New York City braces for possible riots over former President Donald Trump’s indictment over alleged payment to keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet during 2016 campaign trail: Workers set up barricades Monday around the Manhattan District Courthouse, whose prosecutors are investigating a case against Trump.
If charges against the former president are nonetheless brought, it will be the first such case in US history. On Saturday, Trump urged his supporters to protest his possible arrest. Law enforcement has previously expressed concern that the ex-president’s supporters may resort to violence, as has already happened during the riots at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
However, according to security analysts, members of right-wing groups decided not to listen to Trump’s pleas, fearing a trap.
The grand jury, which heard additional testimony on Monday, could bring charges as early as this week. Trump, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination again in 2024, hinted he would be arrested on Tuesday.
On Monday, a grand jury heard testimony from a witness, attorney Robert Costello, who said former Trump attorney Michael Cohen made the silence payment to Stormy Daniels without Trump’s involvement.
“Michael Cohen himself decided – he told us – to see if he could handle it,” Costello told reporters after testifying before a grand jury at the request of Trump’s lawyers.
Cohen, who has twice testified before grand juries, has said publicly that Trump asked him to make payments on his behalf.
The indictment could thwart Trump’s bid to return to big politics. About 44% of Republicans believe Trump should drop out of the presidential race if indicted, according to an Ipsos poll commissioned by Reuters and released on Monday.
The investigation, led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is one of many legal challenges Trump has faced.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations for arranging a payment to Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) and another woman in exchange for their silence about their alleged ties to Trump.
The former president denies these allegations.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters that police were monitoring social media and “inappropriate activity” in the city. The New York Police Department said there have been no credible threats so far.
If charged, Trump would likely have to travel to New York from Florida for fingerprinting and other procedures. Law enforcement officials met on Monday to discuss logistics, according to a number of media outlets.
Bragg’s office presented evidence to the grand jury of a $130,000 payment made by Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, sources say.
Trump associates have previously criticized the investigation as politically motivated.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a possible challenger to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, said Monday that Bragg was pushing through a “political agenda” that threatens the rule of law, while delivering a veiled blow to Trump.
“I don’t see why paying a porn star to shut up…about an alleged affair,” he told reporters.
House Republicans launched an investigation into Bragg’s office, sending a letter demanding that documents and testimony related to the investigation be released to them.
Trump has been impeached twice by the House of Representatives: once in 2019 for his behavior toward Ukraine and again in 2021 for his supporters’ attack on the Capitol. Both times he was acquitted by the senators.
Last December, Bragg secured a conviction against a Trump company accused of tax evasion.
However, legal analysts say Stormy Daniels’ payment case could be more complex. Bragg’s office will have to prove that Trump intended to commit the crime, experts say, and his lawyers are likely to launch a series of counterattacks in an attempt to get the case dismissed.
Trump, meanwhile, has other legal issues to deal with. His lawyers on Monday asked a Georgia court to quash a special grand jury report that detailed an investigation into the ex-president’s alleged attempts to reverse his defeat in the state in the 2020 election.
The lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, also attempts to get District Attorney Fanny Willis to step aside from the case. Lawyers for the former president say his media appearances and social media posts showed bias against Trump.
Trump is also seeking to delay a civil fraud lawsuit filed Oct. 2 by the New York attorney general that alleges a company owned by the former president manipulated the value of its assets for years to get better terms. from bankers and insurers.
