A New York grand jury has voted to indict former President Donald Trump, capping a nearly five-year investigation into his personal and business finances by the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Trump is now the first former US president to be charged with a crime, and news of his indictment and coming arraignment is certain to roil the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, in which he's a front-runner.
In a statement, Trump characterized the criminal charges from a grand jury as a political attack.
"The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to 'Get Trump,' but now they've done the unthinkable indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference," Trump said. "Never before in our Nation's history has this been done."
The sealed indictment follows District Attorney Alvin Bragg's two-month, secret grand jury presentation on the fourth floor of a Lower Manhattan office building. The New York Times first reported the news of the grand jury's vote.
"We don't even know the charges yet," Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Trump, told Insider Thursday. "As with any other case, we are going to fight this right from the start. We will fight this miscarriage of justice immediately and aggressively."
Trump plans to turn himself in for an arraignment on Tuesday, his lawyer Susan Necheles told the Times.
The indictment's specific contents have not yet been made public, as is common in state criminal cases. It's also unknown if the indictment charges codefendants or just Trump. A source familiar with the case told Insider it is a felony indictment and won't be unsealed until the arraignment. Two sources told CNN that Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
Trump's defense lawyers and Michael Cohen — Trump's personal attorney turned nemesis, and the prosecution's key witness — have said that Bragg focused on a $130,000 "hush-money" payment.
Cohen wired the payment to a lawyer for the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels on October 27, 2016 — days before the 2016 presidential election.
It contractually assured Daniels' silence, barring her from dropping an election-eve bombshell: details of an alleged sexual encounter she said she'd had with Trump in 2006, four months after the birth of Barron, Trump's son with the former first lady Melania Trump.
Cohen released a statement after news of Trump's indictment broke, saying, "I take no pride in issuing this statement and wish to also remind everyone of the presumption of innocence; as provided by the due process clause."
"However," he continued, "I do take solace in validating the adage that no one is above the law; not even a former President. Today's indictment is not the end of this chapter; but rather, just the beginning. Now that the charges have been filed, it is better for the case to let the indictment speak for itself. The two things I wish to say at this time is that accountability matters and I stand by my testimony and the evidence I have provided to DANY."
The DA's office may have charged Trump with falsifying business records
The former president has likely been charged with falsifying business records in the first degree for allegedly lying about the hush money in his business and personal records to conceal some underlying crime, experts and defense lawyers have long predicted.
Prosecutors may cite a broad range of potential underlying crimes, including campaign-finance filing omissions on a state or federal level.
First-degree falsifying business records would be the lowest-level felony under state law. It is punishable by up to four years in state prison. There is no mandatory minimum jail sentence; a judge would be able to impose a sentence of probation.
Trump, like virtually all targets of a criminal investigation, chose not to testify before the panel.
But he has vehemently and repeatedly denied that he has committed any crimes in relation to the hush-money payment, or that he had a sexual encounter with Daniels.
Trump's attorneys brought Robert Costello, an attorney allied with the ex-president who previously worked with Cohen, to testify in front of the grand jury earlier in March. He told jurors Cohen was a serial liar, a defense Trump's attorneys will likely raise if the case goes to trial.
The district attorney's office subsequently brought David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, to testify for a second time in front of the grand jury.
Pecker ultimately purchased the right to Daniels's story of her affair with Trump but never published a story about it, a practice known as "catch and kill."
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that grand jurors heard evidence about a $150,000 payment made to Karen McDougal, another woman who said she had an affair with Trump. Trump has denied that affair as well, but the reported testimony raises the possibility that prosecutors may bring charges related to the payments to McDougal as well.
Trump has gone on the offensive in several Truth Social posts. His rhetoric has at times appeared to promote violence, including a post warning of "death and destruction" should he be indicted.
A recent Truth Social post included a photo of Trump wielding a baseball bat next to a second photo showing Bragg's head. That post was quickly taken down; Trump attorney Joe Tacopina called it "ill-advised" and said "one of his social media people" put it up.
News of the indictment ends weeks of speculation that one was imminent.
On Saturday, March 20, Trump threw that speculation into overdrive, posting to Truth Social, without evidence, that he was expecting to be arrested the following Tuesday.
He called for supporters to "protest" and "take back our Country!" — echoing his comments before the January 6 riot at the US Capitol and sparking fears of violence. One of his lawyers confirmed to Insider that Trump had not been officially informed of a Tuesday arrest.
What happens next for Trump will likely follow a series of procedural steps for criminal defendants charged with white-collar crimes in Manhattan, including negotiations for a surrender date and logistical planning for his in-person appearance for booking at the DA's office and arraignment in a criminal court building.
The criminal indictment is far from Trump's only legal risk.
In addition to the Manhattan case, he faces a criminal investigation in Georgia over attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, and from the Justice Department over him taking government documents to his Mar-a-Lago home.
Trump also faces a litany of civil lawsuits. They include a rape allegation from the writer E. Jean Carroll, scheduled to go to trial in April, and allegations from the New York attorney general's office that his company misrepresented property valuations.
This story is breaking. Check back for updates.
