3/30/23
Former President Donald Trump is reportedly negotiating his surrender as New York City authorities brace for backlash following the first criminal indictment of a current or former president in the history of the United States.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation of Trump came to fruition after a grand jury voted on Thursday to indict the former president on charges related to 2016 hush money payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels. Trump lawyer Susan R. Necheles said her client was expected to turn himself in for arraignment in New York on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
The date of the arraignment could still change, with Bragg’s office having only announced that negotiations with Trump’s team were ongoing. The exact charges that Trump is facing are also expected to be unsealed upon arraignment.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” a spokesperson for Bragg said in a statement on Thursday night. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina also said that the date had not been “finalized” during an appearance on Fox News opinion show Hannity on Thursday.
“It’s not finalized,” Tacopina said. “We are discussing with them. You know, obviously, there’s a group called the Secret Service that’s involved now. I mean, this is going to be something we’ve never seen the likes of before.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s potential 2024 GOP presidential primary rival, announced that he would not “assist” in the extradition of the former president from his home in Florida. However, it is not clear that his assistance will be required.
Tacopina previously said that his client would surrender voluntarily, while DeSantis does not have the power to unilaterally strike down the U.S. Constitution’s interstate extradition clause and would likely be blocked by a federal court if he attempted to stop the extradition.
Regardless of how Trump arrives in New York to be arraigned, officials in the city have been bracing for a potentially violent reaction from his supporters. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has been preparing for chaos since earlier this month, when Trump incorrectly predicted that he would be indicted on March 21.
Trump preemptively told his supporters to “protest” the indictment and “take back our country” while making the prediction. He later warned that there could be “death and destruction” if Bragg followed through with an indictment. The initial response to the protest call was underwhelming.
The former president also shared an image to Truth Social that featured himself holding a baseball bat next to a photograph of Bragg’s face. Soon after, Bragg’s office received a package containing a white powder and a death threat for the district attorney.
A senior NYPD official told Newsweek on Thursday that there would be “mobile field forces ready” for potential protests beginning on Friday.
An NYPD spokesperson said police were working “with our federal, state and local partners to keep New Yorkers safe” in anticipation of a possible protest, while noting that “no credible threats” had been detected.
“While you will see an increased uniformed presence throughout the five boroughs, there are currently no credible threats to New York City,” the spokesperson said. “The department remains ready and available to respond to protest and counterprotests and will ensure everyone is able to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights.”
“We will never tolerate violence or property damage,” the NYPD added. “There are millions of sets of eyes and ears in New York City.”
Newsweek has reached out via email to the office of Trump for comment.
The butterfly effect. The reader knows what it is. Sometimes, so the theory, one minor event can be the cause of a major event. This was the cause of the downfall of Al Capone. It was “only” a charge of tax evasion. Not the many murders he was responsible for or the many other more serious crimes, only tax evasion, which put him into prison. So, the Trumpet is also being indicted for a minor thing, not for treason, which it should be, or who-knows-what-else he’s guilty of.
I used to support Trump. He did good with the border wall, with giving lazy, cheap NATO members hell for not living up to agreements. But, his love affair with Vlad caused the house of cards to completely collapse. Even after mafia land started this war, even after all its atrocities became known, Trump remains friendly with this evil suppressive despot. This is wholly unacceptable. I am glad he’s been indicted. I hope that this will destroy his chances to be elected. The United States does not need a ruskie agent as POTUS.
As for all of his fanboys, send them to the front lines in Ukraine, so they can witness firsthand the evils being committed by Trump’s best pal, Vlad.
This vile putlerite needs locking up. But his fellow putler jackboot-licker Musk declared: “if Trump is convicted, he will win the election by a landslide.”
Let’s hope that the Republicans will refrain from selecting Trumpkov in the first place.
Trump won’t win unless he changes his position on Ukraine. Other nations are walking all over Biden but Americans still support Ukraine with a 82% favorable mark.
wow. are you finally admitting Trump isn’t pro-Ukrainian?
If he is he certainly isn’t explaining his position very well…and that’s not a first. One minute he says Crimea should be ruzzian because they speak ruzzian there and the next minute he says Biden should arm Ukraine enough to finish the war tomorrow. Which is it? It’s true this never would have happened if he were president but that’s not the hand we’ve been dealt.
“It’s true this never would have happened if he were president”
Lol, really?
You seriously believe that?
If Putin had started the war during Trump’s term, Kyiv was probably Russian now.
He is INNOCENT
a REAL christian
would NEVER cheat on his wife with a WHORE
a man of integrity and family values
TRIAL BY LAME STREET MEDIA
HUNTER BIDEN
LAPTOP
OBUMER the real CRIMINAL
where is his BIRTH certificate?
must be a Jewish Socialist Muslim
Real Christian? That fat pos never even read the Bible. Two Corinthian Lol
People that talk to themselves should consider psychological treatment bert. Besides that, someone that is completely ignorant to religion should consider avoiding the subject. At the same time, it is humorous, lol…
The media is addicted to Trump. His followers are obsessed with cheering for him. Trump haters are obsessed with hating him. It all amounts to a metric ton of Trump publicity that may translate into a win in 2024. I certainly hope he dramatically changes his attitude on Ukraine/Russia, although as RedSquare pointed out, its difficult to say exactly what his policy might be at any particular moment. There’s no room in this world for even a tiny bit of sympathy for Russia.
Trump has been consistent on his love for Putin.
You can blame him as much as you can, but he has unwaveringly supporting Putin.
Such a nice man, very loyal.
More loyal to Putin than to his own wife, lol
It’s proof of our sad state of affairs, when we must fear the return into the WH of a ruskie agent, a disloyal big mouth and a caterer of a wanted war criminal. I spit out in deep disgust!
A piece by Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times Magazine in November 2022 pulled together testimony given both to the Mueller investigation and the Republican-dominated Senate Intelligence Committee, transcripts from the impeachment hearings, and recent memoirs. Rutenberg showed that in 2016, Russian operatives had presented to Trump advisor and later campaign manager Paul Manafort a plan “for the creation of an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving Putin effective control of the country’s industrial heartland, where Kremlin-armed, -funded, and -directed “separatists” were waging a two-year-old shadow war that had left nearly 10,000 dead.”
In exchange for weakening the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), undermining the U.S. stance in favor of Ukraine in its attempt to throw off the Russians who had invaded in 2014, and removing U.S. sanctions from Russian entities, Russian operatives were willing to put their finger on the scale to help Trump win the White House.
Rutenberg notes that Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine looks a lot like a way to achieve the plan it suggested in 2016 but, thanks to a different president in the U.S., that invasion did not yield the results Russian president Vladimir Putin expected.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/magazine/russiagate-paul-manafort-ukraine-war.html