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A2 UP FRONT
Friday 31 March 2023
Donald Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime

Continued from Front ing charges against him.
The Justice Department
Arriving at a time of deep has a longtime policy that
political divisions, the it is likely unconstitutional
charges are likely to rein- to prosecute a sitting presi-
force rather than reshape dent in federal court.
dueling perspectives of Bragg’s predecessor as dis-
those who see account- trict attorney, Cyrus Vance
ability as long overdue and Jr., then took up the inves-
those who, like Trump, feel tigation in 2019. While that
the Republican is being tar- probe initially focused on
geted for political purposes the hush money payments,
by a Democratic prosecu- Vance’s prosecutors
tor. moved on to other matters,
Trump, who has denied including an examination
any wrongdoing and has of Trump’s business deal-
repeatedly assailed the ings and tax strategies.
investigation, called the Vance ultimately charged
indictment “political per- the Trump Organization
secution” and predicted it and its chief financial of-
would damage Democrats ficer with tax fraud related
in 2024. In a statement con- to fringe benefits paid to
firming the charges, de- some of the company’s
fense lawyers Susan Nech- President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to speak at a rally in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. top executives.
eles and Joseph Tacopina Associated Press The hush money matter be-
said Trump “did not commit cy was defined by one oblit- al. For security reasons, his ter with Trump a decade came known around the
any crime. We will vigor- erated norm after another, booking is expected to be earlier after they met at a D.A.’s office as the “zom-
ously fight this political pros- the indictment presents yet carefully choreographed celebrity golf tournament. bie case,” with prosecu-
ecution in court.” another never-before-seen to avoid crowds inside or Cohen was then reim- tors revisiting it periodically
A spokesman for the Man- spectacle. It will require a outside the courthouse. bursed by Trump’s compa- but never opting to bring
hattan district attorney’s former president, and cur- In bringing the charges, ny, the Trump Organization, charges.
office confirmed the indict- rent hopeful, to simultane- Bragg, the Manhattan dis- which also rewarded the Bragg saw it differently. Af-
ment and said prosecu- ously fight for his freedom trict attorney, is embrac- lawyer with bonuses and ter the Trump Organization
tors had reached out to and his political future while ing an unusual case that extra payments logged in- was convicted on the tax
Trump’s defense team to also fending off potentially had been investigated by ternally as legal expenses. fraud charges in Decem-
arrange a surrender. A per- more perilous legal threats, two previous sets of pros- Over several months, Co- ber, he brought fresh eyes
son familiar with the matter, including investigations ecutors, both of which de- hen said, the company to the well-worn case, hir-
who was not authorized to into attempts by him and clined to take the politically paid him $420,000. ing longtime white-collar
discuss sealed proceed- his allies to undo the 2020 explosive step of seeking Earlier in 2016, Cohen had prosecutor Matthew Col-
ings, said the surrender was election as well into as the Trump’s indictment. also arranged for the pub- angelo to oversee the
expected to happen next hoarding of hundreds of In the weeks leading up to lisher of the supermarket probe and convening a
week. District Attorney Alvin classified documents. the indictment, Trump, who tabloid the National Enquir- new grand jury.
Bragg left his office Thurs- In fact, New York until re- is seeks to reassert control of er to pay Playboy model Trump has long decried the
day evening without com- cently had been seen as the Republican Party and . Karen McDougal $150,000 Manhattan investigation as
menting. an unlikely contender to railed about the investiga- to squelch her story of a “the greatest witch hunt in
The case centers on well- be the first place to pros- tion on social media and Trump affair in a journal- history.” He has also lashed
chronicled allegations ecute Trump, who contin- urged supporters to protest istically dubious practice out at Bragg, calling the
from a period in 2016 when ues to face long-running on his behalf, prompting known as “catch-and-kill.” prosecutor, who is Black,
Trump’s celebrity past col- investigations in Atlanta tighter security around the The payments to the wom- racist against white people.
lided with his political am- and Washington that could Manhattan criminal court- en were intended to buy The criminal charges in New
bitions. Prosecutors scruti- also result in charges. Un- house. secrecy, but they backfired York are the latest salvo in a
nized money paid to porn like those inquiries, the The fate of the hush-money almost immediately as de- profound schism between
actor Stormy Daniels and Manhattan case concerns investigation seemed un- tails of the arrangements Trump and his hometown
former Playboy model Kar- conduct by Trump that oc- certain until word got out leaked to the news media. — a reckoning for a one-
en McDougal, whom he curred before he became in early March that Bragg Federal prosecutors in New time favorite son who grew
feared would go public president and is unrelated had invited Trump to testify York ultimately charged rich and famous building
with claims that they had to much-publicized efforts before a grand jury, a sig- Cohen in 2018 with violat- skyscrapers, hobnobbing
extramarital sexual en- to overturn a presidential nal that prosecutors were ing federal campaign fi- with celebrities and grac-
counters with him. election. close to bringing charges. nance laws, arguing that ing the pages of the city’s
The timing of the indict- As he seeks to reassert con- Trump’s attorneys declined the payments amounted gossip press.
ment appeared to come trol of the Republican Party the invitation, but a lawyer to impermissible help to Trump, who famously riffed
as a surprise to Trump cam- and stave off a slew of one- closely allied with the for- Trump’s presidential cam- in 2016 that he “could stand
paign officials following time allies who are seeking mer president briefly testi- paign. Cohen pleaded in the middle of Fifth Ave-
news reports that criminal or are likely to oppose him fied in an effort to undercut guilty to those charges nue and shoot somebody”
charges was likely weeks for the presidential nomina- the credibility of Trump’s and unrelated tax evasion and “wouldn’t lose voters,”
away. The former president tion, the indictment sets the former lawyer and fixer Mi- counts and served time in now faces a threat to his
was at Mar-a-Lago, his Flori- stage for an unprecedent- chael Cohen. federal prison. liberty or at least his repu-
da estate, on Thursday and ed scene — a former presi- Late in the 2016 presiden- Trump was implicated tation in a borough where
had filmed an interview dent having his fingerprints tial campaign, Cohen paid in court filings as having more than 75% of voters —
with a conservative com- and mug shot taken, and Daniels $130,000 to keep knowledge of the arrange- many of them potential ju-
mentator earlier in the day. then facing arraignment her silent about what she ments, but U.S. prosecutors rors — went against him in
For a man whose presiden- and possibly a criminal tri- says was a sexual encoun- at the time balked at bring- the last election.q