An attorney representing Donald Trump said on Friday that there is “zero” chance the former president will accept a plea deal after being indicted this week by a grand jury over a hush payment made to Stormy Daniels.
Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said in an interview with TODAY host Savannah Guthrie that there was no possibility of Trump agreeing to a plea bargain in the case.
"Zero," Tacopina said. "President Trump will not take a plea deal in this case. It’s not going to happen, there’s no crime."
The charges that Trump faces have not yet been made public with the New York grand jury’s indictment still under seal.
Tacopina told the morning show that he predicts the charges will be unsealed on Tuesday. He also said Trump will likely turn himself in to the Manhattan district attorney’s office next week when he is arraigned.
"He'll face this," Tacopina said, adding that he does not know if Trump is dealing with one charge or multiple charges.
"We do know it centers around a legal, very common confidentiality agreement that was signed years and years ago with Stormy Daniels, with her attorneys and [former Trump attorney] Michael Cohen," Tacopina said. "So it’s nothing more than that, which is really what makes this shocking.
He described how "despite all the scuttlebutt and rumors and whatnot, we believed and hoped that rule of law would prevail, so he initially was shocked."
"After he got over that, he put a notch in his belt, and he decided, we have to fight now,” the attorney said. “And he got into a typical Donald Trump posture where he's ready to be combative on something he believes is an injustice."
Trump was indicted on criminal charges in New York on Thursday for his role in organizing hush money payments made to Daniels, an adult film star, during his 2016 campaign.
The indictment marks the first time a US president has been charged in a criminal case. The move came at the same time as several law enforcement entities are investigating Trump’s conduct in numerous probes.
It is unclear how the indictment could impact Trump’s candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.