Trump wants perp walk if he’s charged
Former President Donald Trump wants to be hauled into court in handcuffs if he’s slapped with unprecedented criminal charges — but even prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s own office are worried about the strength of the case, sources told The Post on Wednesday.
Trump, 76, and his team say that if he has to go through the ordeal of getting arrested and arraigned, “he wants it to be public,” a source said.
If Trump becomes the first former US president to be charged with a crime, his people are planning to “try and film and document it with their own camera crew, they want a shot of him in cuffs and will release the mug shot. They are loving this stuff,” the source said.
“It’s gonna get the base super motivated and the charges will never stick. The visual will fire up his base,” a source added.
The decision on whether Trump would be handcuffed while led into court is up to the arresting agency, the DA’s Office, court officials told The Post Tuesday.
The ex-president — who’s seeking the Republican nomination for a third White House bid in 2024 — also wants to avoid any special treatment that could make him look weak, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, citing sources close to him.
Trump’s lawyers are adamantly opposed to having him paraded in handcuffs and have urged him to surrender quietly and be arraigned remotely if he’s indicted, the Guardian said.
Sources on Trump’s legal team added to The Post: “Who wants to be put in handcuffs over a false charge?” A virtual arraignment isn’t likely, though.
“We are not doing criminal cases, including arraignments, virtually,” a state courts rep said Monday.
Anticipation has been building for days about a possible indictment being handed up against Trump, who had predicted he would be arrested on Tuesday.
Bragg’s office is said to be building a case around the “hush money” paid to porn star Stormy Daniels by then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
The Stormy case
A grand jury has been hearing evidence against Trump since late January over the October 2016 payment of $130,000 Cohen made to cover up Daniels’ alleged 2006 affair with Trump.
The panel had been scheduled to reconvene Wednesday afternoon, but the session was unexpectedly postponed by Bragg, with the grand jurors told to stay home and be on standby for Thursday, sources told The Post.
The move came because an unidentified witness was unable to appear, sources said. The witness is believed to be someone who will rebut Monday’s testimony from lawyer and Trump ally Robert Costello, sources said. The grand jury was put on standby because it was unclear whether the witness would be available Thursday, a source said. But court workers began making preparations late Wednesday afternoon for the testimony to take place Thursday, a source said.
The turn of events came as a source with ties to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office told The Post that Bragg was concerned following Costello’s testimony. A spokesperson for the DA’s office denied this.
“The last thing he wants is for the grand jury to vote against him,” the source said. “He wants a no-doubt-about-it case. He is pressuring the ‘Trump-obsessed’ to step up and prove the case.”
A source inside Bragg’s office also said a substantial number of assistant district attorneys were “shaking their heads” over the DA’s decision to pursue Trump.
“They don’t understand how this case is going forward,” the source said. “These ADAs are not fans of Trump, but they are professional lawyers and know the law.”
Fox News also reported “major dissension” inside Bragg’s office, with one source saying the “weakness” of the evidence against Trump was posing problems for prosecutors.
Cohen testified before the grand jury twice last week and is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness if the case were to go to trial.
The former Trump fixer was sentenced to three years in federal prison for crimes that included arranging the payment to Daniels and violating campaign finance rules, telling the judge, “I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
The Justice Department declined to charge Trump and the Federal Election Commission also decided to not take action against him.
Bragg is reportedly considering charges that include falsifying business records with the intent to violate federal campaign finance rules, a novel legal theory that would make the offense a felony punishable by up to four years in state prison.