Trump is considering how to use an indictment as a rally cry
Trump’s attorneys aren’t going to challenge any charges in his indictment, but they’re going to try to dismiss them
Donald Trump’s legal team will look to challenge “every potential issue” in his indictment once the charges are unsealed, an attorney for the former president said Sunday.
We haven’t seen the indictment so we aren’t doing anything at the arraignment. Joe tacopina told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that he would take the indictment, study it, and challenge it.
If the trial of Trump was going to focus on whether Michael Cohen lied to Congress about payments totalling $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, then he might as well be a central witness.
The lawyers have said that they would ask for the charges to be dismissed. But the full slate of charges isn’t known. The judge is ultimately able to determine if the law is sound enough for the case to go to trial.
We can speculate on what the evidence is, but we really don’t know what the district attorney’s evidence is and what he’s going to present at trial.
“I very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming, because there’s no law that fits this,” Tacopina said, accusing Bragg, a local prosecutor, of overstepping his powers by seeking to charge a federal election crime. It is pointless to assess Trump’s claims since the charges haven’t been made public. CNN’s John Miller reported last week that Trump will face more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
“They’re not false entries. If they were, they had to cobble them together to try and get a felony, since they were too far past the statute of limitations.
The New York Times reports that the ex-President reportedly is pissed off by the Manhattan District Attorney after he was indicted
Trump’s legal team isn’t currently considering asking to move the case to a different New York City borough, Tacopina said. He told George Stephanopoulos in a previous interview that there was no discussion of that. “It’s way too premature to start worrying about venue changes until we really see the indictment and grapple with the legal issues.”
In between conversations with allies, the former president played golf at his Trump International Golf Course Friday, before joining his wife Melania Trump and members for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club, where he appeared quieter than usual, a source familiar with the events said, noting that Trump left the dinner scene earlier than usual that night.
According to more than half a dozen people who spoke with the former president or members of his inner circle this weekend he disclosed fundraising numbers and said he would fight the charges.
CNN said that the former president was playing golf in Florida over the weekend and pondering how to use it to his advantage after he was indicted.
“[Trump’s] definitely pissed off and wants to take this on aggressively, but he has been pretty low-key for Trump,” one source familiar with the former president’s recent conversations said.
The former president has seemingly saved his rage for his social media site, escalating his attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and leveling threats. Last week, Trump also went after the judge he’s expected to appear in front of on Tuesday, claiming the judge “hates” him.
A source who has spoken to Trump in recent days said that the President is thinking about how this will help him, but he is also pondering what this will mean for his future.
Sources said that on Saturday Trump stepped out of the club to wave to the supporters and then staff brought the group’s hats.
Trump and his closest advisers spent the weekend planning out what his week would look like, and by Sunday night, the exact plan had not been finalized.
The Secret Service, the New York Police Department and the court officers are coordinating security for Trump’s expected appearance. The Secret Service is scheduled to accompany Trump in the early afternoon to the district attorney’s office, which is in the same building as the courthouse.
His team has spent the last several days presenting the former president with polls showing him with a growing lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, currently considered Trump’s biggest 2024 rival, in a head-to-head match up. And his team says it has raised more than $5 million dollars since he was indicted Thursday.
But sources familiar with the preparations were uncertain as to whether a mugshot would be taken, because Trump’s appearance is widely known, there are millions of pictures of him available, and authorities were concerned about the improper leaking of a mugshot, which would be a violation of state law.
The People of the State of New York against Donald J. Trump: The Campaign for Justice, Justice, and Freedoms in the Light of the Trump Witch-Hog Indictment
After days of fundraising off the indictment, including a video plea from the former president in both an email and Truth Social post, the team released a memo from campaign heads Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita saying they had raised more than $5 million in the 48 hours following the indictment.
“Poll after poll show this political persecution by the Manhattan DA has surged overwhelming support for President Trump,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. The millions of dollars in donations and volunteers that have signed up since the witch-hunt hoax was announced are proof that Americans from all races are tired of being targeted by the justice system.
An ally said that Trump knows that the people know it’s all political. “This can only boost his support.”
Donald Trump will take America through yet another grave and unprecedented national drama this week when he becomes the first ex-president to appear in court charged with a crime.
The 45th president is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday in Manhattan, the stage where he built his legend as a brash popular culture figure and real estate magnate but which could now, in the case of “The People of the State of New York against Donald J. Trump,” engineer his downfall.
