Donald Trump is the first former president to be prosecuted. what we know

Ex-President Donald Trump was announced on Thursday first former US President to be prosecuted after a New York grand jury voted to indict him.

Although the indictment was not made public, the grand jury is investigating hush money payments made to two women who claimed to have had sex with him. Details of those payments were only released after his election to the presidency in 2016.

Trump, who said an indictment wouldn’t stop him from running for president, has already denied the indictment, called his accusers liars and threatened in a social media post that there was “possible death and destruction.” would if charges were brought against him in the case.

What happens next? Here’s what we know:

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Make America Great Again Rally on Saturday, March 25, 2023 in Waco, Texas.

Has Trump been charged?

A grand jury voted to indict Trump.

The former president is under investigation over money payments made to two women who claimed to have had sex with him, including a $130,000 payment made just before the 2016 election to buy adult film star Stormy Daniels for a to silence previous affair. Federal investigators ended their own investigation into the payment in 2019.

What is an indictment?

An indictment is not the same as an arrest; It is a formal charge of a crime, while an arrest occurs when a person is taken into custody. Trump’s arrest is unlikely, said former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.

mug shot? perpetrators on foot? Will Trump go to jail?

Glenn Kirschner, a former prosecutor, previously told USA TODAY that authorities often negotiate the surrender of a high-profile defendant like Trump to avoid the spectacle of a “perp walk,” where the person is paraded in front of the media if they do so Enter courthouse or police station.

“There will be no reason to handcuff him and take him to police headquarters for booking,” Kirschner said. “As part of the booking process, a mug shot, fingerprints and a lot of paperwork are still filled out. So we’re going to see a mugshot of a former President of the United States, but I don’t think we’re going to see a perpetrator.”

Will impeachment Trump spark protests?

Kirschner said authorities should take Trump’s call to action seriously, as it could potentially lead to the widespread rioting that took place in the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“This is a game straight out of Trump’s playbook,” Kirschner said. “We started with ‘Stand back, standby.’ We then moved on to “Come to DC on January 6th, it’s going to be wild”. Now we have ‘Come to Manhattan for my indictment. Protest, take back our country.'”

But Kirschner said he doubts Trump’s efforts will produce the same result this time.

“On January 6, people were hurt because they were told their vote had been stolen. So they took it personally. Here. I don’t think there is such personal motivation as there was on January 6,” said Kirschner.

Statement by Donald Trump

Trump’s campaign called for the vote to impeach “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.”

What does this mean for the secret service?

With potential criminal charges against Trump, W. Ralph Basham, a former Secret Service director, said the prospect raises unprecedented questions for the Secret Service and the limits of the agency’s obligation to provide lifelong protection for the former president.

Basham, who served during George HW Bush’s administration, said he is not aware of any provision that would allow the agency to drop its protection obligation even if a protectee were sentenced to prison. “We’re in uncharted territory here,” Basham said. “I’m sure the lawyers are trying to find answers to these questions.”

“There’s nothing I’m aware of … that would prevent them (Secret Service agents) from escorting a former president to a pre-trial detention center in the event of a conviction and jail time,” Basham said, adding that the agency would then have done so for the duration a prison sentence to consider “a presence” in a detention center. “I just don’t know,” he said. “The lawyers have to clarify that.”

Who is Stormy Daniels?

Stormy Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, plays a central role in the case that the Manhattan Attorney’s Office is building against the former president.

Daniels claims she had consensual sex with Trump in 2006, months after Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron. Trump has denied the affair.

In October 2016, Trump’s then-attorney and personal fixer Michael Cohen wired Daniel’s attorney $130,000 after she said she was willing to cover the alleged affair with Trump.

Who is Michael Cohen?

Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and convicted felon, is another key figure in the Manhattan case. He has testified at least 20 times on alleged wrongdoing by the former president.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to withholding personal earnings from the Internal Revenue Service and “causing $280,000 in payments to silence two women who otherwise planned to go public about their alleged affairs with a presidential candidate in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election,” Justice Department documents said.

Cohen told USA TODAY Trump’s impeachment is just the beginning of a new chapter in the former president’s legal saga.

“Now that the charges have been filed, the case is better let the charges speak for themselves,” Cohen said in a written statement. “Two things I want to say at this point are that accountability is important and I stand by my testimony and the evidence that I have presented.”

Who is Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg?

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is the first prosecutor to ever indict a former president.

This isn’t the first time Bragg has been involved with Trump. His office made headlines last December for successfully convicting two of Trump’s companies over allegations related to a criminal tax fraud scheme.

After the convictions, Bragg alluded to Trump’s status as a former president, saying the verdict “underscores that we have a standard of justice for everyone here in Manhattan.”