NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, making him the first sitting or former US president in history to be criminally charged.
Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom to dozens of counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy for his alleged role in making hush money payments to two women toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign. against a former president, was revealed in a brief process before Judge Juan Merchan.
A Manhattan grand jury returned a 34-count indictment Thursday in the case of secret payments Trump allegedly authorized his now-former lawyer and ally, Michael Cohen, to give to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about an alleged extramarital affair.
Trump and his defense team have repeatedly and loudly denied any wrongdoing.
Donald Trump waved to a crowd of people, some denouncing his arrest, others cheering, as he arrived at the Manhattan district attorney’s office Tuesday, where he surrendered ahead of a historic courtroom moment that will see him become the first president of the United States. United States criminally charged. .
The former president posted a message on his Truth Social account as his motorcade was leaving Trump Tower, writing: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, to the Courthouse. It seems so SURREAL – WOW, they’re going to ARREST me. Can they? I don’t think so. that this is happening in the United States. MAGA!”
Details of the indictment, including whether it may include felony charges, have remained sealed since the grand jury vote late last week, though sources familiar with the matter say it includes about 30 charges related to document fraud. linked to the hush money investigation involving payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Trump, who has criticized the district attorney’s investigation as a “witch hunt” and called for Alvin Bragg’s removal from office, has always denied any wrongdoing. On Monday night, the judge in his case, Judge Juan Merchan, ruled that video cameras would not be allowed inside the courthouse and while phones and laptops are fine, they cannot be used, which means that the public will have to wait until after the arraignment, which is expected to be brief, to learn the ramifications.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE HEARING?
Trump was arraigned on the 15th floor, Part 59 of the Manhattan Criminal Court building. This is the same courtroom where Harvey Weinstein was tried and convicted of rape and sexual assault in February 2020.
The room was directly across the hall from where Trump Corp and Trump Payroll Corp were found guilty in December 2022 of criminal tax fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records. Attorney Susan Necheles defended the Trump Organization in that case and is expected to appear alongside Trump when he is arraigned.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has not indicated whether he plans to seek jail time in the event of a conviction. It is not entirely clear how fast the process will move, considering that there is no precedent. It is unlikely that the former president could be exposed to some of the prosecutions that any other New York defendant would. He has kept his Secret Service detail with him, and they have to protect him as long as he chooses to keep them by his side.
DEMONSTRATIONS IN NEW YORK
Hundreds of people, from supporters to protesters, filled the streets in front of the Manhattan courthouse and Trump Tower in Midtown, where New York City Police set up barricades last week.
Crowds of onlookers overwhelmed some of the former president’s most vocal supporters Tuesday morning outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is scheduled to appear hours later for his afternoon arraignment.
A morning “Rally for Trump” in support of the former president was expected to draw numbers, including keynote speaker Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican lawmaker arrived amid the chaotic crowd of pro- and anti-Trump supporters where she delivered brief remarks.
But in the end, it didn’t go so well. Shouting through a small handheld megaphone, Greene’s message to Trump supporters was essentially silenced by the disorder of the crowd and media gathered outside. She left just a few minutes later.
The controversial Republican had a brief endorsement from Rep. George Santos, who appeared in the middle of the chaos in front of the court half an hour before the official start time of the rally. He left around 10 am with no plans to return. During his brief appearance, the Long Island politician criticized Bragg and expressed his support for Trump.
Some anti-Trump protesters were also present, unfurling a large banner reading “Trump lies all the time.” A brief fight broke out between pro and anti-Trump supporters, with the former tearing up a banner outside the courthouse. Our sister network NBC News reports that the police intervened and separated the groups.
TRUMP DENIES EVERYTHING
Trump’s team has denied any wrongdoing during the investigation. His lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said last Thursday that the former president had committed no crime and vowed to “vigorously combat this political accusation in court.”
Tacopina has accused prosecutors of “distorting the laws” to try to bring down the former president. He has described Trump as an extortion victim who had to pay the money because the allegations were going to embarrass him “regardless of the campaign.”
In a lengthy statement of his own in which he again denied the allegations, Trump echoed the claims made by his lawyers the previous Thursday, calling the case “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.”
“Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘get Trump,’ but now they have done the unthinkable: indict a completely innocent person in an act of blatant election interference,” Trump’s statement read. “The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but using our justice system as a weapon to punish a political opponent, who happens to be the President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for president, has never happened before. Never.”
As he has continually done in the past, Trump once again called the investigation a “witch hunt.” He continued to lash out at Bragg, whom he called “an embarrassment…doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders, robberies and muggings he should be concentrating on.”
THE IMPEACHMENT AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
The events may have significant implications for the 2024 presidential election.
Trump, 76, has insisted he will continue to seek the Republican nomination even if the jury votes in favor of an impeachment.
Legally, an indictment does not prevent you from running. Prosecutors have not said whether they plan to seek prison time in the event of a conviction, though that also wouldn’t stop Trump from running for president or winning next year.
For a man whose presidency was defined by one erased rule after another, the impeachment sets up another never-before-seen spectacle. Here’s a look at the key charges in the indictment and how Trump responds.
TRUMP’S LEGAL ISSUES BEYOND MANHATTAN
Trump’s impeachment marks an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings.
Even as Trump continues his latest White House campaign, there is no question that an impeachment feeds his longtime critics.
In addition to the secret money investigation in New York, Trump faces criminal investigations in Atlanta and Washington for his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 election.
A special counsel for the Department of Justice has also been presenting evidence before a grand jury investigating Trump’s possession of hundreds of classified documents in his Florida estate.
It’s unclear when those investigations will end or if they could result in criminal charges, but they will continue regardless of what happens in New York, underscoring the current severity — and broad geographic scope — of the legal challenges facing the former president.
