"...the law cannot allow for exceptions" ::::: Donald Trump indicted by grand jury over hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

Donald Trump indicted by grand jury over hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

 (In India, a big fuss is being made on why should a convicted Rahul Gandhi, a creature of a dynastic politics should be disqualified, elsewhere even a former US President Donald Trump has been convicted.

More importantly, there is a list. A former German president Christian Wulff was indicted on corruption charges – and later cleared. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted for bribing a judge.)  

"So it finally happened. Trump has been indicted. For Democrats and scattered anti-Trumpers on the right, it will probably feel not nearly as satisfying or generate as much schadenfreude as they imagined. In fact, it might seem positively anticlimactic.

"After all, Trump did not get indicted for his political crimes and misdemeanors. Other investigations may still catch up with him. But the fact that there is no choreographed political theater is precisely how democracies tend to work: messy, piecemeal, ensuring that there is no impunity," says a report in 'The Guardian' 

"Trump sycophants like Elise Stefanik and Andy Biggs complain that the country is becoming authoritarian and like “the third world”. Never mind the underlying racism of such pronouncements – the absence of spectacle proves that they are wrong, as does that fact that countries who fare far better on global democracy rankings than the US have not hesitated to go after former leaders for wrongdoing," says 'The Guardian'. 

Former German president Christian Wulff was indicted on corruption charges – and cleared. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted for bribing a judge and for campaign finance violations; he was convicted and sentenced to prison (his appeals are pending). Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a kind of Trump before Trump, was sentenced to four years in prison.

 In France, it would have once been unthinkable that a president – who, on one reading of the original, rather royalist conception of the Fifth Republic, embodies the country as a whole – could be treated like an ordinary criminal. But that is the point: the law cannot allow for exceptions; in both democracy and according to the rule of law, we are meant to be equals.

“This evening we contacted Mr Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DA’s Office for arraignment on a supreme court indictment, which remains under seal,” said a statement from Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s spokesperson. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.” 

 Mr Trump, 76, denies wrongdoing. He is the first serving or former US president to face a criminal charge.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been pursuing the investigation, confirmed that it had contacted Mr Trump's attorney to "co-ordinate his surrender" on unspecified charges.

The ex-president, who lives in Florida, is expected to fly to New York on Monday and be arraigned in court on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

The charges in the indictment will be read to him at the hearing, which is set to last about 10-15 minutes. The United States Secret Service - which is tasked with protecting serving and former US presidents - will be in charge of security for the court appearance, says BBC.  

Ms Daniels claims she and Mr Trump had sex, and that she accepted $130,000 (£100,000) from his former lawyer before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence on the encounter. The former president has denied he had any sexual involvement with Ms Daniels since the allegations surfaced in 2018.

Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said in media interviews that she met Mr Trump at a charity golf tournament in July 2006. She alleged the pair had sex once in his hotel room at Lake Tahoe, a resort area between California and Nevada. A lawyer for Mr Trump "vehemently" denied this at the time.

"He didn't seem worried about it. He was kind of arrogant," she said in response to an interviewer's question asking if Mr Trump had told her to keep quiet about their alleged night together. Mr Trump's wife at the time, Melania Trump, was not at the tournament and had just given birth.

Getty Image/BBC : Ms Daniels