Political debate is swirling ever since former President Donald Trump announced on social media he expects to be arrested Tuesday. This due to a grand jury investigation in Manhattan.
There are a couple schools of thought on what happens politically. Some think this dooms Trump’s ability to ever be elected again while others are looking at this in the total opposite way. They think if Trump is arrested his base would rally around him and it could guarantee him a win in the Republican Primary.
Former President Trump’s social media post Saturday read, “the far & away leading Republican candidate & former President of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week.”
Democrats are saying the Manhattan District attorney is upholding the rule of law by charging for hush money payments to an adult star years ago, while Republicans call it a targeted political prosecution.
News4JAX Political Analyst Rick Mullaney points out the New York prosecution is only one of three cases currently against Trump and he thinks being indicted in New York could serve him politically.
“This is part of an overall Trump strategy however to discredit not only the Manhattan DA but to discredit the investigation in Georgia and also the Department of Justice that’s looking into the January 6th riots,” Mullaney said.
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Republicans who may also run for President have been critical of the Manhattan DA, but Governor Ron DeSantis said he hasn’t seen any charges yet, but was very clear by enunciating the charges against Trump in his response as he criticized the Manhattan DA.
On Twitter, DeSantis said, “You’re talking about this situation with… I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over an alleged affair. I can’t speak to that but what I can speak to is if you have a prosecutor ignoring crimes every day and he goes back many, many years ago.”
So what happens if Trump is arrested? Shannon Schott is a local criminal defense lawyer who says she’s never seen a client extradited to another state over a misdemeanor and she suspects Trump’s attorneys could work out a deal. But if he chooses to fight the warrant which would be needed to be signed by the New York Governor, police in whatever jurisdiction he is located in could go and arrest him.
“If he wants to fight this it will hinder his ability to be on the campaign trail because someone could walk on stage and put him in handcuffs,” Schott said.
Since Trump’s primary residence is Mar-a-Lago in Florida, there has been debate on whether Florida could refuse to enforce a New York warrant. Schott said this is pretty uncharted territory legally but she adds that Florida is signed onto the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act. Meaning, if Trump had to surrender in Florida, a law enforcement agency in Florida would be obligated to take him into custody.