Former President Donald Trump.
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Law enforcement agencies in New York are reportedly taking security precautions ahead of a possible indictment against Donald Trump.
A grand jury is weighing whether to bring criminal charges against the former president.
Trump has called on his supporters to protest if prosecutors “do anything wrong.”
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is discussing security measures with law enforcement officials ahead of potential criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, according to Fox News.
Fox News anchor John Roberts reported Friday afternoon that Bragg’s office requested a meeting to discuss logistics and security preparations with the Secret Service, which continues to guard Trump since he left the White House in 2021.
A representative for the Manhattan district attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
NBC News reported Friday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, New York Police Department, Secret Service, FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and New York State Court Officers were all conducting preliminary security assessments ahead of a possible indictment.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has empaneled a grand jury to examine whether Trump broke state laws based on his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen’s claims that Trump directed him to make hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress who said she had an affair with Trump, ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
If Trump is indicted, he’ll likely be brought into the district attorney’s office in downtown Manhattan and be fingerprinted and processed, as Insider’s Laura Italiano reported, before being taken to a judge. Charging documents are typically unsealed at the time the defendant first appears in court.
In the case of high-profile defendants, the Manhattan district attorney’s office typically makes arrangements with the defendant’s legal team so that the booking can be discreet and to minimize the possibility of security issues, according to Michael Bachner, a New York-based lawyer and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan.
“When you’re surrendering someone that has any degree of notoriety, more security-conscious issues always exist,” Bachner told Insider.
Trump has asked his supporters to defend him. At a rally last year, he called on them to stage mass protests against law enforcement.
“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had,” he told a cheering crowd.
Courts in Manhattan and Atlanta — where Trump also faces a potential criminal case — have prepared for potential chaos, Insider previously reported.
Lucian Chalfen, the director of public information for the New York state court system, previously told Insider that the courts had 4,000 officers standing by with similar training as the New York city and state police departments.
“We are one of the few court systems nationally who have a law-enforcement arm under our roof,” Chalfen told Insider. “The 4,000 court officers make it one of the largest municipal public safety departments in the country.”