‘There will be no guilty plea,’ Trump’s lawyer says

Just hours before Donald Trump was expected to turn himself in to New York City authorities to face criminal charges, his lawyer Joe Tacopina insisted Friday that the former president will not be pleading guilty.

(ABC NEWS)—Just hours before Donald Trump was expected to turn himself in to New York City authorities to face criminal charges, his lawyer Joe Tacopina insisted Friday that the former president will not be pleading guilty.

“Really, there’s a lot of mystery here because we’re doing something that’s never been done before,” Tacopina told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on “Good Morning America.”

“One thing I can assure you as I sit here today is there will be no guilty plea in this case,” he added. “That is one thing I can guarantee you.”

Tacopina said Trump won’t be put in handcuffs but “he’ll be processed the way anyone else would be, to a degree — again, with Secret Service involvement.”

“I think there will be a typical processing, which does not take long — 20, 30 minutes,” he said. “And then we’ll appear before a judge, you know, deal with a couple issues right off the bat and it won’t be a long day in court.”

That’s when authorities will unseal Trump’s indictment, revealing the exact charges against him.

“They have not shared it with us, won’t share it with us until it’s unsealed,” Tacopina said. “But we know the basis of the indictment and the factual allegations in the indictment.”

Trump’s defense team plans to make “a lot of motions” once they see the indictment, according to Tacopina.

“I don’t think this case is going to see a jury. I think it’s going to go away on papers,” he said. “I think there’s a legal challenge that will be made and should be made successfully.”

When asked about speculation that the judge might impose a gag order, Tacopina said there was “no indication” of that.

“It can’t happen in this case,” he added. “The defendant is the leading Republican candidate for the office of the president of the United States and will be campaigning. Hard to put a gag order when he’s going to be fielding questions about his current legal situation.”

After court, Trump plans to travel back to Palm Beach, Florida, where he will make a statement at his Mar-a-Lago estate, according to Tacopina.