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Donald Trump threatens ‘death and destruction’, says his arrest would be ‘catastrophic’ for US

TexasEdited By: Sneha SwaminathanUpdated: Mar 25, 2023, 02:03 PM IST
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File photo of former US president Donald Trump. Photograph:(AFP)

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Trump described his payment to Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels as a "simple private transaction" and denied ever having an affair with her. He has argued that he did not break any laws and claimed that the probe was politically motivated. 

Former US president Donald Trump issued a dire warning about possible "death & destruction" if he faces criminal charges, hours after New York prosecutors looking into his hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels said they would not be intimidated. 

The early Friday post on Trump's Truth Social site was the most recent in a spate of verbal attacks directed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg since last Saturday, when Trump incorrectly predicted that he would be arrested three days later and exhorted his followers to start protests. 

Trump falsely claims that his defeat in 2020 was the result of fraud, which motivated his supporters to carry out a violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the election of Democratic President Joe Biden, who defeated the Republican Trump.

"What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?" wrote Trump, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

In a letter sent to Republican committee chairmen on Thursday, Bragg's office questioned their authority to look into his office and claimed that Trump had "created a false expectation that he would be arrested" in his Saturday post.

According to the letter, the chairmen's request for communications, records, and testimony constituted "unlawful incursion into New York's sovereignty."

Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, is an adult film director and actress who claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and was paid to remain silent about it.

Trump described the payment a "simple private transaction" and denied ever having an affair with Daniels. He has argued that he did not break any laws and claimed that the probe was politically motivated. 

Trump will host a campaign event on Saturday in Waco, Texas, 30 years after a federal agent raid there on the religious group known as the Branch Davidians left 86 people dead, including four law enforcement officials. 

For some, the incident has come to represent government overreach, and for some right-wing extremist groups, it represents a defining moment.

(With inputs from agencies)

 

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