Donald Trump is set to appear in criminal court in New York City on Tuesday to be arraigned on dozens of charges related to hush money payments — the first time in American history a former president will face criminal charges.
Trump is expected to appear at the courthouse at 100 Centre St. in lower Manhattan around noon ET for fingerprinting and processing and to go before Judge Juan Merchan to enter a plea of not guilty around 2 p.m., when the charges against him will be unveiled.
The legal troubles, media spectacle and porn-star-hush-money salaciousness at the heart of the case are a new chapter for the New York tycoon-turned-TV-star-turned-politician, whose career has careened from scandal to success for four decades. This time, unlike his bankrupted casinos or failed marriages, many of Trump’s supporters and detractors argue that the fate of American democracy is hanging in the balance as the former president increasingly conflates any legal woes as an effort to illegitimately deny him a return to power.
With the failures of Jan. 6 still fresh in officials’ minds, security was high in the courthouse and nearby areas as the police department, court officers and Secret Service braced for protests amid the unprecedented arraignment of a former president.
While police shut down streets and the sound of a helicopter buzzed overhead, news outlets from around the world set up cameras near long lines of spectators, some of whom had camped out overnight in the hopes of getting a coveted seat inside.
The judge has barred TV cameras from inside the courtroom, but decided to allow some photographers, who will capture historic images likely to end up on newspaper front pages, in election-season ads and in future history books.
“I think we’re on the eve of destruction. It’s just like surreal to me,” Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said Monday on Fox News.
‘Indict himself’
Trump called for “protests” in the event of his arrest last month, and he later ratcheted up his rhetoric, warning of “potential death and destruction” if he was charged criminally. He continued to post overnight on his social media site Truth Social, leveling criticism at the prosecutor.
“[I]f he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, whom Trump accused of leaking details of the indictment to the press.
Trump has also used the indictment to raise money for his 2024 campaign, which announced Monday evening that it had raised $7 million since a grand jury voted to indict Trump, 76, last Thursday.
Mayor Eric Adams told reporters at a news conference Monday that the city was ready for unrest. “We are prepared,” he said.
The exact charges will be unsealed at the arraignment; two sources familiar with the matter have said Trump faces about 30 counts relating to allegations of document fraud connected to hush money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Under a 2019 New York state law that Trump as president criticized as being too soft on crime, the charges he’s believed to face don’t qualify for bail because they’re nonviolent offenses. Legal experts said the judge could restrict Trump’s travel but is unlikely to do so because he’s running for president and isn’t considered a flight risk.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation by Bragg’s office a “witch hunt” and accusing the DA of being a “racist.”
Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social that he didn’t believe he could get a fair trial in Manhattan, where he lived for decades and made his name before moving to Florida during his presidency. The actions at the center of the investigations took place in New York, where Trump’s campaign was also headquartered at the time.
“The Corrupt D.A. has no case,” he wrote. “What he does have is a venue where it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a Fair Trial (it must be changed!)”