Yahoo Finance Trump threatens 'potential death & destruction' if he's indicted in New York
Trump said that there's a "potential" for "death & destruction" if he's charged by NY prosecutors.
It's the third time Trump has alluded to the possibility of political unrest and violence in the last several days.
Earlier this week, he employed an anti-Semitic trope against the Manhattan DA and mocked calls for his supporters to stay "peaceful."
Former President Donald Trump made another allusion to violence in a late-night Truth Social post on Thursday, writing that if he's charged in connection to a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, it could result in "potential death & destruction."
It was Trump's latest effort to rile up his base and vilify Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg as he faces a potential indictment from Bragg's office related to the payment.
"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 wrote on his Twitter-like website.
"Why & who would do such a thing?" he added. "Only a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA!"
Trump has hinted at the possibility of political unrest and violence several times in the last few days.
On Thursday morning, he accused Bragg of being a "Soros backed animal" — referring to a common anti-Semitic trope — and mocked calls for his supporters to remain peaceful in the face of an indictment.
Bragg, Trump wrote in the all-caps Truth Social post, "IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!"
He also falsely predicted over the weekend that he would be arrested on Tuesday in connection to the Stormy Daniels investigation. He was not arrested that day, and as Insider's Laura Italiano reported, the Manhattan grand jury investigating the hush-money payment will not consider the case for the rest of this week.
Still, the former president called on his followers over the weekend to "protest" and "take our nation back," in what some described as an ominous echo of his rallying cries ahead of the deadly January 6 Capitol riot.
Steel barricades also went up around Trump Tower this week amid his calls for protest, and law enforcement officials have taken steps to secure the downtown Manhattan courthouse where Trump would be arraigned if he's indicted.
Joe Tacopina, a lawyer representing Trump in the district attorney's investigation, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment outside regular business hours.
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