Haberman: Team Trump 'caught by surprise' by Manhattan indictment

After a grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump Thursday, the former president’s next move will likely be to influence the court of public opinion, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman said Thursday during an appearance on CNN’s "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."

Haberman said Team Trump is likely still digesting the news in Mar-a-Lago.

“They really were caught very much by surprise, by the fact that this happened,” Haberman said “I can't stress that enough.”

The next step for Trump’s legal team will be to arrange for a surrender, which isn’t a foregone conclusion despite his attorney Joe Tacopina promising that his client would do so should he be indicted, Haberman said.

“With Trump, you obviously never know,” Haberman said. “Surrendering any form is not something Donald Trump likes to do, let alone this one.”

But Haberman is fairly certain that Trump’s next move will be to influence public opinion.

“This is where we are going to go with this next, and that will I suspect happen in the coming days, and I think Trump will, you know, try to use the weekend to sway public opinion as much as possible,” Haberman said.

“That's his go-to move, Wolf, it has been his go-to to move, it is to try to shape public opinion and use that to try to force events. He was trying it with what was essentially an intimidation campaign against (Manhattan District Attorney) Alvin Bragg in the last two weeks.

“Clearly, it did not work.”