Former President Donald Trump had the criminal indictment from a Manhattan grand jury unsealed against him during an arraignment hearing in New York City on Tuesday, just prior to which he was technically placed under arrest.
Trump made note of the "surreal" situation of his pending arrest in a post to his Truth Social account while traveling to the courthouse in his motorcade, the Conservative Brief reported.
He now has the distinction of being the first former president in American history to ever be criminally indicted.
"Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL -- WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!" Trump wrote in the Tuesday afternoon post.
According to The Washington Post, the former president was indeed briefly placed formally under arrest before the arraignment hearing began and went through some of the same typical procedures that any other indicted defendant would have to endure.
However, undoubtedly due to both his status as a former president as well as valid security concerns from the U.S. Secret Service and others, Trump was not placed in handcuffs while technically in police custody, nor was his mugshot taken.
The New York Post reported that the unsealed criminal indictment against former President Trump revealed that he has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, which is a class E felony crime in New York that carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
If Trump were to be convicted on all counts, sentenced to the maximum penalty on each charge, and ordered to serve each individual sentence consecutively, he could face a grand total of 136 years behind bars in a New York state prison.
That said, and assuming that he is even convicted in the first place or that the case isn't dismissed before trial, it seems highly unlikely that Trump would receive the maximum four-year sentence per count or be ordered to serve that time consecutively instead of concurrently, meaning he would most likely face a sentence of fewer than four years -- if he is even sentenced to any time behind bars at all for what is essentially a victimless paperwork "crime."
According to DA Bragg's "Statement of Facts" unveiled alongside the criminal indictment, it was confirmed that the criminal charges relate to the 2016 payment of $130,000 in "hush money" to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair in 2006 -- none of which is actually a crime.
The alleged "crime" at play here is Bragg's assertion that Trump falsified internal business records at the Trump Organization by labeling as "legal expenses" the monthly payments throughout 2017 to then-personal attorney Michael Cohen as reimbursement for his role in facilitating the 2016 payment to Daniels.
Bragg alleged that Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election, and further accused Trump of having "orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects."
Ironically enough, however, Breitbart reported that DA Bragg -- and to a lesser extent, Judge Juan Merchan -- are now engaged in a "scheme" of their own to improperly "influence" and interfere with the 2024 election via the pending trial for Trump, a formally declared and front-running candidate for the Republican nomination.
Bragg's prosecutors asked for and received a trial date for January 2024, just prior to the start of state-level primary elections, and the judge scheduled Trump's next court appearance for December 5, right in the middle of the GOP primary debates.
