Trump expects to be arrested Tuesday while the prosecutor files charges

NEW YORK – Donald Trump said in a social media post that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday The New York Attorney’s Office is reviewing charges in a case involving hush money paid to women who allegedly had sexual encounters with the former president.

Trump said in a post on his network Truth Social early Saturday that “illegal leaks” from the Manhattan Attorney’s Office indicate that “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL BE ARRESTED NEXT TUESDAY WEEK.” .”

Messages left with prosecutors on Saturday were not immediately returned. Trump officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump did not provide any information on social media about how he knew about the expected arrest. In his posts, he repeated his lies that the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, was stolen, and he urged his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE BACK OUR NATION!” This language evoked the message of the then-Presidents, preceding the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.

Law enforcement officials in New York have taken precautions against the possibility that Trump could be charged.

There has been no public announcement of a timeline for the grand jury’s secret work in the case, including a possible vote on whether to indict the ex-president.

Trump’s post recalls last summer when he broke the news on Truth Socia that the FBI was raiding his home as part of an investigation into possible misuse of classified documents.

The Manhattan grand jury has heard witnesses, including former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who says he orchestrated payments to two women in 2016 to silence them about sexual encounters they had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump denies the encounters, says he did nothing wrong and has called the investigation a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor intent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office appears to have been investigating whether the payments violated state laws or how Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations private.

Daniels and at least two former Trump aides — former political adviser Kellyanne Conway and former spokeswoman Hope Hicks — are among the witnesses who have met with prosecutors in recent weeks.

Cohen said he arranged payments totaling $280,000 to pornographic actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal on Trump’s instructions. According to Cohen, the payouts were intended to buy their silence on Trump, who was then in the midst of his first presidential campaign. ___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard of Columbia, South Carolina contributed to this report.