According to a person familiar, New York City officials intend to close important roadways in lower Manhattan as a security precaution when former President Donald Trump arrives in court on Tuesday to be arraigned.
Centre Street, Baxter Street, and other streets near the Manhattan courtroom are anticipated to be restricted to traffic, and Worth Street, Canal Street, and other nearby streets may also face sporadic closures, the source said.
The person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the situation is private said that parking for vehicles nearby may also be disallowed.
Trump, the first former US president to be charged, is scheduled to show up in court on Tuesday in the afternoon. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, called a grand jury. Who had been looking into Trump’s part in payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels as hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign, decided on Thursday that there was enough evidence to file criminal charges against him.
Trump, who is vying for the Republican presidential nomination next year, has denied any wrongdoing and referred to the investigation and the charge as a politicized attack. Democrat Bragg is.
In the lower Manhattan courthouse, preparations for Trump’s arraignment were evident as early as Friday afternoon.
The courtroom and its doors were toured by a group of Secret Service agents and New York Police Department officers on Friday, who appeared to be tracing the former president’s movement through the structure. Afterwards, entry to the floor where New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, the judge who will hear Trump’s case, keeps his courtroom, was prohibited.
On Friday just before dusk, a park department worker locked the gates, shooed away guests, and declared the area closed. The park sits across the street from the courtroom. It usually shuts around ten o’clock.
We will not seek any special accommodations outside of what would be required to provide the highest level of safety for the former President,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in a statement on Saturday. “Decisions on courtroom accessibility for media and the public are up to the Court and we are working closely with our law enforcement part-ners to provide as minimal of a disruption to the normal process as possible.”
Trump already warned there could be violence if he was indicted, saying on his Truth Social platform on March 24 that if he was charged there could be “potential death and destruction.” Ahead of the indictment, he also called for protesters to “take our nation back,” echoing his rhetoric before the January 6, 2021, Capitol ri-ot.
