It has been a restless night for Donald Trump, who ripped into former porn star Stormy Daniels on Monday, claiming he’s a victim, as a possible criminal indictment looms.
The former US president launched the tirade on his social media platform Truth Social, saying he was the victim of a “Stormy ‘Horse Face’ Daniels extortion plot,” since alleging his impending arrest by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over an alleged hush-money payment to the former adult film star before the 2016 US election, the New York Post reports.
Mr Trump added he was being targeted by a series of “horrible radical left Democrat” investigations.
“Whether it’s the Mar-a-Lago raid, the Unselect Committee hoax, or the perfect Georgia phone call – it was absolutely perfect – or the Stormy ‘Horse Face’ Daniels extortion plot, they are all sick, and it’s fake news,” Mr Trump said in a video shared on the platform on Monday.
“Our enemies are desperate to stop us because they know that we are the only ones who can stop them and they know it very strongly,” he said. “And they’re looking at the polls where not me, but we, are up by so much, they can’t even believe it.
“We won twice, and now we’ve got to win a third time.”
Mr Trump went on to address his followers, telling them directly: “They know that we can defeat them, they know that we will defeat them, but they are not coming after me – they are coming after you. I’m just standing in their way. And I always will stand in their way.”
Mr Trump is facing possible indictment over a $US130,000 hush-money payment he allegedly made to Daniels – real name Stephanie Clifford – in 2016.
Daniels claims she had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006.
The former president reimbursed Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and “fixer,” for the payment, which was falsely recorded as “legal expenses”.
Mr Trump has denied the affair and the payment.
Mr Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating federal campaign laws and was sentenced to three years in prison.
He also gave key testimony to the Manhattan grand jury investigating Mr Trump.
Insisting again on Saturday that he’s innocent, Mr Trump told his five million Truth Social followers that Mr Bragg’s campaign had been heavily financed by liberal billionaire George Soros.
“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” Mr Trump wrote in an all-caps message on Saturday morning.
Should Mr Trump be indicted, he will become the first president in US history to face criminal charges after leaving office.
The 45th president resumed where he left off on Monday morning, this time singling out Mr Cohen.
“It is the District Attorney of Manhattan who is breaking the law by using the fake and fully discredited testimony … of a convicted liar, felon and jailbird, Michael Cohen, to incredibly persecute, prosecute, and indict a former president, and now leading (by far!) presidential candidate, for a crime that doesn’t exist,” the former president alleged in a social media post on Sunday.
“Alvin Bragg should be held accountable for the crime of ‘interference in a presidential election,’” he wrote in a follow-up post.
This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
