A former federal prosecutor said the authorities in New York aren’t playing when it comes to the threat of violence if a Manhattan grand jury were to indict former president Donald Trump.
Elie Honig, who worked in the area of the building in Lower Manhattan where Trump may be indicted, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Trump supporters who think they can commit violence there are sorely mistaken.
The grand jury is reportedly weighing whether to recommend Trump be indicted for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal a payment to a pornographic actress with whom he supposedly had an affair.
“My advice to anyone who is thinking about going down there and causing violence or mayhem is, don’t even try it,” Honig warned.
“There may be no more heavily fortified few acres in the country than right down there,” he added. “I also think anyone who’s thinking of going down there and causing trouble ought to take heed of the lesson of what happened to the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, many of whom are now serving long prison sentences.”
Speculation of violence has percolated ever since Trump took to his social media site Truth Social last weekend to call on MAGA supporters to protest. Trump predicted he would be “arrested Tuesday,” but the day came and went without an indictment.
On Thursday, Tapper cited a Thursday Truth Social post in which Trump mocked talk of peace.
“EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M 100% INNOCENT, INCLUDING BRAGG, BUT HE DOESN’T CARE. HE IS JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!” the post read.
“I know a lot of law enforcement are not happy about the belittling of the importance of being peaceful,” Tapper said in response.
Earlier on Thursday, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg sent a scathing letter to the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee in response to its request for his testimony and documents on the case. Bragg called it “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”
The grand jury reconvened Thursday after Wednesday’s hiatus. No word of an indictment has been released.
