His indictment by a Manhattan grand jury is expected, but its timing is unclear.
The link above is to The NY Times report by By Maggie Haberman, Alan Feuer, Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, updated at 9:22am ET.
With his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury expected but its timing uncertain, former President Donald J. Trump declared on his social media site Saturday that he would be arrested on Tuesday, and demanded that his supporters protest on his behalf.
Mr. Trump made the declaration on Truth Social at 7:26. a.m., in a post written in all capital letters that ended by saying, “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment. An adviser to Mr. Trump did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Although prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, have signaled that an indictment of Mr. Trump could be imminent, there was no immediate indication as to why the former president appeared confident that he would be arrested Tuesday. People with knowledge of the matter have said that at least one more witness is expected to testify in front of the grand jury, which could slightly delay any indictment.
The link above should allow passage through the Times paywall. The gist of the article is that while Trump has posted this message, people around him are saying that no one on his team has any specific information on when an indictment might be issued. There’s a suggestion someone told him it might happen on Tuesday, and the former president reacted with the Truth Social post.
Officials have been preparing for different scenarios in anticipation of an indictment being handed down — there are multiple possibilities — and this seems to confirm Trump is calling for a protest along the lines of January 6.
Mr. Trump, who faced his first criminal investigation in the late 1970s, has been deeply anxious about the prospect of being arrested, which is expected to include being fingerprinted, one of the people close to him said. When the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, was arrested in 2021, Mr. Trump watched in horror as television coverage showed Mr. Weisselberg flanked by officers in the courthouse and said he couldn’t believe what was being done to him.
The call for protests echoed Mr. Trump’s call to his supporters, in the waning days of his presidency, to join him for a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, the day President Biden’s win was to be certified by a congressional approval of the electoral college votes. At that rally, at the Ellipse near the White House, Mr. Trump then told supporters to march to the Capitol, where the certification was taking place.
Mr. Trump’s post urging his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” carried unmistakable echoes of the incendiary messages he posted online in the weeks before the attack on the Capitol. In the most notorious of those messages, he announced on Twitter that he would hold a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. “Be there,” he told his millions of followers, “will be wild.”
More developments will be following from this. The reaction of right wing media will be something to watch. Will they amplify Trump’s call for protests? How will his base respond?
The unexpected Saturday morning salvo from the former president provided a preview of the kind of chaos that Mr. Bragg is likely to face if he moves forward with an indictment in the near future.
The district attorney, a former federal prosecutor and deputy New York attorney general, has some history prosecuting public officials. But he is unaccustomed to dealing with a figure as high-profile, erratic and pugilistic as the former president, and it is unclear how his office will deal with future outbursts from Mr. Trump.
The insurrection is not over.
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Are you surprised by this message from Trump?
No - threats are what he does when challenged.
No - this is Trump being Trump.
No - it's one more sign that no one can control Donald Trump, not even Trump himself.
Yes - stupid is as stupid does, but he's pushing the boundaries here.
Hey - if he's done nothing wrong, he has nothing to worry about.
Pie - and get the popcorn ready.
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