Trump expected to ‘surrender’ next week

DONALD Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House.

The exact nature of the charges was unclear on Friday because the indictment remained under seal, but they stem from payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.

Prosecutors said they were working to coordinate Mr Trump’s surrender, which could happen early next week.

They did not say whether they intended to seek prison time in the event of a conviction, a development that would not prevent Mr Trump from seeking and assuming the presidency. The indictment, the first against a former US president, injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the expresident for decades called home.

Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape duelling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Mr Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.

Mr Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage

Democrats in 2024. In a statement confirming the charges, defence lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Mr Trump “did not commit any crime”, adding: “We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”

Mr Tacopina said Mr Trump is “likely” to turn himself in on Tuesday. “We’re working out those logistics right now,” he said on Friday morning. “He’s not going to hole up in Mar-a-Lago.”

He insisted the former president would not take a plea deal.

A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to Mr Trump’s defence team to coordinate a surrender. Mr Trump was asked to surrender on Friday but his lawyers said the Secret Service needed additional time as they made security preparations, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The people, who could not publicly discuss security details, said Mr Trump is expected to surrender early next week. District attorney Alvin Bragg left his office on Thursday evening without commenting.

The case centres on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Mr Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions.

Prosecutors for months scrutinised money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.

The former president was at Mara-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday.