Arrest awaits Trump

Even though insurrectionist-in-chief Donald Trump was restored to Twitter in November by Elon Musk and on Friday he was returned to Facebook and YouTube with innocuous greetings, he used his own Truth Social Saturday morning to say that “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

We hope so and we hope that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his grand jury have built a solid felony case against Trump for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money in October 2016 in a cover-up conspiracy of their tryst. The facts are well established and former Trump bagman Michael Cohen already pleaded guilty and did federal time for his role in the scheme.

Also in the mix may be the $150,000 ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal received in August 2016 from Trump’s pal at the National Enquirer to stay quiet about her own affair with Trump.

If Trump is right, he will have to surrender for his arrest, using either the entrance at 100 Centre St. or at 1 Hogan Place. With his Secret Service detail present, he will be handcuffed, booked, fingerprinted and have his mug shot taken. He will be humiliated and may have to turn over his passport. Even though he is very dangerous and may have summoned the mob calling for protests to “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” he will likely not be jailed on Rikers, but allowed to go free until his trial.

And that is where Trump needs to fight this case: in the courtroom, not in the streets. We’ll weigh the charges after the grand jury hands up the indictment and a judge orders it filed.

Trump will claim it is all politics and politics may help him. In 2020, Trump won 85,185 Manhattan votes, 12% of the total, so there’s a good chance that there will be at least one Trump voter on the jury. And it only takes one to acquit.