Trump indictment: What it means and what comes next

March 31, 2023:

After days of uncertainty and speculation, it’s actually happened: Former President Donald Trump has officially been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on charges of, reportedly, more than 30 counts related to business fraud.

The charges are still under seal, but they are expected to be related to Trump’s involvement in hush money payments made to porn performer Stormy Daniels and associated efforts to falsify business records. The indictment is a historic one, making Trump the only former president who’s ever been criminally charged.

The news begs a key question: What is an indictment, anyway?

Basically, it means a person is formally being charged with a felony by a grand jury. Charging someone in this manner is required in many felony cases, like the one involving Trump. As laid out by the New York State Constitution, Trump had to be indicted by a grand jury before prosecutors could proceed further. Now that he has been, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is able to coordinate his surrender and pursue a trial.

“When a person is indicted, they are given formal notice that it is believed that they committed a crime,” notes the Department of Justice. “The indictment contains the basic information that informs the person of the charges against them.”

An indictment is a key step in criminal cases such as this one. First, a prosecutor decides to pursue a case against a person and presents witnesses and evidence in front of what’s known as a grand jury. The grand jury — a randomly selected group of 16 to 23 people — will weigh the information and then decide whether they believe there is probable cause that this person committed a crime and if there should be a trial. Grand juries are used in felony cases and are intended to give the courts and members of the community a say in how crimes are treated versus allowing prosecutors to move forward with charges unilaterally.

If at least 12 jurors believe there is probable cause and vote to indict, then the person is officially charged and the case has the potential to go to trial. The grand jury does not determine if a person is guilty or not guilty like a trial jury does, however.

In Trump’s case, enough members of the Manhattan grand jury concluded that there is sufficient evidence to charge him with a crime. The indictment includes specific information about the charges and explains what laws the jurors believe Trump broke. At this point, courts have not ruled on whether he is guilty or not; the grand jury has simply determined that he should be charged and that the case can go to trial. Following an indictment, a prosecutor can decide whether to pursue these charges or to drop them if there’s insufficient evidence. That the process appears to be going forward signals Bragg believes in the grand jury’s findings.

Trump’s next step is to surrender to law enforcement and have the charges read to him in court in what’s known as an arraignment. Trump is reportedly expected to turn himself in on Tuesday, when he’ll be taken into police custody and arrested, at which point his fingerprints and mugshot will also be taken. He’ll then be arraigned later in the day, when he’ll be able to enter how he pleas in the case. After that, he’ll likely be able to leave without bail since the charges he faces are nonviolent felonies.

The trial process for the case could ultimately be a drawn-out one since Trump is expected to contest the charges. If convicted, he could be sentenced to as much as four years in prison, the penalty for falsifying business records.

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