Trump Indicted By Manhattan Grand Jury

Topline

A Manhattan grand jury voted Thursday to indict former President Donald Trump over an alleged hush money payment to silence porn star Stormy Daniels, a source with knowledge of the proceedings told Forbes, marking the first time in American history a former president has been criminally charged.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before his speech at the annual Conservative … [+] Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center on March 4, 2023 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The indictment remains under seal and it is not clear what crimes the grand jury decided to charge him with—the New York Times was first to report the indictment Thursday.

A Trump spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment from Forbes.

Key Background

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office first opened an investigation into Trump in 2019, years after Trump’s one-time fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. Cohen was later reimbursed by the Trump Organization through a series of $35,000 payments falsely defined as “retainer fees.” Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations for his role in the scheme, which federal prosecutors cast as an illegal contribution to Trump’s 2016 campaign. While entering his guilty plea in Manhattan federal court in August 2018, Cohen alleged that he executed the agreement with Daniels at Trump’s direction. He has since met with the Manhattan District Attorney more than a dozen times throughout its investigation into Trump’s role in the payment scheme.

Chief Critic

Trump has repeatedly claimed he never had an affair with Daniels and has attacked the investigation as a “political witch hunt” by the left-leaning Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump’s lawyers have argued that Cohen’s lack of credibility threatens the validity of the case and that the unprecedented nature of the allegations puts the case on shaky legal footing. Trump and his team have also alleged that the typical five-year statute of limitations for felony cases in New York has expired, though experts say there is legal doctrine that allows some cases to extend beyond the deadline. More than a week before he was indicted, Trump predicted his arrest in a Truth Social post and urged his supporters to protest at the Manhattan Criminal Court. Law enforcement authorities, including the NYPD and FBI, reportedly began preparing for enhanced security protocols, but protest turnout has been lackluster.

Surprising Fact

Daniels’ alleged affair with Trump first came to light in a January 2018 Wall Street Journal story that revealed the hush money scheme, citing anonymous sources. Three months later, she went public with the alleged affair in an interview with 60 Minutes. Daniels, who was 27 at the time while Trump was 60, said she met him at a golf event outside of Lake Tahoe in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump and several months after she had given birth to their son, Barron. When the alleged affair was made public, Trump was facing numerous allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women, including the airing of the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which he can be heard cavalierly speaking about groping women.

What We Don’t Know

Whether prosecutors will land a conviction in the case, which legal experts have said hinges on proving that Trump was directly involved in both falsifying records and arranging the payments in an effort to benefit his election prospects. Trump’s lawyers could argue that Cohen—who initially fronted the money himself—made the payments as part of his routine job duties, unconnected to Trump’s political activity and without Trump’s knowledge. The former president could also argue the hush money payments weren’t campaign-related because they were intended to prevent personal embarrassment instead of shoring up electoral victory.

What To Watch For

The outcome of several other investigations against Trump unrelated to the Daniels scheme. The former president is facing two Justice Department probes into his conduct in the weeks prior to the January 6 riot and his handling of classified documents, as well as a probe by state prosecutors in Georgia into his attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss. Meanwhile, Trump and his children are facing a civil lawsuit from the New York Attorney General alleging they illegally inflated the value of their assets to secure more favorable loans.

Tangent

The charges against Trump mark an unprecedented moment for a former president, especially as Trump ramps up his 2024 campaign for the White House. Many allies rushed to Trump’s defense before criminal charges were announced, and Republicans have ramped up their criticism of Bragg in the days leading up to the indictment, prompting counter-attacks from Democrats and Bragg’s office. A group of House Republicans sent a letter to Bragg demanding his testimony and accusing him of committing an “unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority.” Bragg’s office responded to the testimony by claiming that Congress does not have jurisdiction over the Manhattan DA’s office, while some Democratic lawmakers accused the lawmakers of weaponizing congressional resources by attacking Bragg. The Manhattan DA received a death threat accompanied by suspicious white powder inside an envelope sent to his office last week, NBC News reported, and law enforcement has reportedly seen an increase in threatening and violent rhetoric online in the lead-up to the indictment.