Rikers: In a surprising moment during a regularly scheduled press briefing about public safety statistics, the Columbia University protests, migrant centers, the proliferation of illegal weed shops and Mayor Eric Adams‘ upcoming trip to meet the Pope in Rome, a curveball question pressed Adams on the possible, if unlikely, jailing of former President Donald Trump.
Asked whether New York City’s Rikers Island complex would be prepared to handle the jailing of Trump, or if the city had any plans in place for such a situation, Adams said the city’s corrections officials “will be ready.”
“Our amazing [Department of Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie], she is prepared for whatever comes on Rikers Island,” Adams told reporters. “I’m pretty sure she would be prepared to manage and deal with the situation.
“As you see with what’s happening with Harvey Weinstein,” Adams continued, “we have to adjust. In this business, particularly around law enforcement, we have to adjust to whatever comes our way. We don’t want to deal with a hypothetical, but they’re professionals that will be ready.”
Trump is on trial in Manhattan on 34 counts of falsifying business records, stemming from hush money allegedly paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Yesterday, Judge Juan Merchan fined Trump another $1,000 for again violating a gag order by talking about jurors. That comes after last week’s fine of $9,000.
“The last thing I want to do is put you in jail,” Merchan said yesterday. “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well.”
“The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me,” the judge continued. “But at the end of the day, I have a job to do.” He told Trump that his “continued, willful violations” of the gag order “constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.”