Trump warns of 'potential death and destruction' if he's charged in hush money probe
The former president escalated his attacks on the Manhattan district attorney's investigation with an explicit reference to violence in an overnight post on Truth Social.
As the legal walls begin to close in on him, former President Donald Trump accelerated his already-fierce rhetoric Friday morning, warning of "death and destruction" if he is indeed indicted.
"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?” Trump bellowed on his social media platform.
"Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely (sic) hates the USA!" wrote Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
The former president has become increasingly frenzied on social media as a New York grand jury winds up its work in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation of whether Trump illegally paid a porn star to keep quiet about their alleged affair – and whether that payment constitutes a campaign finance violation.
But Friday morning's post was more haunting, recalling the remarks he made ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt on the Capitol. Federal authorities are investigating the events of Jan. 6, and Trump could be charged with inciting that event.
"Be there – will be wild!" Trump wrote on Twitter that day as he tried to thwart Congress' certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.
Trump himself last Saturday announced that he was to be arrested on Tuesday and called for protests. He was not arrested, and the New York grand jury met Thursday without considering the Trump case.
But with a Trump indictment widely expected, the former president and his supporters are escalating their attacks on Bragg, whom they accuse of mounting a politically-motivated inquiry.
Trump – who has been flooding inboxes with accusations against Bragg and pleas for money – has accused Bragg, whom he called an "animal," of "doing the work of anarchists and the devil." In another post, Trump posted a photo of himself holding a bat next to a photo of Bragg