Peaceful protests outside the courthouse for Trump’s indictment

WASHINGTON — Despite former President Donald Trump’s fiery rhetoric surrounding his indictment by a New York grand jury and a tightening of security around the courthouse where he faces indictment, protests from both supporters and critics have lingered Tuesday morning relatively calm.

Journalists covering the historic event often outnumbered the protesters outside the courthouse, the Associated Press reported.

Among those demonstrating for the former president were some of his closest allies in Congress.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene organized a rally in a park near the courthouse on Tuesday, but it was difficult to hear her amid the press of reporters and pro- and anti-Trump protesters.

Like Greene, the embattled Republican representative in New York. George Santos showed solidarity with Trump and said: “I want to support the President.”

“I think this is unprecedented and it’s a bad day for democracy,” Santos told The Associated Press, suggesting future prosecutors could target Biden and other presidents with other cases, which “cheaps the justice system.”

The scenes surrounding Trump Tower and the courthouse where Trump will stand before a judge were not marked by major unrest. Police tried to separate protesters who supported the former president from those who opposed him, using metal barricades to confine them to separate sides of a park near the courthouse.

One protester raised a sign that read “Trump or death 1776 2024,” but others carried placards with pictures of Trump in prison.

Video from the park near the courthouse showed small crowds, but many appeared to stand around passively, without the chanting or shouting that often accompanies large protests.

abc news reported “Small verbal skirmishes” between protesters and counter-protesters, although nothing became so heated that police intervened.

New York police said they are ready for large-scale protests from Trump supporters who share the Republican former president’s belief that the New York grand jury’s indictment and three other pending investigations are politically motivated and designed to weaken his attempt to retake the White House in 2024.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city is prepared for any trouble caused by the high-profile case.

“Although there may be some rebels thinking of coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: control yourselves,” said Mayor Eric Adams.

On his Truth Social page before the indictment was released, Trump posted that he expected an arrest and urged his supporters to stand up and protest if that happened.

The message brought back memories of the failed attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Trump tried to block Congress from confirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

In subsequent messages, Trump complained about what he called “kangaroo court” in the heavily Democratic city.

New York’s ability to conduct safe, drama-free trials in a case involving a polarizing ex-president could be a key test case as prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington conduct their own investigations into Trump, which also result in indictments could. These investigations concern efforts to reverse 2020 election results as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents in Mar-a-Lago.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.