Trump arrest possibility builds sympathy among supporters

WASHINGTON –

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Sunday that Donald Trump could be indicted for concealing payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign.

Trump, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, said in a social media post on Saturday: expected him to be arrested on Tuesday— citing leaks from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, and called for people to protest. He did not discuss the possible charges in his post.

“It creates a lot of sympathy for the former president,” Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying he talked to some people Sunday who weren’t “big Trump supporters,” but they all said , that… is under attack.”

Trump seeks the 2024 Republican nomination. Sununu, a relative moderate, is considering a run.

Trump’s spokeswoman said the former president had not been notified of any arrests, and Trump had not provided any evidence of leaks from the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

No US president, while in office or since, has been criminally indicted.

Trump has announced that he will continue his election campaign even if he is accused of a crime.

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is investigating a $130,000 payment by Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels, declined to comment.

Bragg’s office presented evidence to a grand jury about the payment, which came in the waning days of the 2016 campaign, in response to Daniels’ silence about an affair she said she had with Trump a decade ago, the sources said.

Trump denied that the affair took place and called the investigation by Bragg, a Democrat, a witch hunt.

An additional witness requested by Trump’s lawyers is expected to appear before a grand jury on Monday, a person familiar with the case said Saturday.

Trump’s announcement that he was expected to be arrested Tuesday was based on reports that Bragg’s office was set to meet with law enforcement officials to prepare for a possible indictment, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

That’s what legal experts say If he were charged, any trial of the former US president would be more than a year away away, likely to coincide with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign as Trump seeks to return to the White House.

Asked if she was concerned about potential violence after Trump called on his supporters to protest, Senator Elizabeth Warren told ABC News: “This is another case of promoting Donald Trump’s interests.”

Warren said there is no reason to complain, as Trump has called for, adding: “No one is above the law.”

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Kanishka Singh Editing by Mark Porter)