Former President Donald Trump has reportedly said he wants to be hauled into court in handcuffs if he’s slapped with unprecedented charges in the “hush money” case involving porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump, 76, told advisers of his plan, saying that if he has to go through the ordeal of getting arrested and arraigned, he’d prefer making it a “spectacle,” The Guardian said Wednesday, citing unidentified sources close to him.
The ex-president — who’s seeking the Republican nomination for a third White House bid in 2024 — also wants to avoid any special treatment that could make him look weak, the sources reportedly said.
It’s unclear how serious Trump is about the plan, which could be stymied by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, The Guardian said.
Trump’s lawyers are also adamantly opposed and have urged him to surrender quietly and be arraigned remotely if he’s indicted, The Guardian said.
The lawyers have reportedly pointed to Secret Service concerns about security, leading Trump to tell pals this past weekend that he didn’t care if he got shot because it would make him “a martyr.”
Trump also speculated that an attack on him could propel him back to the presidency, The Guardian said.
No ex-US president has ever been charged with a crime.
A grand jury has been hearing evidence against Trump since late January over the October 2016 payment of $130,000 to Daniels by then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to cover up her alleged 2006 with Trump, who denies having cheated on his wife Melania Trump with Daniels.
The panel had been scheduled to reconvene Wednesday afternoon but the session was unexpectedly postponed by Bragg, with the grand jurors told to stay home and be on standby for Thursday, sources told The Post.
Bragg is reportedly considering charges that include falsifying business records with the intent to violate federal campaign-finance rules, a novel legal theory that would make the offense a felony punishable by up to four years in state prison.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison for crimes that included for arranging the payment to Daniels, telling the judge, “I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
Cohen testified before the grand jury twice last week.
