OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Law enforcement officials are now reportedly saying that former President Donald Trump may not be arraigned this week. The officials met behind closed doors on Monday to discuss the logistics of arraigning Trump over his potential indictment regarding a “hush-money” payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign.
A law enforcement source told Fox News Monday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and law enforcement discussed extra police and barriers as well as the logistics of closing down streets. District Attorney Alvin Bragg is also reportedly against allowing for a “virtual arraignment” of Trump, which means he would have to appear in New York.
“The source said law enforcement does not expect the former president to be arraigned until next week as the Manhattan grand jury – which has been meeting secretly to hear evidence for weeks – has another witness on Wednesday. A virtual option was apparently ruled out as the DA is opposed to it. However, another source familiar with the discussions regarding the handling of a possible Trump indictment, said that a virtual arraignment for the former president was never seriously considered,” Fox News reported.
“The grand jury has been probing Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company before being reimbursed by Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, logged the reimbursements as legal expenses,” Fox News added.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in Monday on the looming indictment and potential arrest of former President Donald Trump.
“So I’ve seen rumors swirl. I have not seen any facts yet, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen. But I do know this, the Manhattan District Attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor. And so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said at a press conference.
“He has downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors,” DeSantis continued. “He says he doesn’t want to even have jail time for the vast, vast majority of crimes. And what we’ve seen in Manhattan is we’ve seen the crime rate go up and we’ve seen citizens become less safe.”
“And so you’re talking about this situation with, and look, I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” he added. “I just, I can’t speak to that, but what I can speak to is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star ‘hush money’ payments, you know, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office.’
“And I think that that’s fundamentally wrong,” he remarked. “I also think it’s important to point out when you’re talking about these Soros-funded prosecutors, yes, they may do a high profile politicized prosecution and that’s bad. But the real victims are ordinary New Yorkers, ordinary Americans, and all these different jurisdictions that they get victimized every day because of the reckless political agenda that these Soros DAs bring to their job. They ignore crime and they empower criminals. And that hurts people, hurts a lot of people every single day.”
“The Soros district attorneys are a menace to society, and I’m just glad that I’m the only governor in the country that’s actually removed one from office during my tenure,” he noted.
“We won’t be involved in this,” he added. “I have no interest in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA… He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in FL.”
WATCH:
BREAKING: @GovRonDeSantis responds to the reports of a possible Trump indictment:
"We are not involved in this and won't be involved in this. I have no interested in getting involved in some type of manufactured circus by some Soros DA. He's trying to do a political spectacle.… https://t.co/3zQRmz72lH pic.twitter.com/lCeCA37vnf
— Jenna Ellis 🇺🇸 (@JennaEllisEsq) March 20, 2023
News broke on Friday that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is close to indicting Trump over hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 campaign, allegedly to keep her quiet about an affair the two of them had in 2006.
A lawyer for Donald Trump described the most likely scenario at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate should he be indicted this week by a Manhattan grand jury.
The attorney stated that Trump would not resist and would surrender to authorities in the event of an indictment in Bragg’s investigation into the alleged hush-money agreement.
