Preparing for his arrival Donald Trump in a courthouse in south Manhattan began a week ago.

Senior police and federal prosecutors frantically prepared for arraignment by stepping up patrols in and around Trump Tower on Park Avenue.

Agents of the Armed Secret Services, tasked by law to protect the life and physical integrity of every former president, are expected to escort the accused through every step of the arrest process.

While criminal defendants must be brought in in handcuffs, the prosecution can waive Trump from that obligation out of respect for the presidency he once held.

After being formally charged, Trump will almost certainly be released without parole. This scenario, however, is based on Trump’s willingness to give up, which is inconsistent with his controversial mindset.

At the same time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis said that if Trump refuses to surrender, “Florida will not comply with New York’s request to extradite the former president.”

Trump’s indictment was based on his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s confession that he paid former porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 campaign to cover up her extramarital affair with Trump.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign spending laws because the money that bought the porn star’s silence was called “illegal campaign spending” by the courts. Days after Cohen’s confession, New York federal prosecutors began their own investigation into the case.

In his confession, Cohen named Trump as the main payer of Stormy Daniels, a claim corroborated by a prosecutorial investigation.

However, the conviction of the former president should not be considered a foregone conclusion. Legal circles explain that the New York prosecutor’s office never combined in its indictment the charge of falsifying the balance sheet (the payment to Daniels was claimed as Trump’s campaign expenses) with violating state presidential campaign laws.

With the prosecution now in uncharted waters, the chief judge may declare the evidence insufficient to establish a crime, downgrading the indictment to a misdemeanor.

Even if the indictment stands, charging Trump with a felony will not land him in jail, even though his crime is punishable by up to four years in prison.

Federal justice, though stricter than state justice, rarely jails those convicted of financial crimes, with the exception of high-profile defendants such as con man Bernie Madoff.