The Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced on Thursday night that it had contacted a lawyer for former US President Donald Trump to arrange his “surrender” to the New York court system and thus formally serve the former U.S. president with his criminal indictment in a case linked to a 2016 payment to a porn actress.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DA’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment,” a spokesman for the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a brief statement, after a grand jury voted to indict the former US president.
The indictment “remains under seal” for now, the DA’s office said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
A grand jury in a New York court voted earlier on Thursday to criminally indict Trump for his role in the payment of US$130,000 in hush money in 2016 to a porn actress.
Trump's reaction to Thursday's indictment was almost immediate. “Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done,” the ex-president said in the statement sent out in an email by his campaign. “This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.”
Other reactions to the indictment were split along party lines, with many Republicans decrying it as politically motivated and Democrats welcoming it as proof that no one is above the law.
Thursday's indictment is not the only legal challenge faced by Trump, who is seeking the Republican party's nomination for the 2024 presidential elections. The former president is also the target of investigations by a prosecutor in the State of Georgia and by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost.
The Justice Department is also conducting a probe into Trump’s refusal to turn over top-secret documents he was keeping at his country club in Palm Beach, Florida in defiance of a subpoena.
