As security tightens in Manhattan, former US President Donald Trump is set to fly from Florida to New York City on Monday ahead of his scheduled arraignment in connection with hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Trump, the first former president of the United States to face criminal charges, is scheduled to be arraigned, fingerprinted, and photographed at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday. His attorneys have stated that he will enter a not-guilty plea.
The specific charges included in the grand jury indictment have not been disclosed; Trump’s first appearance in court in the case will be on Tuesday.
Trump said in a late-Sunday social media post that he planned to leave his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach at noon for the Trump Tower in Manhattan before heading to the courthouse on Tuesday morning.
The arraignment was scheduled for 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) on Tuesday, according to a court official. Trump will then return to Florida and deliver remarks at Mar-a-Lago at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday (00:15 GMT Wednesday), according to his office.
Trump is scheduled to appear before Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over a criminal trial last year in which Trump’s real estate company was found guilty of tax fraud. In that case, Trump was not charged.
On Friday, Trump posted on social media that Merchan “HATES ME” and attacked the prosecutor in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
According to Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, this could put Trump in even more legal trouble.
“I was disturbed by the inappropriate, extremely personal, and ad hominem attacks on the district attorney and Judge Merchan,” said Vance.
According to a court official, the judge will decide whether to allow cameras and video in the courtroom on Monday.
Over the weekend, New York police began erecting barricades along the sidewalks around Trump Tower and the Manhattan Criminal Court building downtown.
Demonstrations are expected at those locations, and police have pledged to be ready.
As part of the security precautions, other courtrooms on the courthouse’s higher floors will be closed down before the arraignment, according to a court official.
On Sunday, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene urged Trump supporters to join her at a protest near the courthouse on Tuesday. “They’re not after President Trump; they’re after us, and he’s just in their way,” she wrote on social media.
TRUMP LAWYERS HOPE TO DISMISS
The grand jury heard evidence about a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign before indicting her. Daniels claims she was paid to remain silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006 at a Lake Tahoe hotel. Trump denies having an affair.
Trump, 76, was president from 2017 to 2021 and announced in November that he would run for president again in 2024, hoping to deny Democratic President Joe Biden a second term.
In the short term, the indictment may have boosted his candidacy.
“Now I am voting for Trump,” said Larry White, 75, a Nevada musician who had previously considered supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate. “The indictment was the final straw for me because Trump has been subjected to so much political slander.”
The indictment was announced last Thursday. Trump has declared himself innocent, and he and his supporters have claimed that the charges are politically motivated. The prosecutor, Bragg, is a Democrat.
The New York case is just one of many investigations facing the Republican as he makes another run for President. A Georgia prosecutor is looking into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn his state’s 2020 election defeat.
The United States Justice Department is looking into Trump’s actions during the 2020 election as well as his retention of highly classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
According to Joe Tacopina, a Trump lawyer, it is unlikely that Trump will be paraded in front of the news media by court officials due to security concerns.
“I honestly don’t know how this is going to go – hopefully as smoothly as possible – and then we’ll start fighting to right this wrong,” Tacopina told CNN.
According to Tacopina, Trump’s legal team will most likely file a motion to dismiss the charges.
