Barricades have been erected around a Manhattan courthouse since Monday as New York prepares to potentially indict Donald Trump on charges that he paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence during the 2016 election campaign.

This may be the first ever criminal case against an American president. On Saturday, Trump urged his followers on social media to protest his impending arrest.

In his call for protests, Trump raised concerns among law enforcement officials that his supporters could resort to violence similar to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. However, fearing a trap, several far-right groups chose not to heed his call, according to security analysts cited by Reuters.

Did Cohen lie about Stormy Daniels payments?

A grand jury, which heard further testimony Monday, could issue charges as early as this week.

Trump, who is running for the Republican White House again in 2024, predicted that he would be arrested on Tuesday. On Monday, the grand jury heard from a witness, attorney Robert Costello, who said former Trump impresario Michael Cohen made the payments to Stormy Daniels without Trump’s involvement.

“Michael Cohen decided on his own — that’s what he told us — on his own to see if he could handle it,” Costello told reporters after testifying before a grand jury at the request of Trump’s lawyers.

Cohen, who has testified before a grand jury twice, said Trump ordered him to make the payments on Trump’s behalf.

Impeachment could hurt Trump’s comeback bid. About 44 percent of Republicans think he should drop out of the presidential race if impeached, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is one of several legal challenges Trump has faced.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations in connection with payments to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, and another woman in exchange for their silence about their alleged affairs with Trump. The former American president denied that such cases had taken place.

The police chiefs discussed the material and technical aspects of the criminal proceedings

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told reporters that police are monitoring social media and watching for “inappropriate activity” in the city. The New York City police said they are aware of real threats.

If indicted, Trump would likely have to leave his Florida home for fingerprinting and other procedures.

Law enforcement leaders met on Monday to discuss the logistical aspects of such an action, several media reported.

Some sources said Bragg’s office presented evidence to a grand jury about a $130,000 payment to Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.

Republicans accuse the prosecutor’s office of a “political agenda”

Most of Trump’s Republican colleagues criticized the investigation, saying it was politically motivated. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s rival for the Republican presidential nomination, said Monday that Bragg was pushing a “political agenda” that compromised the rule of law, but also made a veiled remark about Trump.

“I don’t know what happens when porn stars pay money for discretion in connection with some alleged affair,” he said.

House Republicans launched an investigation into Attorney Bragg’s office with a letter requesting communications, documents and testimony related to the investigation.

Trump and other Republicans also said the Manhattan district attorney’s office should focus more on fighting crime.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office responded that “we will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we allow unsubstantiated allegations to deter us from properly upholding the law.”

Trump has been impeached twice by the House of Representatives during his presidency: once in 2019 for his conduct in Ukraine and again in 2021 for an attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. Both times he was acquitted by the Senate.

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