Donald Trump indicted in Manhattan, becomes first ex-president charged with crime

Donald Trump is the first former president in American history to be charged with a crime after a New York grand jury examining the circumstances behind a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 chose to indict him.

The Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office issued a statement on Thursday confirming the indictment and stating that it has contacted Trump’s lawyer to prepare for his surrender. The indictment is still sealed, and the specific charge or charges have not yet been made public. More information will be given “when the arraignment date is selected,” according to Bragg’s office.

Following conversations with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office until late Thursday night, one of Trump’s attorneys, Joseph Tacopina, texted CBS News at 12:30 a.m. on Friday to say that the president’s legal team anticipates him to turn himself in to authorities “likely Tuesday.”

According to two sources with knowledge of the situation, the former president will fly to New York on Monday and will be arraigned before Judge Juan Merchan the following day. The hearing should just last a few minutes. At that point, the charge or charges from the indictment would be read to him. The sources mentioned that there was no set date and that the planning was ongoing.

In a statement responding to news of his indictment, the former president called it “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” and accused Democrats of “weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States.”

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” Trump said.

Two Trump attorneys, Tacopina and Susan Necheles, issued a statement saying that the former president “did not commit any crime” and vowed to “vigorously fight this political prosecution in Court.”

The case stems from a payment made just days before Trump was elected president in 2016. His former attorney, Michael Cohen, arranged a wire transfer of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair. Prosecutors were believed to be investigating potential falsification of business records related to reimbursements made to Cohen. Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and vehemently denied wrongdoing in this case. 

Cohen met repeatedly with prosecutors and testified before the grand jury in this case for five hours over two days in March. He served time in a federal prison after entering a guilty plea in 2018 to tax evasion and campaign-finance violations in connection with the payment to Daniels.

After news of the indictment broke on Thursday evening, NYPD officers were out in full force at the Manhattan criminal courthouse, where a few scattered protesters gathered. All NYPD officers have been ordered to be in full uniform and ready to deploy Friday, CBS News has learned.

The indictment comes as Trump faces legal hurdles in other potential criminal cases. In Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis is mulling charges in an investigation into alleged efforts by Trump and more than a dozen of his allies to undermine the state’s results in the 2020 election, which he lost to President Biden. A special purpose grand jury conducted a six-month probe last year and delivered a report with its findings to Willis in January. The majority of that report was ordered sealed, at least until charging decisions are made.

In Washington, D.C., special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing two Justice Department investigations into alleged efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election, and Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home and possible obstruction of efforts to retrieve them.