Shocker: Trump Was Bullshitting About Arrest Timing
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Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he was going to be arrested on Tuesday. It didn’t happen, and it’s not going to happen Wednesday, either.
Rolling Stone has confirmed a report from Insider that the Manhattan grand jury will not meet on Wednesday, which means they won’t be able to vote to indict the former president on charges related to the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
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The grand jury has typically been meeting Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Trump could still be charged and arrested this week, but the situation appears far more fluid than it did a few days ago when the NYPD were erecting barricades outside the Manhattan Criminal Court and District Attorney Alvin Bragg was meeting with Secret Service to discuss security measures.
The former president announced his impending arrest on Saturday, a day after Fox News reported that prosecutors had requested a meeting with law enforcement to discuss logistics of taking him into custody. “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” Trump wrote.
Trump and his campaign have made hay over the frenzy — using video of the NYPD setting up barricades to shake down supporters for donations, pressuring chief 2024 rival Ron DeSantis to comment, and railing incessantly about how jailing Trump is the only way Democrats can prevent him from defeating President Biden. (Trump lost to Biden by over seven million votes in 2020.)
The New York Times even reported on Tuesday that Trump is relishing the prospect of a perp walk. It’s unlikely this will happen if and when he does get arrested, as authorities have reportedly been discussing how to avoid such a spectacle, but the report makes clear that the former president is treating his potential arrest as a PR boon. He’s slated to host a rally in Waco, Texas, on Saturday.
Regardless of whether Trump gets to flash a grin during a perp walk, there’s been plenty of friendly spectacle in the media, with Fox News rallying to his defense and his closest allies bashing DeSantis over an extradition dilemma that doesn’t actually exist given that Trump’s lawyers have said he will turn himself over voluntarily. “Ron DeSantis should be standing in the breach” to prevent Trump’s arrest, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said of the Florida governor on Wednesday.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL): “Ron DeSantis should be standing in the breach to stop any sort of extradition of President Trump from the state of Florida.” pic.twitter.com/LwpbJUD5pK
— The Recount (@therecount) March 22, 2023
Trump is undoubtedly delighted by all of this, just as he was undoubtedly delighted by how his supporters — and the Republican Party as a whole — rallied to his defense as he pushed lies about the 2020 election. The end result then was violence. It could be this time, too. Rolling Stone reported on Tuesday that Trump’s call for people to protest his arrest sparked a wave of threats reminiscent of what preceded Jan. 6, including death threats against Bragg and others.
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