Rep. Dan Goldman, who served as lead counsel for House Democrats during former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial, expects Trump to soon be indicted.
"There's a groundswell of information about it. And certainly, there's been no disruption or discouragement of preparing for the indictment to come along. So I would expect it to to be handed down at some point in the near future," Goldman told Errol Louis on "Inside City Hall" Tuesday night.
Trump posted on social media Saturday morning that he expected to be arrested Tuesday on possible charges handed down from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg related to the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.
Trump allegedly authorized a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier.
Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company before being reimbursed by Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.
This could result in a misdemeanor charge of falsification of records. It would only result in a felony charge if tied to a second crime — and that alleged crime could be a campaign finance violation, since the hush-money benefited Trump's presidential bid and could therefore be construed as a campaign donation.
"The federal case for campaign finance fraud is very strong if [Cohen] is a witness. Obviously, there is no campaign finance fraud charge or law in state court. But what this goes to is the degree to which Trump and the Trump Organization tried to cover up the hush-money payments that [Cohen] made to [Daniels] by saying that it was for legal services when of course, it was to silence the potential bad PR," Goldman said.
Goldman says he believes that Trump covered up the alleged affair to aid his campaign.
"This was a decade-old affair and [Trump], you know, in the final weeks of his campaign, clearly did not want that information to get out," Goldman said.
Many Republicans have expressed support for Trump as he battles his recent legal issues. Former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, said over the weekend that Americans do not want to see Trump indicted, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called the potential indictment "pure politics."
And on Monday, House Republicans launched an investigation into Bragg, asking for communications, documents and testimony from Bragg related to his investigation into Trump's hush-money payment.
"They're abusing the power of Congress to initiate an investigation of a sitting local state district attorney, over whom they do not have jurisdiction to try to interfere in this investigation. It's really, truly beyond the pale here," Goldman said. "It is an effort really to do [Trump's] bidding."
According to Goldman, Trump's lawyers have also been coordinating with Republicans in the House, which the congressman says "is really problematic on any number of standpoints."
Goldman, who represents Lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, also said his office will monitor for protests in his district.
"We've been in coordination with the city and the NYPD making sure that there's sufficient security in the event of any protests," Goldman said. "But we've gotten no indication of any widespread protesting that will come down our way, but we're monitoring it in my office and we'll make sure that New Yorkers are safe."