The Manhattan grand jury voted on Thursday to indict former
President Donald Trump.
This is Oma Sadiq. I'm a politics reporter with Insider.
He is the first former president in American history to
ever face criminal charges.
And these charges are likely connected to a hush money
payment that was made ahead of the 2016 election to
adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump's lawyer has previously said that Trump will surrender if
he was facing criminal charges.
And his lawyers now confirming that Trump will likely surrender
next week.
This does not stop Trump from running from president,
and he has even said previously if he's ever indicted,
he will never drop out of the race.
And there is no law that's preventing him from running
in this election.
And he's widely considered to be the front runner for
the Republican nomination.
We've spoken to several political consultants about whether or not
an indictment in this hush money case would affect Trump's
standing with his base.
Most of them said no,
they don't think that it'll be likely that this will
harm any of his support with his diehard followers.
But when it comes to the rest of the Republican
Party,
which includes moderates, independents, it's uncertain whether or not this
indictment is going to affect him.
And I mean, I think time will tell.
Immediately after the news of the indictment broke,
we've saw Republicans coming to his defense,
blasting this indictment as a political witch hunt.
Trump released a lengthy statement in response to these charges
on Thursday.
Calling it quote this is a political persecution and election
interference at the highest level in history.
He's long been criticizing this investigation,
as well as the Manhattan District Attorney,
Alvin Bragg, who's been overseeing it.
Trump is also under investigation over his efforts to overturn
the 2020 election results and his role in the January
6th capital riot.
And he's under investigation as to whether or not he
potentially mishandled classified documents that the FBI retrieved from his
Mar A Lago home.
An indictment in the Manhattan Hush Money case does not
mean that this stops these other investigations.
I mean, these investigations are still ongoing.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office released a statement saying that
they have informed Trump of the charges and that an
arraignment date will be scheduled.
The bottom line is this is unprecedented and Trump's attorney
has said that they will fight this.