UPDATE: Trump Indicted on 34 Charges, Here’s What They Mean
Late Thursday night, the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, was officially indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. This makes Trump the first president to be impeached twice, the first president to be raided by the FBI, the first president to be wiretapped before taking office, the first president to be banned from social media, and now, the first president to face criminal charges.
In terms of what the specific charges are, the specifics have yet to be made public at the moment. The felony indictment will remain under seal until at least Tuesday, when Trump is set to be arraigned—which will include fingerprinting him and taking his mugshot. However, what we do know is that the felony indictment includes 34 counts of falsifying business records—most likely having to do with the hush money payments that Trump’s lawyer made in 2016.
This indictment presents both positives and negatives for Trump. On the negative side, this is happening in Manhattan—meaning that if this case goes to trial, he will have to face a jury pool selected from people in Manhattan, who voted 86 percent in favor of Joe Biden. In 2020, Trump only received 12 percent of the vote there. And so, whether an impartial jury is able to be formed is a real question. The positive for Trump is that this trial might not even make it to the point of selecting a jury—the indictment might just be thrown out by the judge. And the reason why it might be thrown out is severalfold.
Episode Resources:
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