“WITCH HUNT, as our once great Country is going to HELL!” Trump said in a social media post shortly before taking off, invoking a familiar phrase he has used to deride multiple legal and legislative investigations into his conduct.
Trump plans to spend only about 24 hours in the city that was once his home, arriving at 5th Avenue’s Trump Tower sometime in the afternoon. He has said he will surrender Tuesday morning and then appear in court to be arraigned before Justice Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court. Trump has said he will then return to Florida, where he plans to make public remarks from his Mar-a-Lago Club on Tuesday night.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said on CNN Sunday that Trump’s legal team wants the process to be “as painless and classy as possible.”
Trump continued to lash out at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who is bringing the case, as well the judge handling it, in late-night social media posts Sunday. He called Bragg “corrupt” and claimed that Merchan hates him.
Trump’s campaign claimed Monday that it raised $7 million since the news of the indictment, suggesting that it has provided at least a short-term political boost, at least among his supporters.
Law enforcement at every level has been bracing for what could be a chaotic 24 hours, with protesters and celebrants expected to press into the area around the Lower Manhattan court complex.
Secret Service agents, mostly based in New York, toured the courthouse Friday to plan for Trump’s entry and exit from the building, a law enforcement official involved in the planning said.
The indictment itself — describing the exact charges filed against Trump and some of the evidence gathered to support them — is expected to be unsealed Tuesday. People familiar with the case have said it involves Trump’s payoff to Daniels.
They have said Bragg was exploring the possibility of charging Trump with falsifying business records related to the Daniels payment, a misdemeanor. Trump reimbursed his then-attorney Michael Cohen for paying Daniels, but the payments were falsely characterized as a retainer for legal services.
In New York, the charge could be elevated to a felony if records are falsified to cover up or commit another crime. In this case, Bragg’s office appears to be investigating whether the business records were falsified to conceal a payment that amounted to an undisclosed campaign contribution to benefit Trump’s 2016 bid for president.
Meanwhile, Trump has added a well-known white-collar criminal defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, to his legal team, a campaign adviser said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been announced publicly. Blanche is a former federal prosecutor.
Secret Service officials are exercising intense caution for the arraignment by planning multiple routes for Trump to travel from LaGuardia Airport to his private apartment at Trump Tower this afternoon, and from Trump Tower to the courthouse Tuesday, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the plans.
There has been concern within the Secret Service about Trump’s arrival in New York spurring an outpouring of public protests — both from his critics advocating his prosecution and his supporters protesting his indictment.
For Trump’s protection, Secret Service expect him to enter and exit the building in a way that is not visible to the public. Agents could either choose to have Trump enter an exterior door by employing the standard tented arrival — shielding Trump from public sight — or via a hidden entrance.
Advance agents who toured the courthouse Friday have identified several secure and subterranean entrances used by judges and sensitive witnesses that they may use for Trump.
Secret Service leaders had been on high alert last week for the possibility that Trump would seek to hold a news conference in New York before or after the arraignment, hoping to be the first to manage the message of the charges against him and whip up his supporters, a current and former law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security planning.
They are significantly relieved that Trump had been encouraged by advisers to instead host a news event in a far more secure site: his own private club. His press event is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.
At a City Hall news briefing before Trump left Florida on Monday, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) and New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said there would be roving street closures around the city and a higher police presence surrounding the courthouse. They also said violence from demonstrators would not be tolerated.
Adams noted that one particular concern for security in the city Tuesday was violence inspired by false information.
“Although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she’s coming to town,” Adams said, referring to the Republican congresswoman from Georgia who has encouraged people to join her in protesting Trump’s indictment Tuesday.
Adams said that, given his own policing experience, he’s not overly concerned about security challenges Tuesday.
“People stir stuff up all the time. If you are prepared, you don’t have to get prepared,” he said. “And we are prepared.”
More than 100 Trump supporters gathered earlier Monday morning at a strip shopping center across from a laundromat in West Palm Beach to wait for the former president’s motorcade to go by on its way to Palm Beach International Airport.
Ronald Solomon, president of the MAGA Mall — a pop-up Trump merchandise shop — was doing brisk business in the parking lot hours before Trump’s motorcade was scheduled to drive by.
“I haven’t even finished setting up, and I’ve already made $300,” Solomon said as he hung up hats and flags to display behind his car. “Business is booming, ever since they came up with that boneheaded indictment, the merchandise has been flying out of here.”
Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach, Fla., Shayna Jacobs in New York and Josh Dawsey in Washington contributed to this report.
