Trump leaves for the unknown as his arraignment in New York nears
Donald Trump is scheduled to go to New York on Monday for his historic criminal arraignment, entering the presidency and the United States into unknown and perhaps explosive territory. A grand jury last week indicted the 76-year-old millionaire on several counts relating to a hush-money payment made to an adult film star during the 2016 election.
The first serving or past US president to ever be charged with a crime is the provocateur from the Republican Party, who has already begun his campaign for the White House in 2024.
Trump will leave his Florida home of Mar-a-Lago and fly to New York on Monday, according to his advisors, where he previously had a base of operations.
He will be fingerprinted and photographed there as part of his arraignment, which is planned for Tuesday afternoon. This will probably result in one of the most well-known mugshots of the contemporary age.
Trump, who will address the nation in a speech from Florida on Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. (00:15 GMT Wednesday), called the legal procedures a “witch hunt” and “political persecution,” and he attacked the judge chosen to preside over them.
It remains to be seen if the infamously erratic Trump would stick to the plan or find a way to turn things around.
It’s up in the air”
In anticipation of the unusual arraignment, the New York Police Department is on high alert due to the possibility of both Trump supporters and opponents staging street protests.
According to NBC News, which cited government sources, the force has instructed its 36,000 officers to be in uniform and prepared for deployment.
There is no set procedure for how a former president should surrender to court officials, despite arraignments being a common and established rite.
According to Trump attorney Joe Tacopina, everything is up in the air.
Although a “perp walk,” in which a defendant is led past media cameras while being handcuffed, is improbable for an ex-president who is protected by the US Secret Service, Tacopina said, “I anticipate them trying to get every ounce of publicity out of this that they can get.”
“Hopefully, for a scenario like this, it will be as painless and elegant as feasible.”
Trump, however, is preparing for fight, Tacopina said.
In the swing state of Georgia, where Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Trump is being investigated for putting pressure on officials to overturn the outcome. This includes a recorded phone call in which he ordered the secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn the outcome.
Biden is one of the few Democrats remaining silent over the indictment of his political competitor because he is aware that whatever he would say could reinforce Trump’s allegations of a politically “weaponized” court system.
Republicans have mainly united behind Trump, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who ran against him in the party’s presidential primaries and dubbed the indictment “un-American.”
Yet, several Republicans recoiled at the idea of a twice-impeached president running for the party’s nomination while being the subject of numerous judicial investigations.
Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas who declared his candidacy for president on Sunday, openly questioned such a plan and asked Trump to withdraw from the campaign.
He needs to be able to focus on his due process, I do believe that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction, Hutchinson said.
“The office always takes precedence over the individual.”
AFP
