Former US President Donald Trump remarks on education while holding a campaign rally with supporters on March 13, 2023 in Davenport, Iowa.
Jonathan Ernst | reuters
Former President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Saturday that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday as a New York grand jury investigates him in connection with hush payments to a porn star.
Trump said he allegedly found out about the impending arrest through leaks from the “corrupt” Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He urged his supporters to protest on his behalf — a call reminiscent of when the former president encouraged thousands of people to flock to Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, during the uprising.
“Far and away the leading Republican candidate and former President of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Saturday morning. “Resist, take back our country!”
In another powerful post on Saturday afternoon, Trump sought to further consolidate his base.
“We cannot allow this now,” he wrote. “They are killing our country as we sit back and watch. We must save America! Resist, Resist, Resist!!!”
a grand jury State hearing testimony related to 2016 payoff to Stormy Daniels criminal court in lower Manhattan, but there has been no public announcement about whether or when Trump will be indicted. Law enforcement agencies across New York have been arranging security In the case that the former President has been criminally charged.
Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina was not informed of the possibility of Trump’s arrest on Tuesday.
“Nobody tells us anything, which is very frustrating,” Tacopina told CNBC. “President Trump is reacting to press reports, and the fact that this is a political prosecution and the DA leaks things to the press instead of communicating to lawyers as they should.”
Trump, a 2024 Republican, if he is impeached presidential candidateHe will become the first former president to face criminal charges.
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy shared a Tweet in support of Trump Saturday, calling the district attorney a “radical” in pursuit of “political vendetta” against the former president.
“I am directing the relevant committees to immediately investigate whether federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated lawsuits,” he wrote in a tweet.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
—CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.