According to a law enforcement source who spoke with Fox News on Monday, the authorities do not anticipate that former President Donald Trump will be arraigned until next week.
This is because a Manhattan grand jury, which has been meeting in secret regarding allegations of hush money paid to a porn star to silence claims of an affair with Trump a few years ago, apparently has another witness on Wednesday.
As Fox News also reported, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg apparently spoke out against a virtual option.
On Monday night, the news site reported that a law enforcement source expressed concern for the public’s safety.
Police will be present in large numbers and surrounding areas will be closed if President Trump chooses to travel to Manhattan for the proceedings.
In fact, Trump has urged his base to take to the streets in the face of a possible indictment.
Workers were busy setting up barricades in key areas, including outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, despite calls for peace or peaceful assembly from some Republicans.
The grand jury has been investigating Trump’s possible involvement in a $130,000 hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 (during the presidential election) to prevent her from speaking out about an alleged sexual encounter she had with him years earlier.
Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Trump, made the payments to Daniels through a shell company; Trump later reimbursed Cohen, and the Trump Organization recorded the payments as legal expenses.
Neither federal prosecutors nor the Federal Election Commission has shown any interest in the case so far.
Trump and his supporters have called the entire investigation a “witch hunt,” claiming that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is acting for purely political reasons in an effort to derail Trump’s bid for reelection in 2024.
Trump took to social media two days ago to announce that he anticipated being arrested by the “corrupt” district attorney’s office on Tuesday, and he called on his supporters to protest in his name.
However, the timeline became murkier as a lawyer working with Trump was set to testify before a New York grand jury on Monday, giving the former president an indirect opportunity to argue that he should not face criminal charges.
The district attorney’s office in Manhattan summoned Robert Costello after he claimed to have evidence casting doubt on Michael Cohen’s veracity.
Costello, a former legal adviser to Cohen, was quoted as saying to the grand jury, “I told the grand jury that this guy couldn’t tell the truth if you put a gun to his head,” per the New York Times.
