Trump Won’t be Handcuffed after Surrender: Lawyer

Former US President Donald Trump will not be handcuffed when he surrenders to authorities in New York on April 4, said his lawyer Joe Tacopina on Friday.

He will be accompanied by Secret Service Agents to protect him as a former President making the surrender a complicated matter. “I don’t think they’re going to allow this to become a circus, as much as humanly possible”, Tacopina said.

Trump will be produced before the New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is expected to preside over the case. Justice Merchan can either release him with or without bail, or order him to be held in custody.

When a person facing charges surrenders to a New York court, the person is fingerprinted, photographed and handcuffed.

Often the alleged “perpetrator” is also paraded in handcuffs before news cameras in a ritual known locally as “perp walk”.

Trump will likely be fingerprinted and photographed.

Trump faces charges relating to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels with whom he had an affair in 2006. A grand jury indicted him in the case on Thursday, but the charges will be announced only when he surrenders and it is unsealed in court. He will appear in court at 2.15 pm on April 4 and return to Florida the next day.