NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- A security meeting was held Monday as the city continues to prepare for the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, sources told 1010 WINS.
The meeting took place Monday afternoon and involved agencies and security stakeholders like the NYPD, Secret Service, court administration and others who play a role in protecting Trump, the judge, the district attorney, the public and others, according to the sources.
There were discussions on whether there will be planned or unplanned demonstrations and how Trump will appear in the courtroom if a grand jury returns an indictment related to hush money payments made during Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump said on social media over the weekend that he expects to be arrested as soon as Tuesday, though his lawyers said he had no communications from prosecutors. The former president called for protests over the expected criminal charge, urging his supporters to “take our nation back!”
On Monday morning, the NYPD was seen unloading barricades in the area of Manhattan Criminal Court and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.
Former NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey told 1010 WINS on Monday that in the case of an indictment, the Secret Service will want to minimize Trump’s public exposure.
“They would want to bring him in, bring him into court and get him out of town again as quickly as possible,” Corey said.
It’s likely photos and fingerprints would be expedited for a brief court appearance by the president.
“Everybody’s going to be extremely cautious following the events of last Jan. 6,” when Trump supporters angry about the 2020 election results stormed the U.S. Capitol, Corey said. “That’s obviously not something that you would ever want to see repeated anywhere.”
Mayor Eric Adams said Monday that the city is prepared for any outcome.
“We’re monitoring comments on social media,” Adams said, “and the NYPD is doing their normal role of making sure that there’s no inappropriate actions in the city, and we’re confident we’re going to be able to do that.”
The New York Young Republican Club and the group Long Island Loud Majority had announced a "peaceful protest" in Lower Manhattan on Monday to demonstrate against the expected indictment.
About two dozen supporters turned out by Monday evening.
Multiple law enforcement officials told the Associated Press on Sunday that law enforcement is closely monitoring online chatter warning of protests and violence if Trump is arrested.
Law enforcement is also discussing a multitude of preliminary security plans for Lower Manhattan, including the potential for closing several streets or blocking streets with large trucks, the sources said.
Whether or not there will be extra security measures in and outside the courtroom itself remains to be seen.
The grand jury heard testimony Monday from attorney Robert Costello, who Trump’s camp requested testify to counter the narrative of Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney who prosecutors said set up and delivered payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and another woman to silence them about sexual encounters.
With grand jurors presumably being given the opportunity to consider any testimony or evidence favorable to Trump that could weaken the case for moving forward with an indictment, Costello's appearance, which seemed to try and bash and call into question Cohen's reputation and credibility, is yet another indication that prosecutors are moving to wrap up their investigation.
It was unclear whether Costello’s testimony has any potential to change the course of a grand jury probe that seems close to concluding.
Cohen was present at the courthouse but left after more than two hours on standby as a potential rebuttal witness.
Trump has denied having sex with Stormy Daniels and has castigated Cohen as a liar.
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.
Bragg sent a memo to staff Saturday saying the office won’t be intimidated or deterred. “We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York,” Bragg wrote, referring to “press attention and public comments” regarding an ongoing investigation by his office.
Even as the New York investigation pushes toward conclusion, Trump faces criminal probes in Atlanta and Washington that, taken together, pose significant legal peril and carry the prospect of upending a Republican presidential race in which Trump remains a leading contender. Some of his likely opponents have tried to strike a balance between condemning a potential prosecution as politically motivated while avoiding condoning the conduct at issue.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, an expected GOP presidential candidate, criticized the investigation but also threw one of his first jabs at the former president in a move likely to intensify their simmering political rivalry.
“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some kind of alleged affair," DeSantis said at a news conference in Panama City. “I can’t speak to that.”
But, he added, “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, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office. And I think that’s fundamentally wrong.”
Mike Pence, the former vice president who’s expected to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, castigated Trump in an ABC News interview last weekend as “reckless” for his actions on Jan. 6 and said history would hold him accountable. Even so, he echoed the former president’s rhetoric that an indictment would be a “politically charged prosecution.”
“I have no doubt that President Trump knows how to take care of himself," Pence said. “And he will. But that doesn’t make it right to have a politically charged prosecution of a former president.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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