Following his campaign rally in Waco, Texas, Donald Trump said he believes prosecutors in New York City have “already dropped” a case against him, one week after his false prediction of his imminent arrest generated a media firestorm, a rush of Republican support and a surge in donations to his campaign.
Speaking to reporters on 25 March, the former president said he thinks the office of New York County district attorney Alvin Bragg is no longer investigating Mr Trump’s alleged hush money payment to an adult film star in the runup to the 2016 presidential election.
“I think they’ve already dropped the case,” he said, according to Axios. “It’s a fake case. Some fake cases, they have absolutely nothing.”
A New York grand jury continues to hear witnesses and evidence in that case. Mr Trump and his aides have blamed “leaks” and “rumours” for his claims, though the former president appeared to be the only source for publicly announcing them, and his team has clarified that he did not receive any indications from prosecutors that would be imminently charged.
“No, he didn’t make it up, he was reacting toward a lot of leaks coming out of the district attorney’s office,” his attorney Joe Tacopina told NBC’s Meet the Press on 26 March, adding that his client “just assumed based on those leaks that that’s what was going to happen.”
He also sought to distance himself from Mr Trump’s increasingly volatile and incendiary rhetoric and Truth Social posts, including calling Mr Bragg a “racist” and “animal” and invoking a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory involving George Soros. He also posted, then deleted, a post with an image of Mr Trump wielding a baseball bat next to Mr Bragg.
“I’m not his social media consultant,” Mr Tacpina told Meet the Press. “I think that was an ill-advised post that one of his social media people put up and he quickly took down when he realized the rhetoric and the photo that was attached to it.”
On his Truth Social, the former president has resumed lashing out at the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation and the US Department of Justice while accusing prosecutors of using the probes as a form of “election interference,” appearing to deflect from accusations that he he interfered in 2020 elections with his spurious legal campaign to throw out results and attempts to pressure election officials to overturn them. A special grand jury probe involving those claims in Georgia could also lead to charges against him.
The New York grand jury was convened in January and has met on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to consider evidence involving the former president’s role involving a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and other potential crimes connected to that exchange.
Grand juries convene in secret, and prosecutors are statutorily barred from discussing their actions. It is unclear whether the panel will hear from other witnesses. Details concerning the timing of the highly scrutinised case and potential charges, which could mark the first-ever criminal indictment of a former president, are largely unknown.
In a late-night post on his Truth Social account on 23 March, Mr Trump wrote that “it is known” that “potential death [and] destruction” following a “false” charge against him would be “catastrophic for our country.” He also labelled Mr Bragg a “degenerate psychopath who truely [sic] hates the USA.”
On 24 March, Mr Bragg’s office received an envelope with a nonhazardous white powder and a death threat. Republicans in the House of Representatives have also pressured Mr Bragg’s appearance before Congress, which they said will consider whether lawmakers “should take legislative action to protect former and/or current presidents from politically motivated prosecutions by state and local officials.”
“We evaluate cases in our jurisdiction based on the facts, the law, and the evidence,” Mr Bragg’s office said in response.
“It is not appropriate for Congress to interfere with pending local investigations,” the office said in a statement on 25 March. “This unprecedented inquiry by federal elected officials into an ongoing matter serves only to hinder, disrupt and undermine the legitimate work of our dedicated prosecutors. As always, we will continue to follow the facts and be guided by the rule of law in everything we do.”
