Ivanka Trump has broken her silence on her father's indictment, saying she's "pained" by the news.
"I love my father, and I love my country. Today, I am pained for both," she wrote in a post to her Instagram story on Friday.
"I appreciate the voices across the political spectrum expressing support and concern," she added.
The brief statement — just three sentences, 27 words in total — did not specify who had lent their "support and concern."
The post came a day after former president Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury in New York for his part in the hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she was paid $130,000 for her silence about a sexual relationship she said she had with Trump years earlier. While Trump has denied any involvement and any knowledge of the payment, he later admitted he had reimbursed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for the sum, though he claimed the transaction had nothing to do with the campaign.
The indictment marks the first time in US history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thursday that his office was in touch with Trump's legal team “to coordinate his surrender,” which multiple outlets said is expected to happen on Tuesday.
In a statement Thursday evening, Trump decried the indictment, calling it "political persecution" and "election interference at the highest level in history." He also slammed Bragg as having been “hand-picked and funded by George Soros," alluding to a well-known antisemitic dog whistle.
"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," he said.
The indictment remains under seal, and it is not yet clear what charges Trump may be facing, but experts believe it will center on how he may have tried to conceal what the payment was for.
On its own, paying off Daniels wouldn't be a crime. But if Trump fraudulently documented the expense — he claimed the payment was covered under Cohen’s “monthly retainer” fee — that could constitute the crime of falsifying business records.
Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but can be elevated to a felony if the records in question were falsified in order to hide criminal wrongdoing — in this case, possibly a breach of campaign finance laws.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges of campaign finance fraud, tax evasion, and lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee, which he said he did in an act of “blind loyalty” to Trump. He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment but was released after a little over a year over COVID-19 concerns and served the rest of his term on house arrest.