Trump's Secret Service detail was willing to quickly hand him over to Manhattan investigators: reporter

Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday afternoon, the Washington Post's Carol Leonnig said reports that the Secret Service asked for a delay before handing Donald Trump over to the Manhattan court system was something cooked up by the former president's lawyers.

Speaking with host Alex Witt, Leonnig — who wrote "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service" — was asked about the Politico report that asserted Trump's Secret Service detail needed more time before escorting Trump to New York City for his arraignment on 34 felony counts.

"How did agents react to this unprecedented event?" Witt pressed.

Leonnig responded: "Alex, I'm so glad you referenced this because the Secret Service sources that I speak to regularly, they had a first early reaction to former President Trump saying he was gonna be arrested on Tuesday, right? One was: 'Oh my, goodness, I hope he's not gonna try to get handcuffed for some kind of dramatic theatrical purpose.' The other one was 'Wow, we have to get ready for bringing him in for arraignment if this really happens.'"

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"However this claim that the Secret Service argued and advocated for delaying the arraignment because they couldn't, quote, unquote, 'Get ready or prepare quickly enough,' my sources say that is not true," she continued. "They feel as though the former president's lawyers made that claim to a judge, but they weren't making it themselves."

"They had plenty of preparation that they wanted to do. There was plenty of worry about making sure that he entered the building in a non-public and secure way, that other regular members of Manhattan couldn't just walk alongside him," she elaborated. "But there was not an argument on the part of the Secret Service that we can't make it happen on a dime because they do that all day long."

"I was gonna, say they must not appreciate too much the former president throwing them under the bus and undermining their abilities," host Witt interjected.

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MSNBC 04 08 2023 12 26 46youtu.be