When Donald Trump is arraigned in a New York courthouse the following week, it will not be the first time a former U.S. president has faced criminal charges. It will also be a moment of reckoning for a guy dubbed “Teflon Don” who, despite 40 years of court investigation, has managed to avoid significant legal peril.
Trump, the early favorite for the Republican nomination for president, is scheduled to surrender on Tuesday. During his 2016 presidential campaign, he is accused of committing at least one felony involving payments of hush money to women. Before being given the opportunity to enter a plea, he will be booked, fingerprinted, and photographed, just like any other defendant.
Trump, who already holds the distinction of becoming the first president to be impeached twice, will be able to demonstrate once again how spectacularly he has subverted democratic norms through the spectacle that is certain to unfold.
On a human level, though, the indictment pierces the aura of invulnerability that Trump seemed to maintain during his decades in business and politics, despite facing claims of fraud, collusion, and sexual misconduct.
Michael D’Antonio, Trump’s biographer, stated of the indictment, “After all this time, it’s a bit of a shock.” “You know, I’ve always seen him as the Gingerbread Man yelling, ‘You can’t catch me!'” “As he fled,’ he said.”
“Given his history,” he remarked, “I had difficulty conceiving that he would ever be held accountable.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer and a crucial witness in the case who served jail time for the payments, told CNN, “These are things that neither President Trump nor I, for that matter, ever imagined he would ever be presented with.”
Obviously, some of Trump’s opponents’ celebrations may be premature. The former president might want a swift dismissal of the lawsuit. And even if it gets forward, conviction is not certain. Investigations that are intensifying in Atlanta and Washington are viewed as posing possibly graver legal risks.
Still, Trump and his staff were taken off guard when news of the New York indictment came Thursday evening, following indications that the grand jury hearing the case was scheduled for a two-week break.
As the proceedings dragged on, some inside Trump’s inner circle were persuaded that the investigation had stagnated and that charges may never be filed. This includes Trump attorney Joe Tacopina, who on Friday morning expressed his faith that “the rule of law will triumph.”
Trump, he claimed on “Today” “show, “originally was surprised” by the revelation of the allegations, but he swiftly reverted to his standard counterattack strategy.
“Once he got over it,” he claimed, Trump “placed a notch in his belt and he said we have to fight now. And he went into a normal Donald Trump posture where he’s ready to be confrontational on something he sees is an injustice…. I think he’s now in a position to battle this.”
In the meanwhile, Trump and his staff have attempted to utilize the news to their advantage by portraying the probe as part of a bigger scheme to undermine his candidacy in order to galvanize his devoted support.
The campaign stated on Friday evening that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours following the release of the indictment, greatly surpassing its previous record during the FBI’s raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
According to the campaign, more than 25% of donations came from first-time donors, with an average contribution of $34.
Trump has been in contact by phone with key congressional allies, including House leadership and top committee members, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Trump friend Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, who publicly backed the former president on Friday, stated that Trump “doesn’t back down” and will “fight back,” telling a local radio station that it was “yet another chapter in which Donald Trump will come out on top in the end.””
The media whirlwind has catapulted the former president back into the limelight he craves, at least temporarily overshadowing his rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely expected to challenge Trump for the nomination and has been holding events across the country to promote his book.
The prospect of having a news conference either before or after the arraignment has been discussed by Trump’s advisors as a means of maximizing the situation. Trump is anticipated to travel from Florida to New York on Monday, where he will spend the night at Trump Tower in Lower Manhattan before traveling to court the following morning. He will then return to Florida after his court appearance.
Trump has consistently denied having a sexual contact with Stormy Daniels, a pornographic actress, and has criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for pursuing the decades-old case.
Trump is also the subject of ongoing investigations in Georgia regarding his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and in Washington, where a special counsel is investigating the events of January 6, 2021, as well as Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and possible obstruction of the investigation.
But Sam Nunberg, a former senior Trump assistant who left with him years ago, said that while he no longer supports Trump, the Manhattan case is “a waste of time.” “Given the charges, which remain sealed, he expressed doubt that it would matter in the end.
“That doesn’t surprise me, “He stated regarding the indictment. The only thing that would surprise me is if he actually ended up in prison, but I don’t see that happening.
Notwithstanding the allegations, according to D’Antonio, this mentality persists among many who have reached out to him in the last twenty-four hours, as does the idea that Trump will somehow prevail and avoid prosecution.
“They’re saying, he’s going to get away with it,” he added. “He’ll have it thrown out somehow.”