Donald Trump will sit for a New York City probation interview—albeit virtually—on Monday, according to a new report from NBC News. It’s the first account of the upcoming meeting to emerge, painting a picture of the stunning scene in which a former U.S. president and his lawyer, Todd Blanche, will be forced to sit through a routine interview with a city probation officer as part of his pre-sentencing report. He will reportedly Zoom into the meeting from his Florida estate at Mar-a-Lago, and will be asked about his finances, his mental health history, drug use and living situation, among other things. A former New York City official confirmed to the network that it is “highly unusual” for an interview like Trump’s to be done virtually, though the decision was likely made to avoid a “very disruptive” visit that would surely include dozens of reporters, protests and heavy security. “You can argue that Trump’s appearance at the probation office on the 10th floor of the Criminal Court Building in Manhattan where his trial took place, with Secret Service and press following him, would be very disruptive to the probation office and unfair to other defendants who might not want to be identified,” Martin Horn, a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections and Probation, told NBC News.
