Trump’s Legal Armageddon Is Finally Here

Former President Donald Trump was “shocked” to learn he’d been criminally charged, Trump’s lawyer claimed on Friday morning.

But the stunning, historic indictment looks like just the start of Trump’s legal Armageddon—which has been building for years, and is finally here. 

Skeptics spent years mocking the idea this day would ever come, thanks to Trump’s seemingly superhuman ability to bend or break the rules while staying one step ahead of prosecutors. Trump’s lucky streak finally ended around 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, when a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict him over a hush money payment to a porn star right before the 2016 election. 

Trump could be criminally charged three more times before this year is over, in probes based in Washington D.C. and Atlanta. He faces a dizzying range of civil lawsuits, including a $250 million fraud suit brought by New York State, and a defamation case brought by a woman who claims Trump raped her over a decade ago in a department store. Both are going to trial this year, in October and April, respectively.

Trump can still run for president from behind bars—and, bizarrely, could technically even win the election from prison. So he has every incentive to push his campaign to the max, while rallying his base under the battle cry of wrongful persecution at the hands of his political enemies. Trump’s lengthy, vitriolic statement on Thursday evening in response to the indictment is likely just a throat-clearing exercise for the all-out assault he’s got in store.  

“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,” Trump wrote in an emailed statement.

Yet there is simply no roadmap for what might happen next, because no former president—or top presidential candidate—has ever gone down this road before. 

Trump’s arraignment will likely take place in New York City this coming Tuesday, Trump’s attorney told VICE News Thursday evening. Trump will have his fingerprints and mugshot taken at DA headquarters, and then head to a courtroom to hear the indictment against him for the first time and enter a not-guilty plea. The mugshot is likely to remain officially sealed. But given widespread interest in the case, it is also likely to leak—and become instantly iconic.

Trump has reportedly been considering turning his trip to Manhattan into a spectacle while sparring with the assembled press corps. The New York Police Department has been ramping up security, and ordering all police officers to dress in uniform to show strength and deter protestors. 

“President Trump will not take a plea deal in this case. It’s not going to happen,” Trump attorney Joe Tacopina told NBC News Today on Friday morning. Trump, he said, “initially was shocked. After he got over that, he put a notch on his belt and he decided we have to fight now. He’s now in the posture that he’s ready to fight this.”

Trump’s lead over his GOP rivals for the nomination has only grown as his legal jeopardy deepened. His legal drama appears set to overshadow the GOP nomination, creating an obstacle course for Trump’s Republican opponents. That includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has already fumbled over the tricky task of trying to look like he’s defending Trump, while simultaneously capitalizing on his peril.

DeSantis announced on Thursday evening that he would not assist in extraditing Trump from Florida in response to the indictment. Trump allies and pundits mocked DeSantis’ stance as empty posturing. Trump’s attorneys had already said Trump would voluntarily surrender in New York. And the extradition clause of the Constitution, which says that states must cooperate with such requests, gives DeSantis only limited room to create a delay, but not grounds to actually stop the proceedings, legal experts say. 

Trump’s legal battles are not going to end anytime soon—and might even stretch well past the Nov. 5, 2024 election.

The incredible volume of Trump’s legal issues creates a problem for prosecutors and litigants hoping to secure verdicts before the election. Trump will have to manage (and pay) multiple legal teams, while taking time to huddle with each of them to make decisions, and also campaign around the country. 

The result could be a massive legal traffic jam, especially if Trump is actually indicted in multiple cases. Each trial would likely take weeks, or even months, creating a scheduling nightmare if they continue to pile up. The cases could easily continue through voting in the GOP primaries in early 2024. 

In Manhattan, the exact nature of Trump’s criminal case remains hidden, because the indictment has been sealed and traditionally wouldn’t be unveiled until Trump is arraigned. The case is widely believed to revolve around a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had a sexual affair with Trump during a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006. 

Trump’s former attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen scrambled to pay Daniels to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the alleged affair days before the 2016 election. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg began showing evidence to a grand jury in January over Trump’s involvement in covering up Cohen’s reimbursement for the original payout, after Cohen invoiced Trump’s company with a retainer for legal services. The indictment reportedly includes 34 counts of falsifying business records, according to CNN’s John Miller.

In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in late January that charging decisions are “imminent” in her long-running probe of Trump and his allies’ attempts to flip his 2020 defeat into a victory. A special purpose grand jury has already delivered a report to Willis recommending charges against over a dozen people, including famous names and “potentially” Trump, according to the foreperson of the jury, Emily Kohrs. 

In Washington D.C., Special Counsel Jack Smith reportedly aims to wrap up his investigations of Trump by this summer, according to sources who spoke to the New York Times. Smith has already subpoenaed high-profile targets like former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s family-members-and-ex-White-House-advisors, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Filing subpoenas for those big names suggests both that Smith is close to the end of his probe and also that he’s serious about bringing a criminal case, according to former prosecutors and legal experts. 

Smith is investigating Trump’s attempts to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election, and whether Trump broke the law by stashing sensitive government documents at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump has denied wrongdoing in all cases.