Donald Trump goes bonkers after Manhattan DA informs him he’s being criminally indicted
Earlier this evening, the news broke that the Manhattan District Attorney has informed Donald Trump that he’s being criminally indicted as soon as next week. As I’ve already explained, even though the word “likely” is in the New York Times headline, that’s a formality involving the grand jury, and you can safely remove the word “likely” from the discussion. The story is that Trump is being indicted. And let’s just say that Trump isn’t taking it well.
Trump has now released a statement through his “spokesperson” to the media, and it’s unhinged. It claims that the indictment is “insane” and that this indictment is somehow a “clear
exoneration” of Trump. It also claims that Trump is somehow the “victim of extortion” – an indicator of the defense he plans to try to use at trial, though it won’t help him because campaign finance fraud is the same crime even if you’re using it to pay someone off. And of course the statement is blaming this all on “Democrat prosecutors” – whatever that’s supposed to mean.
In other word, Donald Trump knows he has no way out of this. He’s being criminally indicted on the kind of campaign finance fraud charge that’s straightforward to prove, easy to get a conviction on, and always comes with a prison sentence. Notably, Trump isn’t even asserting in his statement that he’s going to beat the charges. It almost feels like he’s accepting the reality that he’ll be convicted.
