Secret Service agents are involved in talks over whether to handcuff Donald Trump if the former President is arrested next week.
Trump posted a message to social media claiming he would be arrested next Tuesday as an investigation into claims he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair draws towards its conclusion.
The 2024 Republican nominee hopeful described the proceedings as a “corrupt and highly political” probe.
A decision on how to arrest Trump is reportedly the subject of discussions between the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and security agents.
The case centres on a payment made by Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen for $130,000 to Daniels during the 2016 campaign.
The Daily Mail reports that sources claim Trump - who is protected by law by the Secret Service - will have to be fingerprinted and processed like every other defendant.
The payment was listed as “legal expenses”, which Bragg's office says violates laws in New York which ban the falsifying of business records.
Trump maintains that he did not have an affair with Daniels and has denied knowledge of the payments.
Sources told Fox News that the Secret Service will “take the lead” over what they will and will not allow as part of the arrest.
“Some sources familiar with the planning said they will go over security preparations in and around the courthouse in lower Manhattan,” Fox Corp. anchor John Roberts told viewers.
Defendants would normally be taken to a New York court and placed in a processing room.
After being booked, fingerprinted, photographed for a mugshot and handcuffed, they would be escorted to a courtroom.
However, Trump is protected at all times by the Secret Service as an ex President – putting him in a unique position.
A Trump spokesman said: “President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system.
“He will be in Texas next weekend for a giant rally.”
In a social media post on Saturday morning, Trump wrote that he "will be arrested Tuesday next week" in relation to hush payment allegations, and called his supporters to protest against his indictment.
When his Mar-a-Lago club was searched by the FBI last summer as part of an investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents, he broke the news by declaring that his home was "currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.”
