(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Trump indicted by Manhattan grand jury, according to reports [1]
['Jacob Fischler', 'More From Author', '- March']
Date: 2023-03-30
WASHINGTON — A New York criminal grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump, according to multiple news reports Thursday night citing persons familiar with the case.
A former president has never before been indicted. Trump is currently a Republican candidate in the 2024 race for the presidency.
The New York Times and Washington Post reported the indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been investigating payments Trump paid to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in return for her silence during the 2016 election about an affair.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, in a statement, called the indictment a “sham” and an “assault on democracy.”
“This sham indictment only serves as a reminder to Americans that there is a two-tiered justice system under Joe Biden,” Reynolds said. “… This is what an assault on democracy looks like – using government power to go after your political opponents – and it’s coming directly from those who proclaim to ‘defend’ it.”
Members of Congress quickly began to react, along partisan lines, as news of the indictment reached them Thursday.
Many House Republicans who have allied themselves with Trump took aim at Bragg. Reps. Tim Walberg of Michigan, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Matt Gaetz of Florida accused Bragg of targeting the former president.
“A majority of Americans know Alvin Bragg’s witch hunt is a politically motivated,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted, “Outrageous.”
Colorado GOP Rep Lauren Boebert tweeted the indictment “is another political witch hunt targeting the people’s President.”
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who led one of the impeachment trials against Trump, wrote on Twitter the “indictment of a former president is unprecedented. But so, too, is the unlawful conduct in which Trump has been engaged. A nation of laws must hold the rich and powerful accountable, even when they hold high office. Especially when they do. To do otherwise is not democracy.”
North Carolina Democratic Rep. Alma Adams released a statement saying that the promise that “no one is above the law” in the United States was kept with Trump’s indictment.
“Mr. Trump, like every other American, is entitled to due process,” Adams wrote. “That is another core promise of our Constitution. The State of New York has spent years meticulously building their case, and they secured an indictment not from political power brokers or the media, but from a grand jury of ordinary citizens.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, wrote on Twitter that he was skeptical.
“This is the same District Attorney who is notorious for letting violent criminals off the hook in Manhattan, but has been laser-focused on pursuing a politicized prosecution of a former president,” he wrote. “Politics should never tip the scales of justice, and Congress has every right to investigate the conduct and decision-making of the Manhattan D.A.’s office.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2023/03/30/trump-indicted-by-manhattan-grand-jury-according-to-reports/
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