New York authorities prepare for protests by Trump supporters

New York City is preparing for a possible riot over the indictment of former President Donald Trump over the alleged payment for the silencing of porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign: workers erected barriers Monday around the Manhattan District Court building, whose prosecutors are prosecuting the criminal case against Trump.

If charges against the former president do come forward, it would be the first such case in U.S. history.

The grand jury, which heard additional testimony Monday, could indict as early as this week. Trump, who is again seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, suggested he would be arrested Tuesday.

On Monday, a grand jury heard testimony from a witness, attorney Robert Costello, who said former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels without Trump’s involvement.

“Michael Cohen decided on his own – that’s what he told us – to see if he could take care of it,” Costello told reporters after testifying to the grand jury at the request of Trump’s lawyers.

Cohen, who has testified twice before the grand jury, has said publicly that Trump instructed him to make the payments on his own behalf.

The indictment could derail Trump’s attempt to return to big politics. According to a poll released Monday by Ipsos and commissioned by Reuters, about 44 percent of Republicans think Trump should drop out of the presidential race if he is indicted.

The investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is one of several legal challenges facing Trump.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance law violations for arranging payments to Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) and another woman in exchange for their silence about the ties they said they had to Trump.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters that police are monitoring social media and “inappropriate activities” in the city. The New York City Police Department said no credible threats have been made yet.

If charged, Trump would likely have to fly to New York from Florida for fingerprinting and other procedures. Law enforcement officials, according to several media reports, met Monday to discuss logistics.

Sources say Bragg’s office presented the grand jury with evidence of a $130,000 payment made by Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.

Trump associates have already criticized the investigation as politically motivated.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump’s possible rival for the Republican presidential nomination, said Monday that Bragg was pushing a “political agenda” that threatened the rule of law while delivering a veiled blow to Trump.

“I don’t understand why you would pay a porn star money to remain silent about some alleged affair,” he told reporters.

Republicans in the House have launched an investigation into Bragg’s office, sending a letter demanding documents and testimony related to the investigation.

The House of Representatives has impeached Trump twice, once in 2019 because of his conduct on Ukraine and again in 2021 because of an attack by his supporters on the Capitol. Both times he was acquitted by senators.

Last December, Bragg secured a verdict against Trump’s company accused of tax fraud.

But legal analysts say the payment case for Stormy Daniels may be more complicated. Experts say Bragg’s office will have to prove that Trump intended to commit a crime, and his lawyers are likely to launch a series of counterattacks to try to get the case dismissed.

Trump, meanwhile, is facing other legal challenges. His lawyers on Monday asked a Georgia court to nullify a special grand jury report detailing an investigation into the former president’s alleged attempts to overturn his defeat in the state in the 2020 election.

The authors of the lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court are also trying to get District Attorney Fanie Willis to recuse herself from the case. Lawyers for the former president argue that her media appearances and social media posts demonstrated bias against Trump.

Trump is also trying to delay a civil fraud trial scheduled for Oct. 2 by the New York attorney general, which alleges that a company owned by the former president manipulated the value of his assets for years to get better terms from bankers and insurers.

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