Mayor Adams to outline NYC security precautions as potential Trump indictment looms: sources

Mayor Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell are expected Monday to outline security precautions underway in the city ahead of former President Donald Trump’s potential criminal indictment in Manhattan, sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News.

It is believed that the indictment against Trump could drop as early as this week, and the sources said Adams and Sewell will brief local elected officials in a closed-door Monday afternoon meeting on what the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies are doing to prepare for the potentially unprecedented action by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

Adams spokesman Fabien Levy declined to comment on what to expect from the briefing, saying, “We don’t discuss private conversations.”

Earlier Monday, Adams’ aides said that there are no known threats related to a likely Trump indictment at this time. Still, Adams told reporters at City Hall that the NYPD remains on high alert.

“We are monitoring comments on social media, and the NYPD is doing their normal role of making sure that there’s no inappropriate actions in the city,” the mayor said. “We are confident we are going to be able to do that.”

In another sign that the indictment could be imminent, NYPD personnel could be seen Monday morning setting up barricaded press pens outside Manhattan Criminal Court, where Trump’s possible arraignment would take place.

Sources familiar with Bragg’s investigation say the DA is looking into charging Trump with felony-level crimes for reimbursing Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney, for a $130,000 hush payment he issued to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election. Cohen has testified under oath that Daniels accepted the payment on the promise that she’d keep quiet about her allegation that she and Trump had sex in 2006.

Under Bragg’s theory, Trump may have committed campaign finance crimes by buying Daniels’ silence ahead of the election he won. If charged, Trump would be the first ex-president in modern American history to face a criminal indictment.

The exact timing of any indictment is unclear. Trump claimed over social media this past weekend that he expects to be arrested Tuesday and — in an echo of his infamous comments before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol — urged his supporters to take to the streets of Manhattan in protest.

A Tuesday indictment appeared unlikely, however.

The grand jury in charge of making the ultimate decision on whether to charge Trump was set to hear testimony Monday from Bob Costello, an attorney for ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a top surrogate for the ex-president. The grand jury is not expected to be seated Tuesday.

This story is developing and will be updated.