Officials in New York and Washington, DC, are preparing for potential pro-Trump protests in their cities.
A grand jury is empaneled as part of the investigation into Trump’s alleged role in a scheme to pay hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In NYC, according to an internal memo,
- all NYPD officers are expected to be in uniform and ready for deployment today. Law enforcement officials told CNN that Tuesday is a “high alert day”
And in DC,
- police are similarly preparing, the US Capitol Police force “is not currently tracking any direct or credible threats to the US Capitol,” according to a department intelligence assessment
Trump’s Truth Social posts over the weekend called on his supporters to protest in response to his potential arrest, echoing the calls he made on Jan. 6, in response to being the loser in the 2020 election.
According to CNN,
Attorney Robert Costello, at the request of Trump’s legal team, testified Monday for nearly three hours in front of the grand jury in an effort to discredit the testimony of the former president’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, who has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election to stop her from going public about an alleged affair with the former president.
Cohen made himself available to the DA’s office as a rebuttal witness Monday but was “not needed“.
Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels and says the probe by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is politically motivated.
Trump wants to get his base riled up and believes that an indictment will help him politically and he’s called the latest development
unfair.”
But a source close to the Trump legal team said that should he be indicted, they don’t expect an arrest before next week.
The New York City police department began erecting metal fencing in lower Manhattan on Monday as a potential criminal indictment for Donald Trump appeared imminent https://t.co/CfTjgm8ERc pic.twitter.com/pdnzZFmhaZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 20, 2023
(Photo, screen grab; via CNN)
