In television interviews on Sunday,Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said he would pore over the indictment once he receives it,then devise the next legal steps. He dismissed questions about whether he would ask for a venue change or file a motion to dismiss the case as premature,though it’s common for defence lawyers to do both.
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“We’re way too early to start deciding what motions we’re going to file or not file,and we do need to see the indictment and get to work,” he told ABC’sThis Week.
“I mean,look,this is the beginning.”
The former president is expected to fly to New York at midday on Monday and stay at his Trump Tower in Manhattan overnight ahead of his planned arraignment on Tuesday,according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s travel plans.
He is expected to report to the courthouse on Tuesday morning,where he will be fingerprinted and have a mugshot taken,like anyone else facing charges. Investigators will complete arrest paperwork and check to see if he has any outstanding criminal charges or warrants.
Once the booking is complete,Trump will appear before a judge for an afternoon arraignment. That will take place in the same Manhattan courtroom where his company was tried and convicted of tax fraud in December and where disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial took place.
But Tacopina said that most of what will happen on Tuesday remains “up in the air,” given Trump’s unique status as a former president,“other[than] the fact that we will very loudly and proudly say,‘Not guilty.’”
“Obviously,this is different. This has never happened before. I have never had Secret Service involved in an arraignment before at 100 Centre Street,” he said on CNN’sState of the Union,using the courthouse’s street address.
“Hopefully this will be as painless and classy as possible for a situation like this.”
The judge could at some point decide to bar anyone involved in the case from talking about it publicly,but that is unlikely to happen at Tuesday’s proceeding. A gag order generally is used as a way to avoid tainting potential jurors. But it’s often done at the request of the defendant,and in this case,Trump is the one talking.
Officials from the Secret Service and the New York Police Department toured the courthouse and met about security plans on Friday.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene,a key Trump ally,and the New York Young Republican Club are planning a “peaceful protest” against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg across the street from the courthouse on Tuesday afternoon.
In a related move,US Justice Department and FBI investigators have amassed new evidence indicating possible obstruction by Trump in the probe into classified documents found at his Florida estate,theWashington Post reported,citing sources.
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FBI agents seized thousands of government records,some markedas highly classified,from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August. The investigation is one of two criminal inquiries into the former president being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
After his advisers received a subpoena in May demanding the return of the classified records,Trump looked through some of the boxes of government documents in his home out of an apparent desire to keep certain things in his possession,thePost reported,citing people familiar with the investigation.
Investigators also have evidence indicating Trump told others to mislead government officials in early 2022,before the subpoena,when the US National Archives and Records Administration was working to recover documents from Trump’s time as president,thePost reported.
The FBI referred questions to the Justice Department,which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to thePost,Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said that the “witch-hunts against president Trump have no basis in facts or law,” and accused Special Counsel Smith and the Justice Department of leaking information to manipulate public opinion.
Smith’s investigations are among a growing number of legal worries for Trump,who in November launched a campaign seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In addition to the New York probe,Trump faces a Georgia inquiry over whether he tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state.
AP,Reuters
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