Days after US backs Rahul, ex-prez Trump set to be arrested

Days after the United States said that it was "watching" the court case of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former US President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury over hush money payments made to a porn star during his 2016 campaign.

The office of Manhattan district attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, who has been pursuing the investigation, confirmed that it had contacted Trump's lawyers on Thursday evening to "coordinate his surrender" on unspecified charges.

"This evening we contacted Mr. Trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DA's office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal. Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected," a spokesperson for Bragg said.

The case is about a payment made just days before Trump, who is currently the front-runner among all declared and potential contenders for the Republican White House nomination, was elected President in 2016. His former attorney Michael Cohen arranged a wire transfer of $1,30,000 to Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair. Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006 - the year after he married his current wife Melania.

In a statement responding to news of his indictment, the former president called it "political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history," and accused Democrats of "weaponising our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States."

"The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to 'Get Trump', but now they've done the unthinkable - indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference," Trump said.

US comment on Gandhi's conviction

Interestingly, only a few days ago, the United States had said that it was "watching the court case of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi", who was disqualified from Lok Sabha last week after his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

"Respect for the rule of law and judicial independence is a cornerstone of any democracy. We are watching Mr Gandhi's case in Indian courts and we engage with the Government of India on our shared commitment to democratic values, including, freedom of expression," the State Department's Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at a news conference on Monday.

"In our engagements with our Indian partners, we continue to highlight the importance of democratic principles and the protection of human rights, including freedom of expression, as a key to strengthening both our democracies," he said.

Similarly, Indian-American lawmaker Ro Khanna called the former Congress president's expulsion a "deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India's deepest values." He also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reverse the decision.

"The expulsion of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament is a deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India's deepest values. This is not what my grandfather sacrificed years in jail for. @narendramodi you have the power to reverse this decision for the sake of Indian democracy," he had tweeted.

With inputs from PTI