Donald Trump.Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Donald Trumpwarned of “death & destruction” in an early Friday morning post on social media, as the country awaits a Manhattan grand jury’s vote on whether to indict the former president over an alleged hush money payment made to adult film starStormy Danielsin 2016.
The former president previously posted on social media thathe expected to be arrested this past Tuesday, urging his supporters to protest if that happens and “take our nation back.”
For law enforcement agencies, Trump’s call for protests and suggestions of “death and destruction” have conjured images ofJan. 6, 2021, when the then-president called on a group of supporters to “fight like hell” and “march to the U.S. Capitol” as he continued to claim the election he lost was somehow rigged against him.
Once at the Capitol, his supporters overtook Capitol Police officers (in some cases physically beating them) and entered the building illegally. The mob forced the evacuation of lawmakers in what soon became a deadly scene, leading to multiple investigations, hundreds of arrests and thedeath of a Capitol officer.
Already, security officials in both New York and Washington, D.C. have been preparing for a possible indictment of Trump, withThe New York Timesreporting that senior officials from the district attorney’s office and the New York Police Department — which handles security where an arraignment would take place — have met to prepare for potential security threats.
Trump’s legal issues in New York stem from an allegedsexual encounter he had with Danielsin 2006.
In 2018, theWall Street Journalreported thathe’d arranged a $130,000 paymentto the ex-porn star a month before the 2016 election so she’d keep quiet about it. Trump and his longtime (now former) attorney Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of an affair, though Cohen later admitted that there was a payment made to the porn star.
Trump has since admitted he authorized a $130,000 payment to Cohen, but has continued to deny the underlying claims that the two had an affair or that the payment was in any way connected to his campaign.
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Earlier this week, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy urged “calmness” in the event of an arrest of the former president, saying: “Nobody should harm one another…We want calmness out there.”
source: people.com
