INSIDE THE PLAN TO PERP WALK DONALD TRUMP
-WHAT DONALD TRUMP’S PERP-WALK WILL LOOK LIKE
-MEET THE JOURNALISTS COVERING THE ARREST AND ARRAIGNMENT OF A FORMER PRESIDENT
-THE BITTER NEWSPAPER FEUD THAT COULD EFFECT WHETHER THE PUBLIC SEES A PHOTOGRAPH OF TRUMP IN HANDCUFFS
Donald Trump going to court in New York City in 2016. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
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A small army of journalists from around the world have been all-but-camped outside a New York City courthouse for the past week hoping to catch the arrest of Donald J. Trump.
Given the extraordinary security measures that will have to be put in place when the former president is arrested, only a few journalists are going to be allowed to witness and photograph Trump's perp-walk and arraignment. How and by whom are these journalists going to be selected? Who are they likely to be?
As a news photographer, I covered perp walks at the Manhattan courthouse where Trump will have to appear for 15 years. I shot the highest profile cases that came through it, including Harvey Weinstein and Dominique Straus Kahn. Based on my experience, confidential conversations with some of my former colleagues and what the chief spokesman for the New York State court system says, here's how a Trump perp walk will go down.
Perp walk at Manhattan Criminal Court in 2015. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
All the action is going to happen at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse at 100 Centre Street.
The "courthouse" itself is not a traditional courthouse but an inner-connected complex of four hi-rise towers. Completed in 1941, it's Art Moderne architecture on the outside, Art Deco on the inside. Its middle tower is taller than the rest, and at its very top it is "stepped, like a ziggurat."
The tower on the southern side of the complex houses the offices of the Manhattan District Attorney, currently Alvin Bragg. The district attorney's office has its own, dedicated entrance at 1 Hogan Place. Not all criminal suspects are arrested by the NYPD and perp-walked out of a police precinct. Sometimes the district attorney allows suspects to surrender, to its own detectives, at 1 Hogan Place.
Assuming Trump is allowed to surrender, given past practice, he will likely surrender at 1 Hogan Place, to district attorney detectives. It's also the most logical from a security perspective. The street outside the entrance is narrow and thus easily secured.
Witnessing and photographing Trump's actual surrender-his arrival by motorcade and entry into the district attorney's office-may be at best almost-impossible for journalists and most-definitely impossible for the public.
In past practice for high-profile cases, officials established a small, designated press area outside the 1 Hogan Place entrance close enough for press to witness, photograph and even shout questions to suspects surrendering. This time, the Secret Service may want to exclude the public and the press. It likely will install an opaque canopy to protect the former president from snipers when he walks to the building from his motorcade. The canopy would also shield him from cameras.
Once inside the district attorney's offices, Trump will be fingerprinted, photographed and forced to give a DNA sample. The DNA sample is obtained via cheek swab.
Journalists shouldn't count on authorities releasing any photographs of Trump's arrest or his mugshot. New York law generally prohibits prosecutors and police from distributing a person's "arrest or booking photographs ... unless public release of such photographs will serve a specific law enforcement purpose and disclosure is not precluded by any state or federal laws."
Once Trump is booked, he'll be taken to the courtroom where he'll be arraigned.
New York Post photographer Steven Hirsch working at Manhattan Criminal Courts in 2008. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
The move from the district attorney's office to the courtroom happens entirely inside the hi-rise court complex via a series of interior hallways. Once Trump leaves the district attorney's offices, the hallways he'll be passing through are controlled by the state court system. Court Officers have primary responsibility for security in the hallways.
Past practice in high-profile cases: members of the press with city-issued press credentials are allowed to witness and photograph the movement of arrestees through the hallways of the courthouse.
"In the past, yes, there have been [press]pens in the hallway adjacent to the courtroom and I don’t foresee anything different now–however that has to be determined," state court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen told The Free Lance on Thursday.
Arrestees are typically handcuffed for the walk from the district attorney's office through the hallway to the courtroom. Sometimes handcuffs are removed from suspects in the courtroom. Sometimes handcuffs are not taken off until a judge orders a suspect released. Sometimes handcuffs aren't taken off at all.
The biggest question is whether Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will insist that Trump be handcuffed and, if so, when.
"That is a question for the arresting agency, should there be one, and that it[sic] the NY County District Attorney. Any arrestee, prior to arraignment, is not in our custody,” state court spokesperson Chalfen also told The Free Lance on Thursday.
A spokesperson for Bragg did not respond to an email request for comment.
Whether Trump is handcuffed will likely have to be resolved by negotiations between District Attorney Bragg and the Secret Service.
