Expected indictment in payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels

Robert “Bob” Costello, once a legal adviser to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, will testify before a grand jury considering the previous president’s hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 election campaign, NBC News reported.

Trump’s legal team asked the district attorney in Manhattan to permit Costello to testify, indicating that he may contradict Cohen’s testimony. Cohen, who has said Trump directed him to pay Daniels $130,000 to quash allegations that she and Trump slept together before he became president, is taken into account a key witness within the hearing.

Costello said Cohen waived his attorney-client privilege in 2019 and said Sunday that he never signed a retainer agreement. Cohen, meanwhile, said Costello never represented him.

— Chelsey Cox

Former Vice President Mike Pence said that the expected arrest of his ex-boss, former President Trump, by Manhattan prosecutors would amount to a “politically charged prosecution.”

“I’m stunned at the concept of indicting a former president of the US,” Pence said in an ABC News interview that aired Sunday.

“At a time when there’s a criminal offense wave in Recent York City, the indisputable fact that the Manhattan DA thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority I believe — tells you every thing you must know in regards to the radical left,” he said.

“It just looks like a politically charged prosecution,” Pence said, adding, “individually, I just feel prefer it’s just not what the American people wish to see.”

Those remarks got here as Pence is openly weighing a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, putting him in competition with Trump, who has already been on the campaign trail for months.

Pence’s relationship with Trump imploded after the then-vice president refused to take part in an effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. Trump, who had spent months denying the outcomes of that election, pressured Pence to reject key Electoral College votes for Biden when presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. After Pence refused, a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, forcing Pence and members of Congress to flee their chambers.

Asked within the ABC interview about Trump’s calls for protest in response to his expected indictment, Pence said, “I feel that folks understand that if they provide voice to this, if this happens ton Tuesday, then they nee to achieve this peacefully and in a lawful manner.”

Pence declined to weigh in on the merits of the Manhattan DA’s possible case against Trump.

— Kevin Breuninger

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s widely expected to be considering a Republican presidential bid, took aim on the Manhattan district attorney over his expected prosecution of Trump.

The governor slammed DA Alvin Bragg as a “Soros-funded prosecutor” but offered little in defense of Trump, who’s currently the frontrunner within the GOP presidential primary field.

“I do not know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some form of alleged affair, I just, I can not speak to that,” DeSantis said at a news conference, prompting laughter from his audience.

“But what I can speak to is that if you’ve gotten a prosecutor who’s ignoring crimes happening each day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to return many a few years ago to try to make use of something about porn star hush money payments, that is an example of pursuing a political agenda,” he added.

The remarks got here as a few of Trump’s allies and campaign surrogates have taken note of DeSantis’ silence about the opportunity of criminal charges being filed against the previous president.

DeSantis is predicted to announce his presidential plans a while after the present Florida legislative session ends on May 5. Though he has yet to make his campaign official, polls of the potential primary field show him as Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican nomination.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump is in search of to dam the discharge of a special purpose grand jury report in Fulton County, Ga., where he might be facing charges in a separate criminal case whether he illegally interfered with the state’s election process in 2020.

In a 52-page court filing Monday morning in Fulton County Superior Court, Trump’s attorneys asked to quash that report and to bar the usage of any evidence gathered by that panel.

The filing, which also included greater than 400 pages of exhibits, moreover sought to disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which has been conducting the criminal probe, from being involved within the case.

The Atlanta-area probe has spent the last two years investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in Georgia within the 2020 election, partially by tossing out enough ballots solid for Biden to erase his victory.

The Georgia investigation has been considered a number one threat to finish with criminal charges against Trump, who’s the highest contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He’s facing three other major pending criminal probes, including the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that is investigating whether Trump illegally concealed a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to purchase her silence throughout the 2016 election.

— Kevin Breuninger

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy criticized the concept of criminally charging his fellow Republican Donald Trump, but opposed a call by the previous president for protests in Recent York over his expected indictment.

“Lawyer after lawyer will let you know that is the weakest case on the market, attempting to make a misdemeanor a felony,” McCarthy said on the House Republicans’ retreat in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday.

However the California lawmaker also said, “I do not think people should protest this, no. And I believe President Trump, for those who discuss with him, he doesn’t imagine that, either.”

Trump has said the precise opposite in a social media post, where he wrote that he “will probably be arrested on Tuesday,” and called on supporters to “Protest, take our nation back.”

McCarthy was amongst a whole lot of lawmakers who fled to safety after a mob of Trump supporters invaded Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. The riot, which began after weeks of false claims by Trump that he had actually won the 2020 presidential election, disrupted for hours a joint session of Congress that was within the means of confirming the Electoral College victory of President Joe Biden.

— Dan Mangan

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told his staff in an email that he’ll “not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in Recent York,” after Trump called on his supporters to protest his expected indictment.

Bragg also said in an email to staff, obtained by NBC News, that their safety is a “top priority,” and that the office’s law-enforcement parts are working on “proper safeguards … so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment.”

Trump in a social media post wrote, “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK.”

“PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” wrote Trump, who’s in search of the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Trump also called on his supporters to protest after he lost the 2020 election, leading to a violent rebel on the U.S. Capitol constructing on Jan. 6, 2021 that has led to not less than 1,000 arrests and greater than 500 guilty pleas or convictions.

— Dan Mangan