A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict former President Donald Trump March 30. The charges are for paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels in his 2016 campaign, the first time a former president of the U.S. has been indicted.
The felony indictment was filed under seal by the Manhattan district attorney and Trump has not been arrested yet and the specific charges have not been announced yet.
Jason Kirk, Elon University professor of political science and policy studies, said while a former president being indicted is a big deal as it has never happened before. Yet Kirk also said there were many aspects of Trump’s presidency that were historic and that people have in some ways gone numb to Trump as a whole.
“A sitting president being impeached twice in the space of a single term was unprecedented,” Kirk said. “But we somehow assimilated ourselves as a country to that new reality.”
When looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election, Kirk said it is hard to say how much indictment will affect Trump’s campaign.
“If 2016 is precedent, he was able as a candidate to absorb scandal and deflect scandal and obviously still got the nomination from his party,” Kirk said. “It's entirely possible that version of that will happen this time.”