History making event as Donald Trump becomes first former US President to be indicted

After announcing they would recess for a month, the New York Grand Jury released their indictment of former President Donald Trump – and history was made. This is the first time a former president has been indicted for a crime.

The 34 count indictment has not yet been made public, and may not until next week. Tuesday afternoon Donald Trump is expected to present himself to New York officials. At that time he will be processed with fingerprinting and photo, and released. The Secret Service will coordinate his return to New York, and security. Sources say that the state of New York asked him to appear today, Friday, but Secret Service said they needed more time to prepare. He is expected to hold a public statement event immediately after the formalities are completed and he leaves the building, though that is not yet been officially announced.

His expected trip to New York came before Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a statement that he would not cooperate with a New York extradition request, if one were issued.

Always in the details…

As with many complicated cases, it is often the details, or the less significant charges, that land the final success for prosecutors. In this case, while the indictment has not been revealed, most say the charges stem from multiple payments made to his attorney to repay payments made to Stormy Daniels for her silence – otherwise known as hush money. The criminal issue is that the funneling of money came from campaign funds, though Trump has said the funds came from personal accounts, and that he did not know that the money was going to Daniels. The payment of hush money is not illegal. The number of charges may be tied to the number of payments made between Trump and attorney Michael Cohen.

Other news sources say the charges will be beyond the hush money payments, or involve other issues completely. Timing of the supposed infractions go back over 7 years, a statute of limitations note that is expected to come up in his defense and which has precedent setting possibilities for other cases in the future.

This indictment will take over news coverage – as some sources open early morning news with “live shots” of the New York skyline imposed next to that of the Mar-a-Lago skyline.

Rhode Island delegation statements focused on “no one is above the law”. Former VP Mike Pence called the arrest “an outrage”. Trump supporters focused on this action being a full-court attempt to prevent another presidential run, or victory – as well as the implications this action has for arbitrary harassment of individuals or government officials who disagree with the majority, pointing to recent IRS actions against officials, threats of arrests, etc.

Donald Trump continues to comment on Truth Social. Here is his official statement regarding his indictment:

This is a developing story