When Trump told his Truth Social followers that he expected to be arrested on March 21, he sent the New York Police Department (NYPD) into a panic. The popular Republican told the New York Times that his supporters should protest because of the indictment, which made people worried. After that, a 911 bomb threat stopped court proceedings in Manhattan for a while, and more hoax calls clogged up the systems. To stop any protests, the NYPD decided to put all 36,000 of its officers on duty for the day.
CNN also got a copy of an internal law enforcement memo that said Tuesday would be a “high alert day,” even though no real threats had been reported.
Officials in New York City are reportedly worried that people might get back at them because Trump told his supporters to “protest, protest, protest” if he was taken to jail.
According to a department intelligence assessment that CNN got on Monday, the Capitol Police in Washington, DC, are not aware of any direct or real threats to the US Capitol.
Trump’s potential arrest comes after it was discovered that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels, a former porn star, $130,000 just days before the 2016 election in alleged “hush money.”
But the indictment isn’t likely to happen until Wednesday, and Trump probably won’t get to New York this week.
“They had their meeting and discussed a whole bunch of stuff about putting extra lighting out there, how they’re going to put more barriers out there, and send their special response teams in,” a law enforcement official said, according to the Daily Mail.
“The NYPD is going to do what they do when the United Nations comes into town, with stepped-up security,” they added. “But they don’t even think it’s going to happen this week.”
“The indictment may happen, but they don’t think Trump comes this week. I’m told there’s an additional witness who is going to testify on Wednesday, so if there’s an indictment, it’s not going to happen until Wednesday or Thursday, so they think he probably comes next week.”