Trump is expected to leave Florida around noon ET on Monday, landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport around 3 p.m. ET, according to a source familiar with his plans. The former president will stay at Trump Tower Monday night and is expected to depart New York immediately after Tuesday’s arraignment to head back to Florida, the source said.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases. The US political and legal systems are likely to be under a lot of stress once again because he came down the escalator in Trump Tower to launch his campaign in 2015.
Some legal experts have questioned if a case that appears to be related to accounting practices and campaign finance violations is enough to merit indicting a former president who is already running again.
The Trump team gave a preview of their forthcoming defense in the run-up to Tuesday’s appearance. The power of the new GOP House majority could be used by his loyalists to try to stop Bragg’s prosecution. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said the ex-president’s team would loudly and proudly declare he is not guilty and signaled an attempt to try to prevent the case ever from reaching trial.
The indictment of the ex-president has been celebrated by his critics as a sign that nobody is above the law, however, the ex- president is actually getting worse treatment than an ordinary citizen would.
“Had he not been running for office right now, for the office of the presidency – which, by the way, the polls have shown since this has been announced, his numbers have gone up significantly – had he not been running for presidency, he would not have been indicted,” Tacopina said. Bragg has made no public comment since the indictment came down last week.
Michael Cohen was a convicted liar. He’s lied to banks, the IRS, Congress,” Tacopina said. But Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, hit back, warning on “State of the Union” that a Trump defense shredding his client’s reputation would not work. “My old friend Joe Tacopina … (has) a wrong strategy if he thinks he’s building his whole strategy on personal attacks on Michael Cohen,” Davis said.
Intense security is already in place in New York given the political sensitivities of the case and after Trump warned of potential “death and destruction” ahead of being charged, especially given his past incitement before the Capitol insurrection. So far, however, Trump’s calls for protests have not drawn many of his supporters onto the streets.
Trump isn’t going to stop battling Bragg and Joe Biden: the Case for Changing the Classification of the 2024 White House
A shadow campaign has been set up for DeSantis to offer policies without chaos or distraction of the ex-president if he were to run. And many Republicans are already concerned that an indicted GOP nominee could be a liability in a general election in November 2024. Another Republican, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has called on Trump to step aside because of the indictment, announced his own run for president on Sunday.
In a statement on Thursday, Trump showed that he will respond to this brush with political fate in the same way he has lashed out at previous threats in his business and political career – with fury and by seeking to use his political power to stir up huge disruption and partisan anger.
He said that the witch-hunt will backfire on Joe Biden. The Americans know exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing. Everyone can see it. The movement and the party are united and strong, so we will win the battle against Bragg and then oust Biden so we can make America great again.
His approach means that this Tuesday is likely to be just the start of a new, dramatic and divisive chapter in Trump’s political career and another extreme test for America.
The expected voluntary surrender of a former president and 2024 White House candidate will be a unique affair in more ways than one – both for the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the New York courthouse where he’ll be arraigned and for a nation watching to see how it’ll shake up the GOP presidential primary.
But even before Trump’s appearance, his presence will be felt in the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday, as all trials and most other court activity is being halted before he is slated to arrive.
When defendants are arrested, they are booked in a cell near the courtroom and charged with a crime. That will not happen with Trump. Once the former president is finished being processed, he’ll be taken through a back set of hallways and elevators to the floor where the courtroom is located. He’ll then come out to a public hallway to walk into the courtroom.
Several media outlets, including CNN, have asked a New York judge to unseal the indictment and for permission to broadcast Trump’s expected appearance in the courtroom on Tuesday.
In order to make sure the operations of the court aren’t disrupted, the news organization sent a letter requesting a limited number of photographers, videographers, and radio journalists to be present at the arraignment.
Merchan, an acting New York Supreme Court justice, has sentenced Trump’s close confidant Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and overseen former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.
Merchan does not stand for disruptions or delays, attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN, and he’s known to maintain control of his courtroom even when his cases draw considerable attention.
Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said during an interview Friday on CNN that Merchan was “not easy” on him when he tried a case before him but that he will likely be fair.
I have tried cases in front of him before. He could be a tough guy. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be something that’s going to change his ability to evaluate the facts and the law in this case,” Parlatore said.
Tacopina told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday that the former president will plead not guilty. His team “will look at every potential issue that we will be able to challenge, and we will challenge,” Tacopina said.
Bragg and the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary: What he could have done about it, not what he didn’t: A comment on Hutchinson
Bragg was attacked by many of his allies, critics and likely opponents in the 2024 Republican presidential primary race.
The office is more important than an individual person. So for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction,” Hutchinson said in an interview on ABC News. “He needs to be able to concentrate on his due process.”
