Will Trump be accused of delaying money? What happens next | World news

Every day, hundreds of people are taken into law enforcement custody in New York City. Former President Donald Trump is expected to become one of them as early as next week.

Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense attorneys said Wednesday, after an investigation into payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of a sex offender. The indictment itself remains sealed for now in the first criminal case brought against a former US president.

Trump — a Republican who attacked the case Wednesday as “political persecution” of a Democratic prosecutor of a “completely innocent man” — is expected to turn himself in to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter. but was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The person said the details of the incident are still being worked out.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said it has contacted Trump’s lawyer to coordinate his deposition and prosecution.

For any New York defendant, poor or powerful, answering criminal charges means being beaten and photographed, taking basic questions like name and date of birth, and accepting a plea. All told, defendants are usually detained for at least several hours.

There may be differences in where the different steps occur, how long they last, whether handcuffs come out and other details. Much depends on how serious the case is and whether the defendants are prepared to turn themselves in.

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But there is no playbook for signing the former president with US Secret Service protection. Representatives are tasked with the protection of former presidents unless they say they don’t need it. Trump has kept his information secret, so agents will need to be by his side at all times.

“This would be a unique exception,” said Jeremy Saland, a defense attorney and former prosecutor in Manhattan.

If Trump does indeed change, expect a carefully choreographed process and release without bail (as is common in New York) – and with a focus on security. A former president is unlikely to be paraded across the street or through a crowded courtroom, Saland predicted.

“It’s a public gathering, but safety is still the most important thing,” he noted.

If defendants are notified of an impending charge or arrest, they often arrange to turn themselves in. Doing so can speed up the process and strengthen arguments for bail by showing that they are not avoiding the case.

For example, when the former finance chief of the Trump administration, Allen Weisselberg, was indicted in Manhattan on tax fraud charges in 2021, he was able to put himself in the courtroom’s entrance before business hours. accurate.

The idea was “to minimize the possibility that the lawsuit would become a media frenzy,” his lawyers wrote in a subsequent court filing.

Weisselberg arrived around 6:15 a.m. and was taken to what his lawyers described as a “waiting room” for booking, a possible release interview, and other procedures. To pass the time, he brought a book – “Chicken Soup for the Heart of a Baseball Fan” – and his lawyers gave him a snack, face mask, breath mints and other items, according to the filing.

Weisselberg was arraigned and released about eight hours later, after walking into the courtroom past a phalanx of news cameras in the hallway. (Weisselberg eventually pleaded guilty to tax deductions on job benefits including free housing and tuition for his grandchildren.)

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, on the other hand, turned himself in to a Manhattan police station in 2018 to face rape and criminal sexual misconduct charges. He was briefly in a prison cell, he wrote the biography of the famous film director Elia Kazan, before he was taken out of jail and taken to court under the gaze of journalists on the street – and suspects another in the courthouse reservation area, where some hollered, “Yo, Harvey!”

Within about three hours of his release, Weinstein was arraigned and released on electronic monitoring and $1 million bail. (Weinstein was eventually convicted; his appeal is now before the New York Supreme Court. He was also tried on the same charges in Los Angeles.)

But even the arrest system is still very simple. Defendants have to hand over cell phones and some other personal items for safekeeping (and, in some cases, potential evidence), and attorneys general are not allowed to follow their clients through the process. the. Lawyers often advise traveling light and moving mother.

“Don’t say a word. Because you think you’re helping your case, but they can just use your information against you – because you’re caught in the moment, you’re nervous,” said Gianni Karmily, a defense attorney practicing in New York City. and on Long Island.

Many of the arrests in New York City were not planned in advance. That can be a very different experience for defendants, especially celebrities.

When a hotelier accused the then head of the International Monetary Fund and French presidential candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting him in 2011, he was kicked off the plane at Kennedy Airport.

Strauss-Kahn, who said his meeting with the woman was consensual, spent about 36 hours questioning her, arresting her, conducting various tests and standing in such places as a courtroom that held a pen before her trial and jailed without bail. After several days in the notorious Rikers Island jail, Strauss-Kahn was released on $1 million bail, under house arrest with military guards.

Manhattan prosecutors eventually dropped the criminal case against Strauss-Kahn, who later settled a civil suit by his accuser.