Donald Trump has warned of potential “death and destruction” if he is arrested as part of an investigation into a hush-money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Congressional investigators last year said the former US president Mr Trump should be criminally charged for his role in inciting deadly January 6 riot
The former US president’s message, posted early on Friday on Truth Social, is a further escalation in his rhetoric around the ongoing probe in New York.
His latest attack was aimed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is leading the investigation into a 2016 payment made to silence adult film actress Daniels before the presidential election.
Mr Trump called the prosecutor a “degenerate psychopath that truely [sic] hates the USA”.
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n such a false charge could be catastrophic for our country”, he said.
Congressional investigators last year recommended that Mr Trump be criminally charged for his role in inciting the deadly January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Authorities in New York have been on standby since last weekend, when Mr Trump wrongly claimed he would be arrested on Tuesday.
He called for supporters to launch protests, but in liberal New York, these have failed to materialise and it remains unclear if, or when, Mr Trump will face an indictment.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Mr Trump in 2006. He denies the affair and any role in buying her silence.
Mr Trump on Thursday called Mr Bragg an “animal” backed by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is at the centre of many far-right conspiracy theories.
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The district attorney has said that Mr Trump created a “false expectation” of his imminent arrest.
New York police have erected barricades outside Mr Bragg’s office, Trump Tower and the Manhattan Criminal Court, where the former president would eventually appear if indicted.
In a separate criminal investigation, Mr Trump’s lawyer Evan Corcoran arrived at the federal courthouse in Washington on Friday morning to appear before a grand jury probing a possible obstruction of justice charge and whether classified documents were mishandled after the former president left office.
