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Trump is set to arrive at the courthouse in downtown Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, where his arrest will be processed by the district attorney’s office and he will be brought to the courtroom to hear the charges against him.
The charges, which are expected to remain under seal until Trump’s arraignment Tuesday, relate to his alleged role in covering up hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the days before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump denies any wrongdoing in all of these investigations. He has described his behavior in Georgia as “perfect.” He criticized the sealed indictment in New York, where he has been indicted on more than 30 counts, as an example of politicized justice.
It is the first time that it looks like the former president will be having a mugshot, according to presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. With several ongoing criminal cases, we’re in for a very rocky spring, according to Brinkley.
An arraignment is a criminal defendant’s first court appearance. It usually takes several hours behind closed doors for a normal person to appear for photographs, fingerprints and arrest paperwork.
Then, defendants go before a judge to hear the charges against them. A not guilty plea is entered at this stage in the criminal process.
Donald Trump will officially become the first former president to face criminal charges Tuesday when he’s arraigned in a New York courtroom – an appearance that is expected to be quick and routine but represents a surreal and historic moment in US history.
His status as a former president is expected to pose some unusual logistical challenges. He has a large legal team and Secret Service detail. Protests are expected. There will be media attention. All of that will be done with the daily operations of a busy state court office.
“There’s a lot of external factors that just don’t happen for 99.99% of the cases we have,” said former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in an NPR interview on Sunday. “It will be a real challenge for the [police department], the court officers, investigators in our office to ensure that things function safely and smoothly.”
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While in New York, Trump is not likely to speak but he will hold an event at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday evening that will give him a chance to respond to the charges.
But at a grave moment for the country, given that an ex-president and current presidential candidate is about to appear in court, there’s also growing sense of inexorably building pressure on Trump that will compromise his capacity to evade accountability.
But he’s still entitled to the same due process as everyone else, says Kim Wehle, a former assistant U.S. attorney and now a law professor at the University of Baltimore.
She told All Things Considered that there were lots of hurdles to overcome, when she was asked about potential charges against him.
There are a number of procedural protections in place to make sure that there is a fair adjudication of the far-off question.
Legal experts say that the strength of the evidence presented by prosecutors will be a key to a trial. Another factor will be the jury, said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina.
“This ultimately will be decided not in the court of public opinion, but it will be decided by those 12 people,” Gerhardt told Weekend Edition. To make sure that the jury is fair and that it does its job, Mr. Trump’s attorneys will be there every step of the way.
“I would choose to be on the prosecution’s side because the jury pool in Manhattan is so against Donald Trump, and I would have to win to save my life,” he said.
Most similar cases would probably take a year to get to trial, Galluzzo says. Trump is expected to attempt to delay that process as much as possible.
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“They’re not going to make him an offer that he would accept,” he adds. He may want that public stage to be a stage for the victim, to have an audience.
The media has been used to make political storms, alternative realities, legal issues and imbroglios to undermine institutions that have constrained his rule-breaking behavior. He will lose that ability when he goes before a court in the case related to the adult film actress.
There are signs that this new reality, which will come with a lot of financial commitments in legal fees and lock on Trump’s calendar, could be spread at a time when he’s already facing intense demands of another White House bid.
Smith’s prosecutors have secured daily notes, texts, emails and photographs and are focused on cataloguing how Trump handled classified records around Mar-a-Lago and those who may have witnessed the former president with them, CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Evan Perez reported Monday. The Justice Department has been taking steps that correspond with the end of an investigation.
While Trump’s comments will signal how he intends to fight the charges against him in the political arena, the former president is also preparing for the fight in court: He added a new attorney, Todd Blanche, to serve as lead counsel on his defense team on Monday.
On Monday, Trump made a big show of returning to New York. A power play meant to send a message of strength came about with a motorcade of black Secret Service SUVs going to and from his private Boeing 757.
After the court appearance Tuesday, he will return to his Mar-a-Lago resort and talk to the press about the criminal case in New York that will distract him from proclaiming his innocence.
One criminal prosecution is onerous enough. Trump hasn’t been charged in any of the other cases, but a multi-front defense in multiple cases would represent an extraordinary storm. The ex-president’s ability to dictate his political schedule and control his future would be disrupted by it. During the Russia investigation or his two impeachments, Trump used his huge popularity with Republican voters to help him get away with false accusations. Most Republicans knew they would have to retire if they voted to convict him in an impeachment trial.
