Trump will be requested to surrender and appear in court to face arraignment on the still-sealed charges, multiple news agencies reported.
The Governor of Florida State in the United States, Ron DeSantis has ripped into the New York City prosecutor behind the criminal indictment of the former president, Donald Trump, vowing not to extradite him.
DeSantis is Trump’s potential top rival for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Manhattan grand jury on Thursday indicted the former president for his alleged role in paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, according to his lawyer and court sources cited by US media.
While specific charges were not immediately made public, Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, confirmed to the AP that the grand jury voted to indict Trump on Thursday, according to a report by RT.
“We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court,” Tacopina said, insisting that his client “did not commit any crime.”
A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed the indictment, which is expected to be officially announced in the coming days.
Trump will be requested to surrender and appear in court to face arraignment on the still-sealed charges, multiple news agencies reported.
The case centres on an alleged payment of $130,000 made by Trump to Stormy Daniels via his then-lawyer Michael Cohen during the final stages of his campaign for the US presidency in 2016.
It was previously alleged in a legal case against Cohen that Trump later reimbursed him with several payments of $35,000 which were recorded as legal expenses, opening up further allegations of possibly falsifying business records, the non-payment of taxes and potential violations of campaign finance law. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the alleged hush-money payment.
Reacting to the indictment, Trump accused his political opponents of weaponising the American justice system to remove “by far the leading Republican candidate” in the next election.
“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday.
He urged his supporters to remain united in order to “throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office.”
But DeSantis in his reaction said in a tweet on Thursday, that “Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.”
So far there have been no reports of any potential extradition requests. A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office told AP, adding that prosecutors had reached out to Trump’s legal team to “arrange a surrender” and a court appearance, expected next week.
DeSantis previously said he would not get involved in the case “in any way,” indicating that he would not attempt to block any request for the Florida resident’s extradition to New York. However, he has now echoed Trump’s belief that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “is stretching the law to target a political opponent.”
“The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American,” DeSantis added.