Former President Donald Trump is already preparing for a “spectacle” should he be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury looking at a hush money payment his lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels in 2016, ignoring advice to make it a quiet affair.
Trump has reportedly rejected the approach proposed by the Secret Service to appear before the court in a remote location and turn himself in under the radar. Instead, he said he didn’t care if someone shot at him because, then, he would become “a martyr” and would probably win the presidency in 2024, per the Guardian.
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Sources close to the former president said Trump told his advisers that he also wants to be handcuffed while making an in-person appearance in court, reasoning that if he is going to be fingerprinted and sitting for a mug shot, he might as well turn the event into a show to gain support and notoriety among his supporters ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Amid the threat of an indictment, support for Trump to take back the White House in 2024 has grown. A Morning Consult poll shows Trump leading Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) 54% to 26%, a 28 percentage point advantage. Polls have gone back and forth, showing DeSantis leading over Trump or vice versa, but the news of an indictment of the former president boosted support for Trump.
The former president is reportedly afraid of appearing weak and defeated if he were to make his first court appearance through video and wants to project his defiance over what he claims is unfair prosecution and a “highly political” vendetta against him.
It is unclear when or if Trump will be indicted, with multiple reports indicating it could be as early as Wednesday. In a Truth Social post over the weekend, he said he expected to be arrested on Tuesday and called for people to “protest” and “take our nation back.” His comments prompted law enforcement officials in New York and Washington, D.C., among other cities, to begin to prepare for possible unrest or violence similar to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol.
Several GOP lawmakers have spoken out against a possible indictment of Trump. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) blasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump as “driven by political considerations” and serves as a means to distract the public from the other crises in the country.
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The Manhattan case involves hush money payments that Trump allegedly directed Cohen to make to Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign so she would not go public about an alleged affair she had with the former president in 2005.
Cohen and Cohen’s former lawyer, Robert Costello, have testified before the grand jury, which is meeting again on Wednesday. The grand jury is expected to vote on whether to indict the former president.
