefully defending our movement,” Mr Trump said in an email to supporters.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his colleagues vowed to launch congressional investigations into the prosecution, even as the Republican leader cautioned that people should not protest Mr Trump’s imminent arrest.
“I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that either,” Mr McCarthy said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Mr Trump’s likely opponent for the 2024 Republican nomination, also weighed in to criticise Mr Bragg’s “political agenda”.
But he added: “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just – I can’t speak to that.”
Mr Trump hit back in a social media post with a photo of his rival surrounded by teenage girls from his days as a teacher.
“Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!),” he said.
“I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said she would not “comment on any ongoing investigations”.
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