Donald J. Trump took his first steps into life as a criminal defendant on Tuesday, walking into the Manhattan district attorney’s office where he turned himself in to face dozens of felony charges for his role in paying hush money to a porn star with a few days before the 2016 presidential election.
The press talks about the “spectacle”
In a remarkable spectacle that unfolded in front of a divided nation, Trump’s motorcade arrived shortly before 1:30 p.m. at the district attorney’s office, which is part of the stately Manhattan Criminal Courts building. While in custody, he will be fingerprinted, but special accommodations will be made for the former president: He is not expected to be placed in a holding cell and will spend only a short time in the office before his appearance before the court; he probably won’t be handcuffed or have his ID picture taken.
Trump, who was indicted last week, is the first US president to face criminal charges. But those charges, brought by District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, will likely remain under seal until Trump appears in court to be arraigned later Tuesday.
How the hearing will go
At that hearing, Trump is expected to plead not guilty himself, rather than through his lawyers, in a defiance in keeping with his approach on the day, according to people who have known him for a long time. He is also considering whether to address the cameras before the indictment, another person familiar with the discussions said.
The Washington Post notes that he will be detained, but not arrested or treated as in the general mode, where suspects are taken from their homes in handcuffs. Instead, Trump and his lawyers arranged his surrender with prosecutors. That means Trump will turn himself in, allowing the arrest and subsequent prosecution to take place behind closed doors.
This appearance will take place against the backdrop of his third run for the White House. Trump’s indictment has thrown the race for the Republican nomination — which he leads in most polls — into unfamiliar territory.
The case, filed in the city that made Trump famous as a businessman and tabloid-turned-TV star, involves a $130,000 hush-hush payment that his impresario agent, Michael D. Cohen, made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. The payment, which Cohen said was made at Trump’s direction, ensured that Daniels would not go public with her story of a sexual relationship with Trump, notes The New York Times.
Who is the prosecutor and the case judge
For District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a conviction is not a sure thing. The case appears to hinge on unprecedented enforcement and testimony from Cohen, who previously pleaded guilty to federal hush money charges.
Judge Juan M. Merchan of the New York Supreme Court has been assigned to the case. He also oversaw the grand jury that indicted Trump last week.
Merchan — who has been on the New York bench since 2009 — presided over last year’s jury trial of Trump’s eponymous real estate company, which led to a conviction in December, and the prosecution of the company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. who worked for a long time.
Trump denies it
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, as well as any sexual encounters with Ms. Daniels. And he pounced on Bragg, a black Democrat, with threatening and sometimes racist language. He also urged his followers to “PROTEST” against his arrest, language reminiscent of his rhetoric in the run-up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
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p class=”mb-8 px-6 md:px-0 font-bitter text-s17-l170 md:text-s18-l170 text-c121212″>Trump’s surrender is “the culmination of a month-long drama,” write the US journalists, who note that the main media attention first focused on the question of whether he would be impeached – and that soon expanded to include predictions about how he will respond.
