The Secret Service is grappling with the unprecedented scenario of potentially having to protect former President Donald Trump if he is incarcerated following his criminal trial in Manhattan. The trial, which began last week, involves Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal. It marks the first time a former U.S. president has faced criminal prosecution.
The New York Times reported that, behind the scenes, officials from the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies had held preliminary discussions about the logistics of protecting Trump if he were to be incarcerated. These talks were sparked by prosecutors’ request to consider the possibility of jailing Trump for contempt during the trial, even before a verdict is reached.
The Times noted that the Secret Service faces a “logistical nightmare of safely incarcerating” Trump. “Obviously, it’s uncharted territory,” said Martin F. Horn, a former high-ranking official in New York’s state prison system. “Certainly no state prison system has had to deal with this before, and no federal prison has had to either.”
If Trump were to be imprisoned, the Secret Service would face the challenge of ensuring his safety 24/7. Measures would likely include keeping him separate from other inmates and constant monitoring. Agents would be armed, despite the general prohibition of firearms in prison facilities.
The discussions so far have focused on short-term scenarios, such as holding Trump in a courthouse cell if he were found in contempt of court. However, the more complex issue of long-term incarceration has yet to be fully addressed, given the likelihood of prolonged appeals if Trump is convicted.
During a hearing Tuesday to determine whether Trump violated Justice Juan Merchan’s gag order, prosecutors said they were not seeking incarceration as a sanction.
Manhattan prosecutors finally revealed the specific crime that Donald Trump allegedly attempted to conceal by falsifying business records related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. Defense attorneys had objected to questions to former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker about his discussions with Steve Bannon, and prosecutor Joshua Steinglass revealed that those discussions were relevant to the “primary” underlying crime that kicks the charges Trump faces up from a misdemeanor to a felony, reported MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
“Bannon’s requests to Pecker are relevant to the ‘primary’ underlying crime that Trump was trying to commit or conceal under New York Election Law 17-152,” Rubin wrote. “Bragg’s office has not identified with any precision what the crime is that Trump allegedly intended to commit or conceal,” she added. “Through this sidebar about an evidentiary objection, Steinglass has now admitted that New York Election Law 17-152, which prohibits conspiracies to promote the election of a specific candidate through unlawful means, is that ‘primary’ predicate.”
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. That charge is a felony instead of a misdemeanor in New York if it’s done with an intent to “commit another crime or to aid or conceal” one.
Pecker testified that Trump had assured him that he and Bannon, his campaign chief executive officer at the time, would “work very well together,” and Bannon asked the publisher to send him issues of the Enquirer to review.
The indictment alleges that Trump directed his then-attorney Michael Cohen to pay off adult movie actress Stormy Daniels to ensure her silence about an alleged sexual relationship years earlier and then falsified business records to appear that reimbursements for that scheme were payments for legal services.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has alleged the records were falsified to cover up another crime, which Steinglass revealed in the sidebar to be the state election law against promoting a specific candidate through unlawful means.
The payments to Daniels came in the final weeks of the 2016 election campaign, when Trump’s candidacy sustained a near-fatal blow when the “Access Hollywood” recording emerged showing the Republican nominee casually boasting about sexually assaulting women and getting away with it due to his fame.
