Donald Trump Indicted, Makes History as First Criminally Charged Ex-US President

For the first time in U.S. history, a former president, Donald Trump, has been indicted, and it was all because of alleged hush money payments to a porn star. The indictment has been filed under seal and will be announced in the next few days.

The Manhattan DA's Office under Alvin Bragg has been investigating Donald Trump's hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, a former porn star he allegedly had a sexual encounter with back in 2006, right when former First Lady Melania Trump had just given birth to their son, Baron.

Daniels was paid off by then-Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who in turn was paid by Trump for that payment. Cohen had been imprisoned for making the payment, but Trump had never faced any punishment for it.

According to Trump's defense attorney, Joe Tacopina, the former president and reality show star may likely be arraigned next week. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office is expected to reach out to the Trump legal defense team and discuss the terms of their client's surrender or face an arraignment.

According to the New York Times, this indictment stemmed from a 5-year investigation into the former president's hush money payments to Daniels. This investigation will soon be known as "The People of the State of New York against Donald J. Trump."

Donald Trump Releases Response to Indictment

CNN noted that as expected, Trump released a statement in response to the indictment, claiming that this was "Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history."

"I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden," said Trump. "The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party - united and strong - will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Meanwhile, Trump attorney Alina Habba stated that the former president will be vindicated and was the "victim of a corrupt and distorted version of the American justice system and history."

Donald Trump Indictment Comes at a Surprising Time

While many have been expecting an indictment to come, few expected it to happen right now. Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna noted that this was because the New York grand jury was last sitting on Monday.

"But experts point out that what could have happened is that the grand jury ... could have agreed on the indictment, and then it is up to the foreperson of the jury to sign that indictment at any time that the prosecutor wishes to get it signed," said Hanna.

The Trump indictment also has the NYPD scrambling as all uniformed members have been told they should be "prepared for deployment" after the indictment dropped. The memo stated that all police must "remain prepared for mobilization at any time during their assigned tour."

READ MORE: Donald Trump Indictment Looms as Manhattan Grand Jury Done for the Day

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Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: LIVE: Manhattan grand jury vote to indict Donald Trump - NBC News