Donald Trump predicts arrest over porn star Stormy Daniel payments

“Leading Republican candidate & former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!” he wrote in capital letters.

Mr Trump referred to “illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office”.

It came after NBC, AP and other US media reported law enforcement was preparing for Mr Trump to be indicted as “early as next week” in connection with purported payments to Stormy Daniels and other women who alleged sexual encounters with him.

Police officials told the networks they were preparing for potential pro-Trump rallies outside the Manhattan courthouse.

Mr Trump’s lawyers said he would comply with any legal order, while sources close to his team briefed CNN that he would present himself to the court and expressed an interest in making a speech after.

If he is indicted, it would make Mr Trump the first former president ever to face criminal charges.

Mr Trump’s call for protests echoed his appeal to backers to march to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which ended as a deadly riot. His arrest could galvanise voters, who see the 2024 presidential candidate as the victim of a Democratic witch hunt.

Elon Musk, meanwhile, responded to the development by stating that if he was to be charged, Mr Trump would “be re-elected in a landslide victory”.

There has been no public announcement of any time frame for the Manhattan grand jury’s secret work, including any potential vote on whether to indict the former president.

The grand jury has been hearing from witnesses, including Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s lawyer and long-time fixer, who testified last week that he orchestrated payments in 2016 to two women to silence them about sexual encounters they said they had with the Florida-based businessman a decade earlier.

Mr Cohen has said that at his former client’s direction, he arranged payments totalling $280,000 (€260,000) to Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Mr Cohen has said his former client ordered him to pay the hush money and it was for the “principal purpose” of buying their silence and thereby “influencing” the 2016 presidential election.

A $150,000 payment to Ms McDougal was made by the then-publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer, which kept her story from coming to light.

Mr Trump was also invited to testify, which legal experts said indicated an indictment was close.

​Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Mr Trump’s company compensated Mr Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.

He could be indicted on two charges: the first for falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour under New York law, unless prosecutors prove they were falsified to conceal another crime, which would make it a felony; and the other could be a violation of state election law if they found the intention of the alleged payoff was to benefit Mr Trump’s political campaign.

Experts said both could be difficult to prove.

Mr Trump (76), denies the encounters occurred, says he did nothing wrong and has cast the investigation as a “witch hunt” by a Democratic prosecutor bent on sabotaging the Republican’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Mr Cohen pleaded guilty, served prison time and was disbarred. Federal prosecutors never charged Mr Trump with any crime.

Mr Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, told NBC News that the former president will follow normal procedures if it gets to the point of having to surrender to authorities from the District Attorney’s office.

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