Former President Donald Trump said on Saturday that “illegal leaks” indicated he would be arrested on Tuesday and called on supporters to protest.
Trump, in posts on his social media platform Trump Social, cited reports that he could soon face possible criminal charges in New York related to surreptitious payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump did not say whether he had been informed by law enforcement of the upcoming indictment.
NBC News reported on Friday that law enforcement agencies are preparing for a possible Trump indictment as early as next week.
Trump, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, denounced “illegal leaks” that “indicate” he would be arrested on Tuesday.
“Resist, take back our country!” Trump wrote.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the investigation by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office a continuation of a partisan “witch hunt” against him. He also accused Bragg, who is black, of being a “racist”.
The 76-year-old presidential candidate has said he has no plans to drop out of the race even if he is impeached. “Not at all,” he told reporters at a political event in early March, adding that the allegation “maybe boost my numbers, but it’s a very bad thing for America.”
A key witness in the current case is Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, who testified before a grand jury this week. Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in 2018 to making illegal payments to Daniels for the “prime purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election, saying he did so at Trump’s direction. He was sentenced to three years in prison for that and other crimes.
Trump has acknowledged that he paid Cohen $130,000, but maintains the payment is legal. Trump Tweeted in 2018 that the money was “not from the campaign” and that the deal was “a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement or NDA.”
Trump said, “The agreement was used to stop the false and extortion allegations he made about the affair … despite having already signed a detailed letter denying there was an affair.” Twitter,
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