Trump Lawyer Says Former President Will Not Plead Guilty Or Be Handcuffed
Katelynn Richardson on March 31, 2023
Former President Donald Trump will not plead guilty or be handcuffed, his attorney Joe Tacopina told ABC’s “Good Morning America” following the news of his indictment.
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump Thursday on charges related to his payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, making him the first president in American history to be indicted. “I’m sure they’ll try to get every ounce of publicity they can from this thing,” Tacopina said Monday morning. “The president will not be put in handcuffs.”
“I’m sure they’ll try to get some joy out of this by parading him,” he continued, adding that Secret Service and New York police would not “allow this to become a circus.”
“This is unprecedented in this country’s history,” Tacopina said when asked what to expect by host George Stephanopoulos. “I don’t know what to expect other than an arraignment.”
“I understand that they are going to be closing off blocks around the courthouse,” he continued. “We’ll go in there, and we’ll proceed to see a judge at some point, plead not guilty, start talking about filing motions, which we will do immediately and very aggressively.”
Tacopina also said the former president was initially “shocked” at hearing the news.
“I feel like the rule of law died yesterday in this country, and it’s not something that I’m happy about,” Tacopina said.
Trump’s indictment occurred two weeks after he announced that he expected to be arrested.
“Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done,” Trump said in a statement reacting to the indictment Thursday night. “The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.”
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