The Trump indictment, explained
Image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Former President Donald Trump is expected to turn himself in to the NYPD tomorrow, at which point he’ll become the first former president in US history to be formally charged with a crime.
⚖️ Let’s dive right in… The charges against Trump are currently sealed, and likely won’t be made public until he appears in court tomorrow afternoon. But here’s what we do know so far:
- Before voting to indict Trump, the Manhattan grand jury had been hearing testimony since late January about his role in a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential election.
- Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations over hush money payments he facilitated to Daniels and another woman, both of whom allegedly had extramarital affairs with Trump.
- Cohen is currently a witness in NY prosecutors’ ongoing case against Trump.
- Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels or the other woman, and accused them both of extortion.
- In multiple interviews on Friday, Trump’s current lawyer said there’s “zero” chance his client takes a plea deal from NY prosecutors, since “there’s no crime.”
👀 Looking ahead… Since the charges against Trump are coming from state prosecutors, experts say they won’t have any legal impact on his 2024 presidential campaign — even if Trump is ultimately convicted. But whether the charges will impact Trump politically is still unclear.
- On Friday, the former president’s 2024 campaign said it raised over $4 million in the first 24 hours after Trump’s indictment was made public, with 25% of the total coming from first-time donors.
- The first public opinion poll conducted after Trump’s indictment, published Saturday by Yahoo News/YouGov, found his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical GOP primary stood at 26% – up from 8% in the same poll two weeks ago.
💬 Flash poll (long-form): On a topic as charged as this (no pun intended), we wanted to give you the mic: Based on what we know so far about the indictment against former President Trump, what are your thoughts? The best and most thoughtful responses will be featured in tomorrow’s newsletter.
See a 360° view of what media pundits are saying →
Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that the case NY prosecutors chose to bring against Trump is shaky at best, and probably shouldn’t represent the first-ever criminal charges brought against a former US president.
- Others contend that no person, not even a former US president, should be above the law, and the recent indictment of Trump proves that America is still a society where its leader is beholden to the law.
- “The Trump indictment is a poor test case for prosecuting a former president” –WaPo Editorial Board
- “Even Donald Trump Should Be Held Accountable” –NY Times Editorial Board
- “Trump’s Not Just Testing the Law. He’s Testing Us.” –Timothy O’Brien, Bloomberg
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that any charges filed against a former US president should involve a serious offense, with enough solid evidence that a reasonable voter would find it persuasive – which isn’t the case for Trump’s indictment.
- Others contend that the case against Trump is extremely flimsy on the merits, and especially shabby given the historic import of a first-ever indictment of a former president.
- “Pandora’s Donald Trump Prosecution” –WSJ Editorial Board
- “The Reckless Trump Indictment” –National Review Editorial Board
- “The whopping outrage in Trump's indictment” –Andrew McCarthy, Fox News
Share this!
Recent Discussion stories
Discussion
| March 31, 2023The Affordable Care Act is back in court
📝🩺 Yesterday, a federal judge in Texas struck down a provision of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) that requires US insurance companies to cover preventative treatments like mammograms, colonoscopies, and cancer screenings for free.
Discussion
| March 29, 2023Should facial recognition tech be used by police?
🤔⚖️ Facial recognition firm Clearview AI has run nearly 1 million individual searches at the request of US police departments across the country, company founder and CEO Hoan Ton-That told BBC News in an interview published late Monday.
Discussion
| March 27, 2023What will the US look like in a generation?
🇺🇸 More than three-quarters of Americans think people from Generation Alpha (aka anyone born after 2012) won’t have better lives than themselves, the highest percentage dating back to 1972.
You've made it this far...
Let's make our relationship official, no 💍 or elaborate proposal required. Learn and stay entertained, for free.👇
All of our news is 100% free and you can unsubscribe anytime; the quiz takes ~10 seconds to complete