NEW YORK/PALM BEACH, Fla., April 3 (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump will fly from Florida to New York on Monday ahead of his scheduled indictment in connection with hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election. as security in Manhattan tightens.
Trump, the first former US president to face criminal charges, is due to be arraigned, fingerprinted and photographed at the courthouse in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday. His lawyers said he would plead not guilty.
The specific charges included in the grand jury indictment have not been released; Tuesday’s arraignment marked Trump’s first appearance in court and before a judge in the case.
In a social media post late Sunday, Trump said he planned to leave his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach at noon for Trump Tower in Manhattan before heading to the courthouse Tuesday morning.
A court official said the arraignment was scheduled for 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) on Tuesday. Trump will then return to Florida and deliver remarks at Mar-a-Lago at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday (0015 GMT Wednesday), his office said.
New York City police over the weekend began erecting barricades along the edge of the sidewalks around Trump Tower and the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse downtown.
Demonstrations are expected at these locations and police have promised to be prepared. “Officers have been placed on alert and the department remains ready to respond as needed and will ensure that everyone can peacefully exercise their rights,” the NYPD said in a statement.
Other courtrooms on the court’s upper floors will be closed before the case as part of security precautions, a court official said.
U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted an invitation Sunday to join her in a protest near the courthouse Tuesday, echoing Trump’s pinned post on Truth Social: “They’re not coming after President Trump, they’re coming after us, he it’s just in their way.”
TRUMP’S LAWYERS HOPE FOR DISMISSAL
[1/3] Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends his first campaign rally since announcing his 2024 presidential bid at an event in Waco, Texas, U.S. March 25, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
Before the indictment, the grand jury heard evidence of a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels said she was paid to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she had with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006. Trump denies the affair.
Trump, 76, was president from 2017 to 2021 and in November launched a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, aiming to deny Democratic President Joe Biden a second term.
The indictment, stemming from an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, emerged last Thursday. Trump has pleaded not guilty, and he and his allies have portrayed the charges as politically motivated. Bragg is a Democrat.
The New York case is just one of many investigations facing the Republican as he makes another run at the White House. A Georgia prosecutor is investigating Trump’s alleged efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat in that state.
The US Department of Justice is investigating both Trump’s actions in the 2020 election and his retention of top secret documents after leaving the White House in 2021.
Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, said Sunday that he expected more details about the indictment to be decided Monday and noted that the Secret Service, which protects former presidents, also had a role to play Tuesday.
Tacopina said there is unlikely to be a “criminal walk” — criminal is short for perpetrator — in which a person who has been charged is shown to the media because of security concerns.
“I honestly don’t know how this is going to go — hopefully as smoothly as possible — and then we begin the battle to right this wrong,” Tacopina told CNN.
Tacopina added that Trump’s lawyers will “dissect” the indictment once it is released and look at “every potential issue” to challenge it. He said he expects to make a motion to dismiss the charges at some point.
Trump is expected to appear before Judge Juan Murchan, the judge who also presided over a criminal trial last year in which Trump’s real estate company was convicted of tax fraud. Trump himself has not been charged in the case.
A court official said Sunday that the judge had asked both sides to present their positions on whether cameras and video should be allowed in the courtroom and would rule on the matter Monday.
Reporting by Rich McKay in Palm Beach, Florida and Karen Freifeld in New York; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Gina Moon and David Di Delgado in New York, Doina Chiaku in Washington; Written by Will Dunham Editing by Heather Timmons, Matthew Lewis and Bernadette Baum
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