The New York Police Department is preparing to deploy 700 riot cops to mitigate potential chaos expected ahead of former President Donald Trump’s scheduled arrest this week.
The NYPD is reportedly coordinating with senior officials from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and officers who provide security for the state’s Supreme Court building in lower Manhattan to prevent violence or a similar riot on Jan. 6.
The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group is reportedly bracing for a showdown between MAGA conservatives and anti-Trump protesters outside Manhattan Criminal Court while Trump is arraigned.
It’s so awesome!#TRUMP2024ToSaveAmerica pic.twitter.com/6tm6lhwR7d
– Uncensored USA 🇺🇸 (@CarlosSimancas) March 19, 2023
“If a large protest materializes next week, NYPD sources said the force may deploy the Strategic Response Group, an approximately 700-member unit trained in ‘disorder control,'” the Daily Beast reports. “The department, if necessary, could escalate this response by deploying a Level 4 alert, which would put eight cops and a sergeant on alert in each neighborhood.”
Join @NYYRC TOMORROW to rally for TRUMP against the politicized persecution of corrupt Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg.
Sign up below: https://t.co/GcrLcQB8Xm
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽 (@GavinWax) March 19, 2023
Prosecutors say Trump violated campaign finance laws for a $130,000 payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign for her silence on a case presumed.
Bragg says the payment, which was listed as a “legal fee,” violates New York law that prohibits falsifying business records.
Trump maintains he expects to be arrested as soon as Tuesday on state charges for the payments to Daniels. Trump Urges His Supporters to “Protest, Take Back Our Nation!”
Secret Service agents overseeing Trump’s details in South Florida and New York are strategizing to get Trump safely into the district attorney’s office amid crowds of protesters and media.
“Trump’s U.S. Secret Service details would take him to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to be fingerprinted, then photographed at the offices of the District Attorney’s Detective Team,” CNN reports. “As is customary in cases where an accused is allowed to surrender voluntarily, after his arrest has been processed, the former president would be brought directly to trial before a judge where he would likely be released on his own recognizance.”
The Secret Service may hold a press conference outside Trump Tower, the publication notes.
It is unclear whether Trump will be escorted into the courtroom by security or Secret Service agents.
The NYPD is also coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigations to create a contingency plan to deal with increased threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his staff.
Bragg issued a memo warning that law enforcement is on high alert and investigating threats.
“Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office are fully investigated and that the appropriate safeguards are in place so that the 1,600 of us we all have a safe working environment,” Bragg wrote in a statement. note first reported by Politico.
Here’s Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s full email to his employees saying he won’t tolerate bullying after Trump called for a protest. Story here: https://t.co/e6fuuYAKpV pic.twitter.com/8X3thHpwmy
— Erica Orden (@eorden) March 19, 2023
Trump supporters descend on Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to prevent the former president’s arrest.
If Bragg chooses to indict Trump, the 45th president would become the first US president since Ulysses S. Grant to be arrested.
Grant, the 18th president, was arrested for speeding with his horse and buggy in 1876.
