Handcuffs or have a mug picture after being charged with 34 felonies on Tuesday.
According to a source who has been briefed on the processes for the arraignment of the former president, Donald Trump will be taken under arrest on Tuesday and notified that he has been charged with 34 felonies for falsifying company records.
Before Trump is formally arraigned on the allegations—none of which are misdemeanors—a New York City police arrest report outlining the counts against him will be written and filed into the court system.
But, until a judge has spoken on pretrial conditions, the source claimed that Trump will not be held in handcuffs, housed in a jail cell, or have a mug shot taken—typical actions even for white-collar criminals. The Secret Service and New York City court officials were consulted, and the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office came to the conclusion that there was no justification for handcuffing or photographing the former president.
In the state of New York, the charge of falsifying business documents is punishable as a misdemeanour. According to the source, however, Bragg's office increased all of the charges to Class E felonies, the lowest degree of felony offences in the New York state penal law, on the basis that the activity was done with the intent to cover up another crime.
Falsifying company records is a Class E felony in New York State, which carries a maximum four-year prison sentence if convicted. Yet in reality, that seems incredibly implausible. According to a law enforcement official in New York, "No one receives jail time for that as a first offender."
The justification given for handcuffing defendants is that they may pose a flight risk or a threat to the district attorney or court staff, neither of which was deemed applicable to the case of a former president who was always surrounded by Secret Service members.
Falsifying company records is a Class E felony in New York State, which carries a maximum four-year prison sentence if convicted. Yet in reality, that seems incredibly implausible. According to a law enforcement official in New York, "No one receives jail time for that as a first offender."
Till the indictment is unsealed on Tuesday, it is still unclear what crime gave rise to Trump's alleged misdemeanours and turned them into felonies. But, it is thought to be connected to the $130,000 in hush money that was given to porn star Stormy Daniels during the final weeks of the 2016 election to cover up an extramarital affair with Trump.
The district attorney's office "declined to comment on a sealed indictment," a Bragg representative said in an email.