Trump expects to be arrested Tuesday

Former President Donald Trump, who is running for president in 2024, said he expects to be arrested Tuesday and called on his most fervent supporters to come out in force and “take back America.”

Trump posted on his “Truth Social” Saturday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will arrest him because he paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom he had a liaison. Daniels’s real name is Stephanie Clifford. Bragg’s office could not be reached for comment concerning this latest legal development involving Trump.

Trump’s current lawyer Joe Tacopina said the payment was “not a crime.”

Trump was following the advice of his then-lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, when he signed off on the payments that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is scrutinizing. 

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a federal charge relating to a $130,000 payment to Daniels at the close of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Daniels has said the money was to keep her quiet about her claim that she’d slept with the married Trump in 2006, an allegation Trump denies.

His team has not denied having received notifications from prosecutors.  But law enforcement officials in New York are ready for a showdown with Trump followers. Trump’s team would engage in negations for a surrender.

Besides Trump who anticipates being arrested, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy called the possible arrest of Trump “an outrageous abuse of power” by Bragg. 

Mike Pence, who served under Trump as vice president, said Bragg’s actions “reek” and constituted “political prosecution.”

But former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Trump wants to incite violence.

Trump’s call for his backers to show up in Manhattan is reminiscent of his inflammatory January 6 comments, refusing to accept the 2020 election results and claiming the election results were fraudulent.