Secret Service Faces Scrutiny Over Donald Trump Arrest Delay

After a grand jury indicted Donald Trump on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney's office asked the former president to surrender on Friday. However he refused, according to his lawyer, referencing a need for the Secret Service to prepare.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, had been investigating Trump over his alleged involvement in a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by his then-lawyer Michael Cohen ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was allegedly paid $130,000 by Cohen to stay quiet about her alleged affair in 2006 with Trump. Cohen has previously said he was reimbursed by Trump, who denies having an affair with Daniels and any wrongdoing in the case.

The issues concerning cooperation between the Manhattan district attorney's office and Trump's lawyers highlight the unprecedented nature of the indictment. Trump is the first U.S. president in American history to face criminal charges. His lawyers have denied he had committed any crime.

The claim that Trump could not turn himself in on Friday due to planning complications for the Secret Service was first reported by Politico on Thursday, citing a law enforcement source and confirmed by Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina.

Tacopina told NBC News that the former president would "likely" turn himself in on Tuesday, and that his team was "working out those logistics right now," adding that "he's not going to hole up in Mar-a-Lago," which is Trump's Florida residence.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney's office told the Associated Press that prosecutors had approached Trump's lawyers to coordinate a surrender.

However, some law enforcement experts have questioned the claim that the Secret Service needed time to plan such a trip.

Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent and law enforcement analyst for CNN, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that the claim was "nonsensical" as the agency "can get any protectee, to any location, at any time."

In his tweet, he added that the Secret Service "does not coordinate the conditions of surrender, that is between the defendant, their attorney & the DA," but is rather "informed of the conditions for security purposes only."

Meanwhile, Frank Figliuzzi, a retired FBI assistant director, also described the claim as "nonsense" in a column for MSNBC on Thursday night. He added that the Secret Service "has had months to anticipate this indictment, and certainly has had over a week since their protectee went public with his indictment prediction."

The former president previously wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday, March 21, which ultimately did not happen. On Thursday night, he hit out at the indictment in a Truth Social post, writing: "They only brought this Fake, Corrupt, and Disgraceful Charge against me because I stand with the American People."

Figliuzzi noted that after Trump had made his announcement about being arrested, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force had gone on high alert and began security preparation. Security around the Manhattan district attorney's office has been heightened since Trump suggested in previous social media posts that his supporters should protest his arrest.

Newsweek reached out to Tacopina and the Secret Service via email for comment on Friday.

Since 1965, the Secret Service has been authorized by Congress to protect former presidents and their spouses during their lifetime, unless they decline that protection. While no longer in office, former presidential families are considered high-profile individuals and could face threats to their safety.

Meanwhile, Trump, who announced last November that he is running for the White House in 2024, has repeatedly said the investigation into him was politically motivated, a claim that several prominent Republicans have echoed, noting Bragg's affiliation to the Democratic Party.

Bragg, a Democrat, was previously an assistant attorney general for New York and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. According to the National Police Association, he was backed by billionaire philanthropist George Soros in his race for the district attorney's job.

Trump previously described Bragg as "this Soros-backed radical left prosecutor" who had been "placed" in the office by the "Department of Injustice" to "get Trump."