Barricades appear outside Manhattan criminal court as potential Trump arrest looms

Publish date: 2024-06-15

NEW YORK CITY (TND) — The Manhattan Criminal Court is reportedly set to be surrounded by barricades as former President Donald Trump expects to be arrested.

A New York grand jury is possibly set to indict Trump over an investigation into alleged hush money that was paid to pornstar Stormy Daniels during the former president's 2016 campaign.

On Saturday, Trump himself said he expects to be arrested sometime in the following week, possibly Tuesday, as a result of the investigation. He called upon supporters to protest his possible imminent arrest.

Now, on Monday, it seems the New York Police Department (NYPD) is taking steps to protect the Manhattan Criminal Court should those protests occur.

Workers could be seen unloading the steel barricades from an NYPD truck and stacking them outside the courthouse, The Hill reports. Many online shared photos of the steel barricades, stacked outside the courthouse.

Turning Point USA Founder and CEO Charlie Kirk also shared videos of the workers unloading the barricades on his Twitter account, saying "NYPD is setting up barricades outside Manhattan Criminal Court ahead of Trump arrest."

The National Desk reached out to the NYPD asking for confirmation and clarification on the barricades. In response to TND's multiple questions, the NYPD said the following in an emailed statement:

The NYPD’s state of readiness remains a constant at all times, for all contingencies. Our communications and coordination with our partners in government and in law enforcement are fundamental tenets of our commitment to public safety.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is the one reportedly set to indict Trump over the hush money allegations, has already said his office will "not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York," according to CNN.

Trump's lawyer and spokesperson has said that there has been no communication from prosecutors, the Associated Press reports, but that didn't stop Trump from declaring on his social media that he soon expects to be taken into custody.

The AP added that an indictment of Trump "would be an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings."

Washington insider Armstrong Williams told The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat that he's "pretty confident that Trump will be indicted but not over reasons that people are not talking about."

The bigger kahuna is Mar-a-Lago and the papers, Georgia and the elections and also Jan. 6," Williams said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called the possible indictment of former President Trump "fundamentally wrong," saying that it was politically motivated.

What we've seen in Manhattan is we've seen the crime rate go up and we've seen citizens become less safe, and so you're talking about this situation with -- and look I don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, I can't speak to that. But what I can speak to is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, you know, that's an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office and I think that's fundamentally wrong," DeSantis said.

As far as protests over the possible indictment and arrest go, while some supporters may be enthusiastic, it seems some GOP leaders are less so.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reportedly said on Sunday that there shouldn't be "violence or harm" over the potential arrest of the former Republican president. "I don’t think people should protest this stuff," McCarthy answered when asked about Trump's possible arrest, according to The Hill.

While Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence called the potential indictment "deeply troubling," according to The Hill, the publication adds that he also said, "violence will not be tolerated."

We respect the right of Americans to let their voice be heard and to express the frustration over what appears to be a politically motivated prosecution of the former president,” Pence reportedly said. “But we want to send a very clear message that violence will not be tolerated and anyone that would engage in violence would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

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