Guest Editorials, Opinion

Arrest, indictment may await Trump

Insurrectionist-in-chief Donald Trump used Truth Social Saturday morning to say that “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!”  

We hope so and we hope that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his grand jury have built a solid felony case against Trump for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money in October 2016 in a cover-up conspiracy of their tryst. The facts are well established and former Trump bagman Michael Cohen already pleaded guilty and did federal time for his role in the scheme. 

If Trump is right, he will have to surrender for his arrest, using either the entrance at 100 Centre St. or at 1 Hogan Place. With his Secret Service detail present, he will be handcuffed, booked, fingerprinted and have his mug shot taken.  Even though he is very dangerous and may have summoned the mob calling for protests to “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” he will likely not be jailed on Rikers, but allowed to go free until his trial. 

That is where Trump needs to fight this case: in the courtroom, not in the streets.  

Trump will claim it is all politics and politics may help him. In 2020, Trump won 85,185 Manhattan votes, 12% of the total, so there’s a good chance that there will be at least one Trump voter on the jury. And it only takes one to acquit. 

This editorial first appeared in the New York Daily News. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.