Donald Trump claims he will be arrested, calls for protests

In a statement on his social media account, former president Donald Trump claimed that he will be arrested on Tuesday in association with the Manhattan district attorney’s inquiry into hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

“The far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!” he wrote in all caps on Truth Social Saturday morning.

Trump’s remarks on the social media platform he founded, Truth Social, come as he is being investigated for a $130,000 payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election to silence her about an earlier affair. Federal investigators’ own investigation into the payments was completed in 2019; the former president has denied any wrongdoing.

However, testimony from Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer who organized the payment and has already been found guilty and sentenced to prison, could aid in the filing of the first-ever criminal charges against a former president.

Speaking anonymously to USA TODAY, a Trump spokesperson claimed that “no notification” of a potential indictment had been made, aside from “illegal leaks from the Justice Dept. and the DA’s office, to NBC and other fake news carriers.”

The spokesperson stated, “President Trump is rightfully emphasizing his innocence and the weaponization of our justice system.

Requests for comment from USA TODAY were not immediately answered by the New York Attorney General’s office.

Daniels met with Manhattan prosecutors on Wednesday. In a tweet, she expressed gratitude to her legal counsel for “aiding me in our never-ending fight for truth and justice.”

Trump claims that even if he gets indicted in one of the many investigations into his behavior, he will still run for president. On March 25, he will have his first campaign event for the 2024 presidential election in Waco, Texas.

Trump has said he will not drop out of the 2024 presidential race even if he gets indicted. He has claimed that getting charged would boost his popularity among his base and that the payment was legal and not related to his campaign .

Trump’s possible arrest is unlikely, according to some legal experts. They say that defendants who are represented by counsel are typically not arrested in cases like this one, but rather allowed to self-surrender and be released on bond.