Former President Donald Trump won’t just be indicted in New York City, his lawyer told Newsmax on Monday.
The 45th president will be handcuffed and paraded in front of the cameras for the enjoyment of the media, Trump’s personal lawyer Joe Tacopina predicted.
“I had this idea in my head that they’d be dumb enough — if he were indicted — to actually try to cuff him and [perp] walk him,” Rob Schmitt, a host for Newsmax, told Tacopina on his show Monday. “And then we can see how far we’ve really devolved in this country.”
No former president has ever been charged with a crime, and handcuffing Trump for alleged hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign would be an unprecedented move.
“I think that’s what they’re going to try to do,” Tacopina predicted.
He called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s rumored decision to arrest Trump a “political grandstand.”
“I understand the law and the facts here and there’s not even a bad act, let alone a crime,” he told Schmitt.
“If there is a bad act here, it’s by someone who has threatened to go to the media unless they’re paid $130,000 to silence the story, which is normally called extortion,” he said.
“Here, it’s just different, and I have to say all decent people, whether they’re politically opposed to Donald Trump or in favor of his candidacy, really should be concerned about this weaponizing of the district attorney’s office to pursue a political opponent, or prevent them from running,” Tacopina said.
“That’s what’s really frightening to me,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Trump’s political opponents want a picture of the former president in handcuffs, Tacopina said, and are willing to sacrifice the integrity of the district attorney’s office to get it.
“It’s going to stain the district attorney’s legacy,” he said. But Trump will ultimately win “and you can play this clip 10 years from now.”
“We will win this case, either on the law or on facts.”
Over the weekend, Trump claimed on social media that he would be arrested on Tuesday.
According to a report by Fox News, the Manhattan grand jury is still hearing from witnesses and any indictment of Trump wouldn’t come until next week. The grand jury is returns Wednesday.
ABC News first reported Tuesday that the U.S. Secret Service has been coordinating with the New York Police Department over the logistics involved if Trump is indicted.
“We’ll be discussing how we bring Trump in,” a source reportedly told Politico. “No decisions have been made yet.”
The Horn editorial team