Officials in New York are reportedly preparing how to prepare for the potentially historic arrest of Donald Trump over hush money paid to former adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
A Manhattan grand jury is believed to be making a decision on whether to indict the former president soon, with Trump himself making an uncorroborated claim that he will be arrested on Tuesday as part of the probe. It has since been reported that should an indictment be announced, an arraignment may not arrive until next week.
If the grand jury votes to indict Trump, he would have to surrender or be extradited to New York for arraignment. Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, has repeatedly suggested that the former president will give himself up to authorities willingly should he be indicted
However, Trump is known to be unpredictable and frequently takes steps to delay any legal or civil proceedings against him, leading to speculation that Trump may not be so willing to surrender to the Manhattan Criminal Court.
While preparing what to do if a former president refuses to surrender to authorities is difficult given the unprecedented circumstances, there are some steps that can be predicted.
If Trump takes the unlikely step of not traveling to New York to surrender, it can be assumed the former president will remain at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he spends most of his time. In this case, the person who must approve Trump’s extradition to New York would be Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
This would put DeSantis, long thought the biggest challenger to Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, in a particularly difficult position.
A number of Trump loyalists have already criticized DeSantis for not speaking out against the apparent upcoming arrest of the former president, even when confirmed and potential GOP 2024 hopefuls such as former Vice President Mike Pence and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have.
By signing off on the extradition, DeSantis would face further scrutiny for apparently attempting to derail Trump’s 2024’s hopes even before the Florida governor has confirmed his own intentions to run for the White House.
However, as noted by The New York Times, under state law, DeSantis’ role in this scenario would essentially be ministerial and he would have few options other than approve an extradition request. DeSantis would also risk legal action against him by failing to sign off on the extradition of Trump.
Prosecutors are looking into whether the $130,000 Trump arranged for his attorney Michael Cohen to pay Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with the former president a secret ahead of the 2016 election amounted to a campaign violation.
The investigation is also examining if any records were falsified when Cohen was reimbursed for the money, which was listed in Trump Organization records as legal fees.
Given that Trump is essentially accused of a white-collar crime, which may only result in misdemeanor charges, it is highly unlikely that authorities will carry out a raid at Mar-a-Lago in order to get him to surrender.
