The Perp Walk: Only Donald Trump Could Look at it as a Good Thing
Will he or won’t he – get indicted, that is? And will he or won’t he – do a perp walk, that is?
No we’re not talking about any of the hundreds of other criminal defendants who have been perp-walked past photographers, reporters and onlookers over the years as they are being arrested and brought in for booking and arraignment in court.
We’re talking about former President Donald Trump and his looming indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Only Trump could turn things upside down and want to have a perp walk!
All of this is a moving target as to the indictment date and when he would actually be arrested. But it hasn’t stopped social media memes from popping up --
Back in realityland, with a lot of players – including the DA, NYPD, Secret Service, the judge, the weather, Trump, protesters, and the press -- something could go awry. There are no cameras allowed inside New York courtrooms, so the race for photos is all outdoors.
As a reporter, I covered one perp walk where the press surrounded the car of the defendant, taking his picture and wouldn’t let him out of his car to walk into court. I yelled out to the photographers: Let him out of the car – you’ll get your pictures. He has to go into court.
As a PR person, I am familiar with the staples of indictments and trials – how the press swarms in a high-profile case, the prepping for a perp walk, the courthouse steps news conferences, and the like.
I have done PR in the criminal cases of former presidential candidate John Edwards, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and CEO Richard Scrushy – and all did not go smoothly.
The Edwards case was similar to Trump’s – based on campaign finance laws and sex. Even being a former Senator from North Carolina did not stop him from indictment in North Carolina.
The Abramoff case was about illegal lobbying and ripping off Indian tribes but it turned into even more of a PR and media circus when Abramoff wore a large black hat to court that the media likened to one a Mafia chief might wear – and the photo went viral.
And in the Scrushy case, alleging Sarbanes-Oxley fraud, I had to announce – then cancel and re-announce – a courthouse news conference featuring feuding defense attorneys on opposite sides of the steps.
Today, everyone knows Rudy Giuliani as Trump’s disgraced lawyer at the heart of the 2020 election investigation. Back in the day, when he was U.S. Attorney in New York, Giuliani perp- walked Wall Street executives out of their offices as he arrested and prosecuted insider traders.
People were taken aback at that. Nobody wanted to be perp-walked or taken out of their office in handcuffs.
But now, Trump seems to relish having a perp-walk, if as expected, he is indicted in New York over the Stormy Daniels hush money payment.
According to a New York Times piece headlined “Magical Thinking and Perk-Walk Fixation as Trump Awaits Indictment,” the former president wants a perp-walk so he can make political, PR and legal hay out of the whole case – screaming “witch hunt,” “fake news” and all his other catch phrases.
Time will tell if he is indicted or if there is indeed a perp walk. That may be in part up to the Secret Service, who may not want a perp walk or may not want a former president to be handcuffed after his arrest.
But with several other investigations and possibly other indictments of Trump looming in Georgia and Washington DC, the PR and media scrutiny over a Trump perp walk will be around for a while.
