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The message from Donald Trump was dramatic.
Now the police and the FBI’s anti-terrorist force are planning for chaos if the former president is arrested.
“All hell will break loose,” supporters warn.
It was in an all-caps announcement that Donald Trump at 07:26 local time on Saturday morning stated that he will be arrested next week.
“THE LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND PRIOR TO THIS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK,” writes the former president in his post on Truth Social.
“PROTEST. TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK”.
Fears chaos in New York
The authorities in New York expect total circus at best, and bloody chaos at worst, if the prosecution plans against him become reality.
Personnel from a wide range of law enforcement agencies have planned security around the courthouse in Manhattan ahead of the announcement, writes NBC News.
The force includes the New York City Police Department, the FBI’s Counter-Terrorism Task Force, the Secret Service and staff at the Attorney General’s Office.
According to CNN the president’s advisers have discussed various scenarios. One is that Trump agrees to travel to New York if the indictment comes. Another is that they are negotiating for the ex-president to attend remotely from Mar-a-Lago.
Trump himself has expressed a desire to be present in Manhattan.
Immediately after Donald Trump’s post on his own channel Truth Social, supporters of the former president warned of what lies ahead, writes the Washington Post.
An account states that you “have the president’s back” and writes that “hell will break loose” if he is charged.
“Close all roads to Mar-a-Lago”
Ali Alexander, one of the main organizers of the “Stop the steal” movement after the 2020 election, writes on Telegram that he is behind mass demonstrations to protect Trump and stop an arrest in the event of an indictment.
“I have said before that if Trump was arrested or under threat of being led away in handcuffs, 100,000 patriots should shut down all roads to Mar-a-Lago,” he writes.
Donald Trump is now accused of setting fire to his supporters, which risks leading to violence.
– His call to “take our country back” as well as his last battle call to “fight the hell out” on January 6 is not only a request but also a permission for the followers to act. By force if necessary, says Mary McCord of Georgetown Law School to the Washington Post.
Money for Stormy Daniels
The background is the investigation into porn star Stormy Daniels and the money from the president’s campaign coffers that she received before the 2016 election to keep quiet about their alleged affair.
An announcement from the grand jury in Manhattan is expected shortly.
According to The New York Times, there are many indications that the jury chooses to proceed with the charges against Trump: The prosecutors have given him the opportunity to testify and have questioned basically everyone involved in the story surrounding the roughly one million kroner that was paid out.
However, no time has been communicated.
According to Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles, the former president’s associates have guessed at the date following media reporting and speculation.
– Because this is politically motivated, the district attorney’s office has leaked everything to the press instead of communicating with President Trump’s lawyers as one would in a normal case, she says according to the Washington Post.
“Politically motivated”
Two people close to the ex-president tells the newspaper that they do not know exactly when, or if at all, he will be charged.
They state that advisers and lawyers have warned Trump in recent days that the announcement could come early next week.
That it will be on Tuesday is seen as a possibility, but they do not know why he singled out that particular day in his post.
Trump has denied any involvement in paying Stormy Daniels to keep quiet. He also says he had no affair with her.
Senior Republican officials with connections to the former president quickly came to his defense after the dramatic announcement on social media.
Can be taken in handcuffs
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he wants to see an investigation into whether federal funds go to “politically motivated causes.”
Elise Stefanik, the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, says the investigation is “an attempt to silence and suppress the voters who support President Trump and his movement.”
An arrest and subsequent trial for Trump will likely follow standard procedures for anyone brought before a grand jury, writes The New York Times.
Fingerprints and a photo (a so-called “mug shot”) are taken. It is routine for defendants to be brought into court in handcuffs, but exceptions can be made.
Possibly Trump will have to wait in an interrogation room instead of a cell.
After having the charges read out to him, the former president will be released without having to spend any time behind bars because he is not suspected of any violent crime, writes The New York Times.
The lawyer paid the porn star
Sources within the Secret Service, which also manages the protection of former presidents, state that the authority has not received any information that Trump would be indicted next week.
In such a situation, the district attorney’s office is expected to negotiate with Trump’s lawyers so that the former president surrenders voluntarily, writes the Washington Post.
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has admitted that he handed over the money to Daniels with his own funds. According to the suspicions against Trump, the president is said to have reimbursed Cohen for the expenses and falsely booked the money as “legal costs”.
Facts
American public opinion before the next election
A compilation of opinion polls conducted by the independent Real Clear Politics in March shows that support for Trump as the Republican presidential candidate is strong.
45.2 percent of the party’s voters support Trump’s bid for the White House.
He is closely followed by Florida governor and fellow party member Ron DeSantis, whose support is at 29.2 percent. DeSantis is expected to make a bid for the White House but has not yet launched a campaign.
For other presidential aspirants, it looks considerably more difficult. 6.8 percent of Republican supporters want to see former Vice President Mike Pence as the presidential candidate in the 2024 election. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has launched her candidacy, is supported by 5.3 percent.
Even when Donald Trump is pitted against the incumbent president and Democrat Joe Biden in opinion polls, he has a tailwind. Trump would – albeit by a very small margin – get more votes if the presidential election were held today, according to Real Clear Politics. 44.6 percent of voters say they would vote for Trump, while 44.4 percent would choose Biden.
(Source: TT)
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