On Saturday, former President Donald Trump said that he predicted he would be arrested on Tuesday in relation to an ongoing investigation into his alleged hush money payments to a woman who claimed she had an affair with Trump, according to The Associated Press.
The news: On Saturday morning, the former president posted on Truth Social, stating, “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!”
- This announcement precedes any formal confirmation of an arrest date from a prosecutor, one of Trump’s lawyers said to The Washington Post.
- According to Trump’s Truth Social post, he said his information concerning the arrest comes from “illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
- “IT’S TIME,” Trump stated in another post, “WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!”
The bigger picture: Last week, the Manhattan district attorney’s office told Trump’s lawyers that they were likely to pursue criminal charges against the former president, according to Deseret News, but no official charges have been filed yet.
- The possible indictment is in relation to an investigation that has been underway for years into an alleged hush money scandal between the former president and adult film star Stormy Daniels.
- Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump, who paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about the situation in the late days of his 2016 campaign.
- Trump has denied these allegations in a Truth Social post, per Deseret News. “I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels. This is a political Witch-Hunt, trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the republican party,” Trump wrote.