INDICTMENT!

I have to push today's post to another day because by this time, we all have known what happened. Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by the Manhattan Grand Jury. It happened so fast that I could not see it coming. Of course, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he might be indicted and asked his supporters to protest on Tuesday, March 21st. But nothing happened then. We all knew that the day Trump arrested will come. However, I don't think it came early like that. A friend of mine, who is in law major, said to me a week ago that the indictment could happen in mid-April.

Source: Screenshot of the Washington Post website

Today, CNN, Fox News, The Washington Post, and Newsbreak on phone sent me the notification at the same time. I looked at my phone and was surprised to see the breaking news they sent me. It was all about Trump indictment. My mouth dropped open. I immediately opened my most trusted news app, The Washington Post, to read what happened. A flow of news on Trump indictment in the news feed and they kept updating what was happening. I live in California, so the time zone is different from D.C time. I received the breaking news at about 3 p.m. PT. It means in D.C was 6 p.m. I think all the news corps will stay up late tonight to updating all the possibility that may happen. Yesterday, I posted a blog talking about a photo taken at the Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021. It was a photo analysis from a class of mine in the past. I found it interesting and decided to repost it. We all know what happened on that darkest day and the possibility of another riot like the January 6 may occur at anytime. But we will see what happen.

Since the Trump indictment is such a big event, I'd like to spend today, tomorrow, and the whole week later to talk about the indictment. This is not a news report. It is just a platform to share my opinion and my analysis on this event. I will try my best to talk about it without any bias. I will look at both sides, the Democrats and the Republicans, to understand more about the indictment.

Why was Trump indicted? First of all, you need to understand that during his 2016 election with Hillary Clinton, Trump was the headline on every newspaper because he was a new element, who had no experience in politics and a not-too-much-good past. When he got elected, everyone was shocked. Including myself. To be honest, I supported Hillary Clinton in that election. But then, I realized Clinton was not that good and she seemed like hiding something. I don't know but that was what I saw in her after the election.

After Trump became the president, the United States was not like used to be anymore. It got divided but many conservatives and MAGA supporters didn't agree with it. Protests happened everywhere. Saturday Night Live mocked Trump in every cold open with the performance of Alec Baldwin. Primetime talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel Lives!, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and many more all talked about TRUMP. Every news channel and newspaper delivered all the information about TRUMP. I feel like at that time there was no other news to read and to watch other than Trump. It would have been a miss if we didn't hear anything about him. Everything that he did would be watched closely by media and people. It was like a reality show. In Trump presidency, he used to be impeached two times but none of it was successful no matter how much the Democrats tried. The year of 2020 was not a good year for him when his administration handled the Covid-19 pandemic poorly which left many American people died and the racism happened everywhere. He lost the 2020 election, which left a very bad consequence for the future.

Let's go back to 2018. The nation was on fire when the Wall Street Journal reported that former Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, used to negotiate a secret payment to keep silence from Stormy Daniels, an adult-film actress who said she had an affair with Trump many years ago before he became the president. But Trump denied (Like Bill Clinton denied to have an affair with Monica Lewinsky). The money Cohen paid Daniels was $130,000. According to the Washington Post, Cohen had known he paid "hush money" to Daniels in 2018 and Trump said he didn't know anything about the payment. Eventually, Cohen had to serve time in prison after pleading guilty in two criminal cases. One was involving in the campaign finance violations which related to Daniels and another woman who alleged an affair with Trump. Two was lying to Congress, where he covered up “dirty deeds” for Trump.

Now, after 5 years, the "hush money" issue once again was digged up by Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who investigated the $130,000 payment made between Trump during the Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Cohens.

The Reactions.

After the indictment happened, Trump released a statement saying that the indictment is "Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in the history," and "The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to 'Get Trump,' but now they've done the unthinkable - indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference." To close, he called out the "Witch-Hunt" will come back at President Joe Biden and the Republican party will throw out the "Crooked Democrats" out of the office to "Make America Great Again."

Kari Lake, former candidate for Arizona Governor, truthed that the indictment was "a dark moment in the history of our Nation" and accused the Democrats "weaponized criminal justice system" on Trump.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) said that he would always stand with Trump and praised Trump for always putting American people above "corrupt interests." "A majority of Americans know Alvin Bragg's witch hunt is a politically motivated prosecution," Gaetz truthed.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy truthed that the American people will not tolerate this justice and will hold Bragg's abuse of power accountable.

Jesse Water, Fox News anchor, said on his show on March 30 that the day Trump indicted will go down as "the dark day for America."

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) tweeted that Bragg "consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted to accuse Bragg of abusing power and "facts and law be damned!"

Author Stephen King tweeted to aim the Republicans not to believe the lies and said Trump brought it to himself.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that the Grand Jury did their jobs based on"the facts and the law" and "no one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence."

Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, said on MSNBC. "Today's indictment is not the end of the chapter. It's rather the beginning. And now the charges have been filed. It's better for the case to let the indictment speak for itself."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said in his statement posted on Twitter that "Donald Trump is subject to the same laws as every American. He will be able to avail himself of the legal system and a jury, not politics, to determine his fate according to the facts and the law."

What happens next?

Yes, this is the main question that everyone is currently asking. What's next for Trump after being indicted? Here's the answer

• There are two options. Voluntary surrender or Arrest. Now in this case, Trump seems like he will not surrender himself because he doesn't believe he is guilty. The chance he will be arrested is higher than ever, which means he will be handcuffed and taken into custody.

• Then, he will get mugshot and fingerprint. I don't know how you feel about this but it is very embarrassed.

• Next, there will be arraignment for public court appearance and after the defendant pled not guilty, they will enter the pretrial hearing, where defense motions will be dismissed and schedule for witnesses

• After that, they will get into the trial to see if the defendant is guilty or not guilty. But if the defendant pled guilty, the court will go straight to the sentencing.

Conclusion.

That's all for today's post on the breaking news. Like I shared above, I will spend time talking about the whole Trump indictment in the next following posts because this is huge and there are so many things to talk about.