Trump won’t refuse to surrender if impeached in New York, lawyer says: ‘There won’t be a showdown at Mar-a-Lago’
Former President Donald Trump will not refuse to turn himself in if the Manhattan district attorney charges him criminally, his lawyer told the Daily News on Friday.
“There will not be a showdown at Mar-a-Lago with the Secret Service and the Manhattan district attorney’s office,” Joe Tacopina said.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is believed to be about to make a prosecution decision in his office’s long-running investigation into Trump and his business dealings.
If Trump is charged, he must turn himself in to authorities in New York and appear in court to plead guilty to the charges. In theory, a judge could agree to conduct the hearing remotely, but virtually no criminal defendants are being prosecuted at the moment, according to Lucian Chalfen of the Office of Court Administration.
The district attorney’s office has asked various local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the NYPD, state court officials and the Secret Service, to meet to discuss potential security concerns sometime next week. , two sources reported on the request, who asked to remain anonymous. he told The News.
The New York police did not immediately respond to a request for information about security preparations. Manhattan District Attorney’s spokeswoman Emily Tuttle declined to comment.
Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Clerks Association, said they would all be working if an indictment is filed.
“The officers of the court will be working hand in hand with the NYPD and the Secret Service to make this process as easy and safe for all parties involved,” Quirk said.
The grand jury proceedings are confidential and it is not known whether the group assembled in January will vote to impeach Trump. If he does, the criminal case will mark the first against a former president in US history.
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Sources connected to the investigation, which has been going on for about four years, say Bragg is considering charging Trump with crimes related to how he and his firm classified refund checks to Cohen for hush money payments to Daniels and concealed the payment to conceal a second offense.
On Wednesday, former Trump mediator Michael Cohen testified before a grand jury that heard evidence in the investigation. He said each of the embargoed jurors asked him a question, adding that he was “confident” that he had provided the most complete account of the 2016 hush-money deal with Daniels, for which he served time in federal prison.
“I am relieved that my role is now, for the moment, over. I have complied with all requests made to me by the district attorney’s office,” Cohen said.
Trump has denied the sexual encounter with Daniels and has recently described himself as a victim of extortion in connection with hush pay, which Daniels denies.
Earlier this week, Tacopina said that Trump would not accept an invitation from the prosecutor’s office to testify, a courtesy call that further fueled speculation that the investigation is winding down.
On Friday, Tacopina said that Trump, who is running for the White House for the third time, would find a way to use potential criminal charges to his advantage.
“Most people would collapse under the weight of this,” Tacopina told The News. “He seems to turn everything into something positive and everything into momentum for his campaign, so I’m sure this will join that long list of things that people think nobody could ever get over, but they will.”