NYC bracing for unrest after Trump calls for protests over possible arrest, indictment
The NYPD and US Secret Service are huddling to prep for Donald Trump’s possible indictment in Manhattan after the former president said he expected to be arrested this week and told supporters to protest, sources told The Post.
The FBI, state court officers and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have also been kept in the loop on security discussions, with the Big Apple bracing for the worst after Trump, 76, urged his followers to “take our nation back” in light of his looming indictment, police sources said.
“We will use all of our available resources,” one NYPD source said Sunday, noting that the department’s Strategic Response Group — which responds to civil unrest and major events — “has a role in this agency and when needed they will be called in.”
Officials from several agencies met on Sunday and are expected to confer again on Monday, according to sources.
Trump took to his Truth Social site over the weekend and said he expects to be arrested Tuesday on an indictment stemming from Bragg’s ongoing probe into alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied.
The former president’s online call to supporters has federal, state and local authorities on alert, according to sources.
The sources said several agencies will meet again Monday to discuss security measures that include restricting vehicle access to the Manhattan courthouse, and deploying inside and outside the building.
Bragg’s office has not confirmed or denied that an indictment is imminent.
But the NYPD said it will be ready in the event Trump is charged and unrest breaks out.
“We’ll handle it like we do anything else,” NYPD Chief Kevin Maloney told The Post. “It’s Lower Manhattan, there’s always plenty of police presence down there anyway. So we’ll monitor the situation. We’ll have ample resources. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.”
Maloney said he “would assume there will be conversations with our intel bureau and stakeholders in the federal courthouse and the DA’s office.
“We’ll have an advanced heads-up, I’m sure, on the timing of this whole thing,” he added. “We’ll make sure that the entrance and exits to the courthouse are secure and if the protesters are there, we’ll support their rights to peacefully protest. If they’re not there, even better.”
Bragg’s office referred a request for comment Sunday to the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies.
A Secret Service spokesman said: “To maintain the highest levels of integrity for our operations, we are not able to comment on specific protection plans or movements for any Secret Service protectee.” The FBI said it had no comment.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Fox News Sunday that there was no immediate indication that there were violent protests planned by Trump supporters, but said the White House was keeping an eye on the situation.
“We’re always monitoring the situation here as best we can,” Kirby told the outlet. “And we obviously don’t want to see any activity grow violent, certainly nothing to the extent that we saw [during the storming of the US Capitol] on January 6, but we’re watching this closely.
“We want to see if there are protests of any kind about any issue or quite frankly, let alone this, that they’re peaceful,” he said.
Trump, in announcing his alleged pending arrest Saturday morning, chided “ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE.”
”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!” he wrote.
“THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!.” he added.
Trump took to Truth Social again Sunday to accuse Bragg of “prosecutorial misconduct” and insist that “there was no crime, period.”
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said Trump was basing the timing of his possible arrest on press reports, but added that the DA’s office hadn’t communicated with him or the rest of the ex-president’s legal team.
“No one tells us anything, which is very frustrating,” he told The Post Saturday.
Daniels allegedly received more than $130,000 in hush money through Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, prior to the 2016 presidential election.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in connection to the payments and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Both Cohen and Daniels in recent weeks have testified before the grand jury convened by the DA’s office. A lawyer who previously advised Cohen, Robert Costello, has been invited by prosecutors to provide testimony Monday afternoon, according to reports.
Bragg, in an email to his staff Saturday, said his office will not be intimidated by Trump’s call for protests.
“Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment,” Bragg told his office, according to a leaked email, obtained by journalist Breanna Morello.
“In the meantime, as with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly and speak openly only when appropriate,” Bragg wrote. “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner and Joe Marino
