With a potential indictment about to be handed down by a New York Grand Jury, Kentucky Senator entered the fray with a Tweet calling for the Manhattan District Attorney to be jailed.
“A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power.” Paul wrote in a tweet Tuesday. “The DA should be put in jail.”
Paul didn’t elaborate on what crime the DA might have committed.
Paul has, in the past, openly admitted to using disinformation to accomplish his aims. “That’s my advice, misinformation works,” Paul told a group of students at the University of Louisville’s school of medicine in 2013.
As of late Tuesday, no indictment has been handed down. Any indictment would need to come from a Grand Jury of citizens, not directly from the District Attorney.
A Grand Jury in New York State requires 23 members. In order for anything to be done, a minimum of 16 must be present. While a District Attorney can convene a Grand Jury for any crime they choose, an indictment requires that this group of citizens believes there’s enough evidence to warrant a trial.
Grand Jurors are drawn from the same pool of citizens as a regular jury.
While fans of the TV show, Law & Order, will have heard many times, "The District Attorney can indict a ham sandwich," the four-year, two District Attorney's path of this investigation appears to be very careful and deliberate with dozens of witnesses and weeks of Grand Jury testimony.
Paul is one of many members of the GOP in Congress rushing to the former president’s defense. Three Congressional committee chairs have called for the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, to testify.
Bragg was not the DA at the time the investigation started four years ago. He assumed office on January 1, 2022, a year after Trump left office.
The investigation and potential indictment focus around Mr. Trump’s payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter the two of them had in 2006. According to reports, Trump and Daniels had sex once during a golf tournament in a hotel room on the Nevada-California border in Lake Tahoe. Trump’s wife, Melania, was not able to attend because she had just given birth to their son, Baron.
Years later, when Mr. Trump decided to run for president, his “fixer” attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about the incident.
While Mr. Trump has denied any such encounter occurred, according to Cohen, it was Trump who wanted to pay Daniels for her silence.
The allegations of misconduct arise not from the payment of hush money or a non-disclosure agreement but because Trump's critics, and apparently the Manhattan DA's office, believe it was a campaign violation to pay it one month before the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen said that he paid the money and was reimbursed by Trump.
Allegedly, Trump then declared the payment to Cohen as a business expense on his taxes.
It is not known how the Grand Jury will decide if they will even call for the indictment of the former president.
The District Attorney has made it clear he will not be intimate with Republicans in Congress, although he has not said if he will answer the calls for his appearance on Capitol Hill.
Over the weekend, Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that he was going to be arrested on Tuesday and that his followers should “take back America.” New York, DC, and other areas braced for protests and violence ahead of the announcement.
As of late Tuesday, no indictment had been announced. The latest unconfirmed reports are that the Grand Jury will vote on Wednesday.
Bob Peryea
National Correspondent
The Kentucky Daily