Photo Via MSNBC

On Tuesday, former President Donald J. Trump flew to New York City to stand before a Manhattan jury on charges stemming from financial misdeals and election interference. The Republican leader was previously indicted on Thursday, and the 34 charges against him have now been made public. If convicted, Trump will likely become the first-ever former President and major party Presidential candidate to run while undergoing criminal trial.

The case in question is being prosecuted by the office of New York County’s District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, who has prosecuted and overseen several key investigations into the Trump Organization since taking office in 2021. The case first made headlines Thursday when Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles, lawyers for Trump, and other unnamed sources confirmed that the Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict the former President and billionaire businessman on multiple accounts.

The specific charges against Trump were not known at the time, as the indictment letter is kept sealed by law. Even Trump’s lawyers told the CNBC Thursday that they did not know the charges. The indictment last week came after one witness was reported to have given half an hour of testimony against the populist leader. Analysts speculated that the charges were likely related to a suspected bribe to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election campaign. Trump is now known to have had an extramarital affair with Daniels a decade earlier. Michael Cohen, then Trump’s attorney, has now pleaded guilty of wiring a payment reaching $130,000 to silence the porn star in October 2016.

The indictment statement was made public Tuesday, when Mr. Trump arrived via plane to stand before the Manhattan court. A total of 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree were disclosed by the District Attorney’s office. Without naming Daniels, the grand jury charges make it clear that all 34 acts of financial misconduct were committed to conceal the payment of $130,000 through a host of deceptive techniques, including a false indication of purpose and the use of shell corporations to make the payments harder to trace.

Before the announcement, D.A. Bragg refused to indulge into the details of the case, insisting only: “We will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly.”

In their press conference after the indictment, defense lawyers Tacopina and Necheles told the nation: “President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in Court.” According to inside informers, the indictment came as a ‘shock’ prematurely, since the Trump campaign had hoped for a much later start. Nonetheless, Trump was indeed arraigned and arrived at the court on Tuesday.

With this, Trump is officially the first and only person to both be the President and the Commander in Chief at one point in time and being indicted for criminal acts before or later.

Later on the same day, Trump addressed a crowd of at least 500 prominent supporters at his private estate at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, once again calling the proceedings a ‘witch hunt’. He had previously claimed the case was “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.” He expressed hope that the Manhattan case “Will backfire massively on Joe Biden.”

President Biden has no factual part in the prosecution case by the District Attorney.

In the days prior, Trump has also accused the African-American District Attorney Bragg of being a ‘racist’, while also warning of “potential death & destruction” in case he were convicted.

Trump is next expected to appear before the case jury in December.

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