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Indictment: Trump Arrives New York Ahead Arraignment
Donald Trump left his Florida home Monday bound for New York where he will surrender to criminal charges, taking the United States into uncharted and potentially volatile territory.
The 76-year-old Republican, the first American president ever to be criminally indicted, will be formally charged Tuesday over hush money paid to a porn star during the 2016 election campaign.
TV footage showed a motorcade departing Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home at 12:20 pm (1620 GMT) to head to the city where he made his name, and where he hopes to use his appearance before a judge to rouse support for his 2024 White House bid.
“The Corrupt D.A. has no case,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social, of the Manhattan district attorney prosecuting the case. “What he does have is a venue where it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a Fair Trial.”
New York police were on high alert ahead of Trump’s arrival, with security cordons and Secret Service agents outside Trump Tower and the criminal court where he will appear before a judge Tuesday afternoon.
New York Mayor Eric Adams warned that anyone protesting violently during Trump’s historic arraignment will be “arrested and held accountable, no matter who you are.”
“While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear, is simple: ‘control yourselves’,” the mayor told a press conference.
As part of his arraignment, Trump will undergo the standard booking procedure of being fingerprinted and photographed, likely to result in one of the most famous mugshots of the modern era.
‘Up in the air’
There is no roadmap for a former president’s surrender to court authorities, and it remains to be seen whether the famously unpredictable Trump will follow the script, or find a way to upend events.
“It’s all up in the air,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said on CNN Sunday.
But a “perp walk” — in which a defendant is escorted in handcuffs past media cameras — is unlikely for an ex-president under US Secret Service protection, Tacopina said.
“Hopefully this will be as painless and classy as possible for a situation like this.”
But Trump, who has denounced the legal proceedings as a “witch hunt” and “political persecution, is girding for battle, Tacopina added.
A grand jury indicted Trump last week in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.
The specific charges will be revealed during Tuesday’s hearing. They revolve around the investigation of $130,000 paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels just days before Trump’s election win.
Trump’s former lawyer and aide Michael Cohen, who has since turned against his ex-boss, says he arranged the payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about a tryst she says she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump, who was already married to his wife Melania at the time, denies the affair.
Legal experts have suggested that if not properly accounted for, the payment could result in misdemeanour charges for falsifying business records that could be raised to felonies if it was intended to cover up a campaign finance violation.
The Daniels case is only one of several investigations threatening Trump.
Republicans unite?
An independent prosecutor is looking into any potential role Trump played in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, as well as his handling and keeping of classified documents after he left the White House.
In the swing state of Georgia, Trump is under investigation for pressuring officials to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory there — including a taped phone call in which he asked the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse the result.
Biden, knowing anything he might say could fuel Trump’s complaints of a politically “weaponized” judicial system, is one of the few Democrats maintaining silence over the indictment of his political rival.
Republicans have largely rallied around Trump, including his rival in the party’s presidential primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who called the indictment “un-American.”
But some Republicans bristled at the prospect of a twice-impeached president facing multiple legal probes seeking the party’s nomination.
Some observers believe the indictment bodes ill for Trump’s 2024 chances, while others say it could boost his support.
A CNN poll Monday found that 94 per cent of Democrats surveyed approved of the grand jury’s decision to indict Trump while 79 per cent of Republicans disapproved. Some 62 per cent of independents.
AFP
US President, Donald Trump, has ordered the Pentagon – headquarters of the United States Department of Defense – to prioritize the protection of Christians targeted by ISIS terrorists in Nigeria.
U.S. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, disclosed this on Wednesday while stressing that the mission has quietly led to the killing of ISIS’ second-in-command in Nigeria.
Speaking during a cabinet meeting chaired by President Trump at the White House, Hegseth said:
“To give you a sense of how committed this president is (referring to President Trump), maybe, a year ago, he heard the call of Nigerian Christians who are being targeted and killed by ISIS in Nigeria.
“He said, Pete, I want the war department to focus on ensuring that we do whatever we can to protect those Christians”.
He further said: “Partnerships like that can take some time behind the scenes, but he never wavered on it. We got the assets there over the last month. There has not been much coverage of this”.
He added that U.S. intelligence gathered during the operation helped lead to the deaths of “hundreds” of ISIS fighters tied to attacks on Christians and threats against the U.S. homeland.
“We killed ISIS’ number two in Nigeria, who is most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target U.S. homeland.
“There’s a lot of things we do that the media pays attention to, and a lot of things that the president empowers the Department to do on behalf of the American people, that he deserves great credit for,” Hegseth concluded.
Controversial social media activist, Martins Vincent Otse aka VeryDarkMan (VDM), has reacted strongly to allegations surrounding the circulation of an alleged audio involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
VDM spoke in a lengthy video posted on social media after comments credited to presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, accused him of disseminating a fake audio related to the President.
In the video, VDM claimed he began receiving several calls warning him not to return to Nigeria following the controversy surrounding the audio clip.
According to him, some associates advised him to remain abroad over fears that he could be arrested upon his return to the country.
Reacting to the development, VDM denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he had the constitutional right to criticise the government and comment on national issues.
He accused government officials of paying more attention to critics on social media instead of addressing pressing security challenges confronting the country.
The activist also criticised the Federal government over insecurity, kidnappings and economic hardship, arguing that Nigerians were facing difficult living conditions across the country.
VDM further alleged that some individuals were attempting to create a narrative to justify possible actions against him because of his criticism of the administration.
He maintained that he would continue speaking on issues affecting Nigerians, particularly insecurity and governance.
During the emotional video, the social commentator repeatedly questioned why government officials were allegedly more vocal about online controversies than incidents of bandit attacks and kidnappings.
He also urged Nigerians to participate actively in the 2027 general elections, insisting that citizens must make decisions based on the performance of political leaders.
The controversy followed comments attributed to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, who reportedly stated that VDM should “face the weight of the law” over the alleged circulation of fake audio involving the President.
As of the time of filing this report, there was no official confirmation from security agencies regarding any planned action against the activist.
By Eric Elezuo
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been declared winner of the presidential primary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The declaration was made at the Trascorp Hilton Hotel, where the final collation of results was made.
The former Vice President polled a total of 1, 846, 370 votes to defeat his closest rival, former Governor of Rivers State, Hon Rotimi Amaechi, who scored just over 500 thousand votes. Alhaji Muhammed Hayatu-Deen came third.
