Former President Donald Trump ripped news of his unprecedented indictment Thursday as “political persecution and election interference at the high levels in history” — calling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “a disgrace.”
“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, 76, said in a statement issued shortly after indictment charges were filed against him related to $130,000 hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
The indictment, filed by Bragg’s office Thursday evening following months of grand jury proceedings, remains under seal.
Sources told The Post Trump is expected to surrender sometime early next week.
Trump erroneously predicted he’d be arrested March 21. He’s claimed any charges brought against him would be barred by statute of limitations.
The criminal charges come at a time when Trump is seeking the 2024 Republican nomination for president.
He predicted his indictment will “backfire massively on Joe Biden.”
“The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here,” he wrote. “Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Taylor Budowich, CEO of Make America Great Again Inc., also insisted Trump was innocent and that the prosecution would only help him reach the White House again.
“This is not an indictment of a crime—there was no crime—instead, this news is the indictment of a failed nation,” Budowich said in an emailed statement.
“President Trump is promising to peacefully end the war in Ukraine, dismantle the deep state, and save our country by putting America first. For that, the political elites and powerbrokers have weaponized government to try and stop him. They will fail. He will be re-elected in the greatest landslide in American history, and together we will all Make America Great Again.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s son Eric Trump similarly reacted to the charges.
“This is third world prosecutorial misconduct,” he tweeted. “It is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Joe Marino
