Former US President Donald Trump announced, on Saturday, that he expects to be “arrested” the day after tomorrow, Tuesday, due to allegations of paying money to a controversial actress before the 2016 elections, and called on his supporters to demonstrate to prevent his arrest, hours after he published his first statements on Facebook and YouTube platforms since His accounts were suspended two years ago following the Capitol events, while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy considered the news of the arrest as political revenge, and billionaire Elon Musk predicted that if Trump was arrested, this would enable him to achieve a landslide victory in the presidential elections next year.
Trump wrote in his account on his social platform, “Truth Social”, yesterday morning, “The main Republican candidate and former President of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday. Pretend! Take back our country!”, referring to the “leakage” of information from the Manhattan Attorney General’s Office. The investigation focuses on paying $130,000 a few weeks before the 2016 election to prevent Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, from revealing an alleged affair she had with Trump years ago. Prosecutors are considering whether to bring charges against Trump in this case. And if the Manhattan Attorney General charges Trump, 76, he will become the first former president to be charged with a crime. Trump’s lawyer told CNBC on Friday evening that his client could surrender to criminal charges if he is indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan. Trump again insisted he had committed no crime and reminded his followers that the court was funded largely by liberal billionaire George Soros. In the message, which he posted on his platform in large letters, the former president spoke of “illegal leaks from a highly corrupt and politicized prosecutors office in Manhattan.”
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, described yesterday the news of Trump’s arrest as “political revenge.” McCarthy announced on Twitter that he would, in turn, direct House committees to investigate whether federal funds were being used in politically motivated prosecutions. “Here we are again, faced with an outrageous abuse of power by the radical Attorney General, who allows violent criminals to escape while seeking political revenge against President Trump,” the House Speaker wrote in a tweet.
“I am instructing the relevant committees to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to undermine our democracy through election interference, through politically motivated prosecutions,” McCarthy added.
For his part, the American billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, considered that if prosecutors indict Trump’s arrest, this will help him achieve an “overwhelming victory” in the upcoming presidential elections. Musk said, commenting on a Twitter post about the possibility of seeing the former president handcuffed next week: “If this happens, Trump will be re-elected with a landslide victory.”
On Friday, Trump published his first statements on Facebook and YouTube since suspending his accounts two years ago following the Capitol events. “I’m back,” he wrote, alongside a 12-second video excerpt from his victory speech after the 2016 election, in which he says, “Sorry to keep you waiting – it’s a complicated business.” His words were met with thousands of comments, including “We are glad to see you again” and “It is a relief for you to return, Mr. President.” Trump had been excluded from the two platforms in the wake of the events of January 2021, 2021, when a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol building. And the YouTube platform reactivated his account on Friday, two months after Facebook announced a similar move.
(agencies)
