Playbook: Trump braces for an imminent arrest
By RACHAEL
BADE, EUGENE DANIELS and RYAN LIZZA
03/18/2023 11:18 AM EDT
With help
from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
FILE -
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina
Statehouse, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Donald
Trump raised the specter of resistance, if not violent revolt, in a post this
morning. | Alex Brandon, File/AP Photo
DRIVING THE
DAY
Following a
flurry of reports yesterday suggesting the former president will be indicted by
New York prosecutors within days, DONALD TRUMP said publicly this morning that
he’s preparing to be charged as soon as Tuesday.
Trump’s
Truth Social post: “BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER
PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE &
FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY
OF NEXT WEEK.”
NBC’s
Jonathan Dienst scooped the news yesterday afternoon that “local, state and
federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing” for Trump’s
indictment over allegations that he paid off porn star STORMY DANIELS during
the 2016 campaign to keep her quiet about an alleged affair she’d had with the
married Trump in 2006. Dienst wrote that state and federal agencies were
“conducting preliminary security assessments” and “discussing potential
security plans” surrounding a potential Trump appearance at Manhattan’s
criminal courthouse.
Trump’s
attorney JOE TACOPINA said his client will surrender without a physical
altercation. “There won’t be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and
the Manhattan DA’s office,” Tacopina said. Trump would be expected to travel to
New York to enter a plea to the charges in person. More from the N.Y. Daily
News
But Trump
himself raised the specter of resistance, if not violent revolt, in his post
this morning. “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” he wrote — a call to arms
reminiscent of his Dec. 19, 2020, Twitter summons inviting his most ardent
followers to Washington on Jan. 6 to stop JOE BIDEN’s presidential victory from
being certified in Congress.
As our
colleagues Josh Gerstein, Kyle Cheney and Erica Orden write this morning, the
battle cry “is indicative of the type of civil unrest he could unleash if he
faces charges.”
There’s
been plenty of confusion and surprise about why this particular Trump scandal
might end up being the one that sticks — particularly because investigators
who’ve previously looked into the hush-money allegations have declined to
charge him. In the summer of 2019, federal prosecutors in New York closed a
probe of the scheme, a year after winning a guilty plea from Trump attorney
MICHAEL COHEN over his role in facilitating the $130,000 payment for Daniels’
silence.
Likewise,
congressional Democrats around that time briefly considered a deep dive into
the allegations. Top aides for then-House Judiciary Chair JERRY NADLER (D-N.Y.)
even discussed immunity for Trump associates in return for their testimony. But
Democratic leaders forced Nadler to put that idea on ice, and the House ended
up impeaching Trump later that year on completely separate grounds.
WaPo has a
big read this morning about Manhattan DA ALVIN BRAGG, the embattled prosecutor
who resurrected what had seemed like a cold case. Bragg has been under fire
from NYC’s mayor and police commissioner, even his own prosecutors, Mark
Berman, Shayna Jacobs, Devlin Barrett and Josh Dawsey write.
“What still
remains unclear is why Bragg and his office seemingly pivoted from a probe
centered on Trump’s alleged practice of overvaluing his assets to the hush
money issue that now appears to be the grand jury’s focus,” they write. “Within
Bragg’s office, this matter had been known in the past as the ‘zombie’ case.”
News of a
looming indictment comes after six years’ worth of Trump-related investigations
have failed to result in serious legal repercussions. Now, however, Bragg’s
charges might only be the first ripple in a wave of accountability headed in
Trump’s direction:
CNN’s
Kaitlan Collins, Devan Cole and Katelyn Polantz write that “in a monumental
ruling Friday, a federal judge ordered Donald Trump attorney EVAN CORCORAN to
provide additional testimony as part of an investigation into the former
president’s handling of classified documents.”
The Daily
Beast’s Jose Pagliery scoops that in addition to granting the Justice
Department permission to question Corcoran about the matter, outgoing Chief
Judge BERYL HOWELL also handed his notes directly to prosecutors — “what she
deemed evidence of a crime involving the former president improperly hoarding
classified documents after he left office.”
Also on the
classified docs front: A six-byline WaPo piece this morning puts the spotlight
on Trump aide WALT NAUTA, who “could provide evidence that illuminates … [how]
Trump repeatedly resisted requests to return documents, and may have obstructed
law enforcement efforts to retrieve them.”
Meanwhile,
back in New York, Trump and E. JEAN CARROLL, who accused Trump of raping her in
the mid-1990s, “agreed to a single trial on whether Trump defamed the former
Elle magazine columnist,”according to Reuters.
And let’s
not forget that Georgia prosecutor FANI WILLIS could still seek charges
surrounding Trump’s attempts to pressure election officials into “finding”
enough votes for him to win the state in 2020.
Trump, for
his part, is keeping his focus on his campaign. His inner circle has long held
that such charges will only rally the base to his side, helping him win the
nomination. Trump is now back on Facebook, and his team announced last night
that he is planning his first campaign rally in Waco, Texas, on March 25.
Good
Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade,
Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
SCOOPLET:
HALEY SWIPES AT DeSANTIS ON UKRAINE — NIKKI HALEY used a Thursday night
gathering with more than 700 Orthodox Jews at Palm Beach Synagogue to jab
Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS in his own backyard. Asked about suggestions that the
U.S. should stop assisting Ukraine fight the Russian invasion, the former U.S.
ambassador to the U.N. told the crowd, “With all due respect, your governor is
wrong,” according to audio obtained by Playbook.
“We need to
have the back of Ukraine,” she said to applause. “This is bigger than Ukraine.
This is about a war for freedom, and it’s one we have to win.”
“This is in
the national security interest of America,” she continued. “If we lose this, if
Ukraine doesn’t win this war, Russia has said Poland and the Baltics are next.
And we’re looking at a world war. … If we win this war, this sends a message to
China on Taiwan, it sends a message to Iran with the bomb, it sends a message
to North Korea that’s doing missiles every week. This is not a time to get weak
in the knees when it comes to Russia. This is the time to double down.”
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