Bragg's "whole thing" is "equity," one courthouse insider told me.
For that to mean anything, Bragg has to handcuff Trump. And he has to handcuff Trump where the press can see it and photograph it.
On the other hand, another court insider said, the Secret Service is likely to resist having their protectee handcuffed. "Imagine someone jumping him while he was handcuffed!," they said.
At a minimum, the Secret Service will likely want Trump to wear a bulletproof vest-as many high-profile suspects wear during court appearances.
Bernard Madoff wearing a bulletproof vest to a court appearance in 2009. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
The main event is Trump's arraignment, inside the courtroom.
The law requires all criminal proceedings including arraignments be open to the public. The law also requires all criminal proceedings be open to journalists. Court officials typically dedicate two or three rows of bench-seats to reporters bearing city-issued press credentials. Like members of the public, credentialed journalists are typically allowed into the courtroom on a first-come, first-served basis.
Typically cameras and photography are allowed, but strictly regulated.
New York law does not require courts to allow photography at all. It grants individual judges the discretion to allow it on a case-by-case basis. They usually allow it, with conditions. Judges can, however, deny it all together. That means its possible no photograph of Trump in handcuffs will be captured, at all. Its not likely, but it is possible.
New York Daily News photographer Alec Tabak waiting for a perp walk outside The Tombs in 2015. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
New York law also gives judges the discretion to decide how many, and which, photographers are given permission to photograph inside the courtroom. It further empowers judges to draw a distinction between video and still photography. Judges can allow both still photography and video, or they can allow still photography but not video, or vice-versa. Judges also have the power to limit photography by number of photographs or length of time.
In order to obtain the required permission from a judge to photograph inside a courtroom, individual photographers themselves have to file a formal request for permission. They do this by handing a required form to a court officer or clerk inside the courtroom. Copies of the form can be obtained from the court clerk. Sometimes. Don’t count on it. In major cases, a court spokesperson may facilitate the process. Permission may be obtained in advance, depending on the judge.
If more than three ask for permission the judge is likely to order what professional news photographers call a "pool." A pool is one or two or three or more photographers who are allowed to photograph inside the courtroom on the condition that they agree to share their photographs with all the other photographers who submitted requests to photograph the same case to the court-who are excluded by the judge’s restriction.
That means that if photography is allowed by the judge assigned to handle Trump's arraignment, he will likely order a pool because there will definitely be more than three requests-unless journalists themselves agree and present an alternative that involves no more than three.
The presiding judge has final say over how big the pool is and what photographers make up the pool. Sometimes judges delegate that decision to the photographers themselves. Sometimes the photographers can reach a consensus, sometimes they can't. If they can’t, its entirely within the realm of possibility for a judge to give up in frustration and order the proceeding to continue without press photography of any kind.
New York Daily News photographer Jefferson Siegel (lower right, white shirt) photographing Amanda Bynes being perp-walked at Manhattan Criminal Court in 2013. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
Newspapers still employ a small group of photographers to work at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse full-time, Monday through Friday. Presently they include Alec Tabak and Jefferson Siegel for the New York Daily News and Steven Hirsch for the New York Post. The New York Times keeps a full-time staff reporter in the courthouse, but not a photographer. Photographers Curtis Means and John Marshall Mantel also work there regularly for the Daily Mail.com.
Of these, the Post's Hirsch has worked at the courthouse the longest, has the biggest mouth and is the biggest bully. That makes him the most likely out of the group to be the "pool."
News photographer John Marshall Mantel covering Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.
But a bitter feud exists between The Post and Hirsch, on one side, and the Daily News with Siegel and Tabak on the other.
Hirsch photographs side projects. One of his side projects involved photographing oil spills on Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. powerHouse Books published a collection of his photographs and got the Daily News to review it and interview Hirsch. It was online for a few hours before the News's photography department saw it-and expunged it.
Powerhouse Books complained to the Daily News and the Daily News explained it was necessary to “remove the gallery out of respect to our photographers (and reporters) who compete with Mr. Hirsch on a daily basis.”
It escalated from there. powerHouse Books CEO Daniel Power opened fire on News Editor-in-Chief Jim Rich: "You got to be f***ing kidding me.”
Rich's reply: "I’m not going to ... listen to this bullshit."
A lot of people hate Hirsch. They hope he’s not allowed to photograph Trump.
"Poetic justice," one court insider said, would be Hirsch getting denied.
Still, if I had to bet on anyone getting a good photograph of Trump in handcuffs, especially if the authorities try to stop it, I'd bet on Hirsch.
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New York Post photographer Steven Hirsch in the press room at Manhattan Criminal Court in 2008. Photo Credit: JB Nicholas.