Former US President Donald Trump reportedly told his legal team and political advisors that he intends to intensify his attacks on Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, whose prosecution in the hush money case involving adult film star Stormy Daniels sparked a nationwide political firestorm and resulted in a possible sealed indictment by a New York grand jury.
The DA has sent an internal letter to law enforcement agencies in the metro to be prepared in uniform and watchful in the event of a law and order crisis caused by Trump supporters.
The entire country is on high alert for probable Trump supporters attacks akin to the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill violence.
According to media sources, the former President has warned advisors and allies that he is ready to escalate assaults on the Manhattan DA, who has brought the criminal investigation into his hush money payments to Daniels in 2016 to a climax, resulting in a grand jury allegedly indicting him.
Trump has warned friends close to him that he will go on the attack, reflecting his profound pain over the prospective indictment – so much so that he told them over the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida that he intended to “rough’ em up.”
According to media accounts, Trump’s tweets on his social site Truth Social are pugilistic, his prosecution is simply political, and Bragg is a psychopath.
According to people close to Trump, the language he is increasingly using on Truth Social about his possible indictment shows his determination to double down on those attacks, reflecting his time-tested political stunts of brawling with prosecutors, especially when faced with legal trouble that he knows he cannot avoid.
According to the Guardian, Trump’s choice to react against the Manhattan District Attorney is part of a larger strategy to respond to the indictment from both a legal and political angle.
The New York lower Manhattan lawsuit against Trump focuses on the alleged $130,000 payments made to Daniels through his former lawyer Michael Cohen in the final days of his 2016 presidential campaign, which he won by defeating the democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
According to media accounts, Trump later compensated Cohen with $35,000 cheques that were classified as legal fees.
In 2018, Cohen pled guilty to federal tax evasion and campaign finance violations.
With the judgement day approaching, no one has a clue as to what are the exact charges levelled against him. But there is general belief in the media that they could include the falsification of business records at Trump businesses and some additional charges that could easily enhance a “misdemeanour to a felony”, the Guardian said.
According to sources, Trump has assured advisors that he is innocent and has done nothing to violate state laws, and that he would not do anything before the court, such as agreeing to a plea bargain that would show him admitting to his probable involvement.
Trump’s tone has been described as pugnacious by the media, and it has gotten worse in recent days with his criticism of New York state Supreme Court justice Juan Merchan, who is currently presiding over the case. Last year, he ruled over another lawsuit involving the Trump Organisation.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that Merchan had “railroaded” his Trump Organisation CEO Allen Weisselberg, who is currently serving a 100-day term in the Rikers Island jail complex after pleading guilty to tax fraud charges in that case before a Manhattan court.
Referring to Judge Merchan, Trump said: “The Judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case, a ‘Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME.”
Trump is employing every political tactic in his arsenal to gain the most political advantage from the prospective indictment.
He believes the indictment will increase his poll numbers over possible challengers for the GOP presidential candidature in 2024.
Obsessed with having his photograph taken and fingerprinted by NYPD for records, Trump has requested his campaign to print it on T-shirts that may serve as a rallying theme for his fans – an idea that his aides have been especially thrilled about, according to the Guardian.
Yahoo News surveys over the weekend showed Trump topping prospective 2024 opponent Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In a hypothetical one-on-one match, Trump leads 57% to 31%, according to the survey. Survey also found that Trump had a majority of support at 52% in a field of presidential contenders, including former Vice President Mike Pence, DeSantis, and former US UN Ambassador Nikky Haley.
Trump’s turbulent four years in the White House demonstrated the importance of a vibrant, free press to the operation of democracy and the pursuit of accountability, according to the Guardian.
Lawsuits against Fox News, which has now dropped Trump after the November 2022 midterm election results, for spreading the former President’s “big lie” of a stolen election, also shed light on how a toxic, symbiotic relationship between politics and media can work together to sow misinformation and push democracy to the brink of collapse, the newspaper observed.