The situation is somewhat similar to the 2020 election, when the will of voters prevailed because Trump’s attempts to have votes thrown out and results changed foundered in multiple courts because of the fact-based standards of evidence and the law.
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In a late-night ruling, Merchan turned down the request for broadcast cameras. Five still photographers will be allowed to take pictures of Trump and the courtroom before the hearing begins, however.
Trump has mastered how to thrive in a media circus. He thinks he can no longer control the media circus, and that is the difference in this case.
The Manhattan District Attorney stated in a news conference that it is a felony to lie about your business records. “That is exactly what this case is about: 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes. In New York State, these are felonies no matter who you are. They cannot and will not make criminal conduct more serious.
Trump was seen entering a Manhattan courtroom for his arraignment at 2:28 p.m. ET, and left the courtroom at 3:25. Trump was not handcuffed when he entered the room, and did not speak when he exited. In photos Trump was seated between his lawyers at the table where he was to be tried. NYPD officers are behind the table.
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The second instance took place in June of 2016 when Karen McDougal, a former Playboy playmate, alleged that she had an affair with Trump while he was married. Trump, Cohen and AMI’s CEO David Pecker “had a series of discussions about who should pay off [MacDougal] to secure her silence,” prosecutors say.
Cohen used the monthly checks as a “retainer” payment. Some came from the Trump trust, but others were signed by Trump himself, from what Cohen said was his personal account. Falsifying business records could be a felony under New York law, if it was done in furtherance of another crime, such as a campaign finance violation. Cohen said he even discussed the checks with Trump inside the Oval Office at the White House.
Trump has questioned Cohen’s credibility. But at his news conference, DA Bragg said his investigators obtained texts, emails, contemporaneous phone records and testimony from multiple witnesses — information that would emerge at trial.
“Manhattan is home to the country’s most significant business market,” Bragg said in a press release on the charges. New York businesses can’t cover up criminal conduct in their records.
Prosecutors cited three occasions in which they say Trump “orchestrated” such a scheme with executives at American Media Inc., the company that publishes the National Enquirer. All three took place after Trump decided to run for president.
The first instance came that fall, when AMI paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child that Trump had allegedly fathered outside of his marriage.
Even as the magazine concluded that the story was not true, executives agreed not to release the doorman from the agreement until after the election, prosecutors say, and the payment was “falsely characterized” in AMI’s books and records.
The last incident was the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to keep her quiet about an affair that she had with a celebrity golfer in 2006 just before the election.
In a news conference held after Trump’s appearance in court on Tuesday afternoon, Bragg clarified what prosecutors view as two possible other crimes in the Trump case.
Bragg said that the first is a New York state law that makes conspiring to promote a candidacy a crime. If that is the case, then there could be false statements like misrepresentation to tax authorities.
Trump, who was twice impeached as president and still secured a record-breaking number of electoral votes, tried to capitalize on the narrative potential of his day in court.
He departed the courthouse in a motorcade that major cable news networks tracked with helicopter footage. His 2024 election campaign began offering a T-shirt with a fake mug shot for a $47 donation.
And to close out a full day of media attention, Trump took the stage at Mar-a-Lago before an audience of his supporters to attack the charges as political persecution.
“I never thought anything like this would happen in America,” Trump said to kick off his speech. I don’t have a crime anymore because I want to defend the nation from those who want to destroy it.
Trump’s response: Trump was caught off guard by the grand jury’s decision to indict him, according to a person who spoke directly with him. While the former president was bracing for an indictment, he began to believe news reports that a potential indictment was weeks – or more – away. The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the matter and continued his attacks on Bragg and other Democrats following news of the indictment.
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Despite being on high alert throughout the day, Manhattan saw only small gatherings of Trump supporters near the courthouse, with reporters largely outnumbering the protestors.
Trump’s supporters are supporting him in other ways. His campaign had raised $10 million off the news of the indictment, according to adviser Jason Miller.
Across the GOP, Trump’s allies and his critics adopted similar messaging, with even Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, accusing Bragg of pushing “a political agenda.”
According to a survey from Wednesday, two-thirds of respondents think that the charges in New York are not that serious. Six in 10 say the investigation is politically motivated.
The venue may be moved out of New York where the voters in 2020 overwhelmingly voted against Trump.
Legal experts expected the Manhattan DA case to be “potentially the weakest” of the investigations, reports NPR’s Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson.