An attorney for President Donald Trump assured supporters that no dramatic arrest will be made if the president is soon indicted by New York prosecutors. In fact, the attorney claims, President Trump may come back stronger than ever as a result.
Speaking with the New York Daily News, attorney Joe Tacopina said:
“There won’t be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DA’s office.
“Most people would collapse under the weight of this,” Tacopina said. “He seems to turn everything into a positive and everything into a boost for his campaign, so I’m sure this will just join that long list of things that people think no one could overcome, but he will.”
District Attorney Alvin Bragg is believed to be close to issuing an indictment against the former president relating to hush-money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels over a secret affair. The payment, made by Trump’s former attorney and fix-man man Michael Cohen, was made just before Trump entered the 2016 presidential race. Cohen has been cooperating with prosecutors in a tell-all against his former boss.
Any indictment would require President Trump to surrender to NY authorities, appear for a court arraignment, and enter a plea, all of which could be theoretically be done remotely from Mar-A-Lago.
Cohen served a year in prison over the $130,000 payment to Daniels after pleading guilty to multiple charges in 2018. Cohen has maintained he made the payments at Trump’s direction. President Trump has claimed that the payment was made as part of legal proceedings and did not involve campaign funds which face a much stricter set of guidelines for expenses and reporting requirements.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung claimed the investigation by the New York DA is a politically-motivated “witch hunt” against a former president who is “completely innocent” of the expected charges and has done “nothing wrong.”