Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on April 4 to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.
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The plea came during a brief arraignment in a lower Manhattan courtroom as Mr. Trump faced a grand jury indictment arising from a hush money payment to a porn actor during Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The two officials who confirmed the plea spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because prosecutors had not yet released the indictment publicly.
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The arraignment, though procedural in nature, amounts to a remarkable reckoning for Mr. Trump after years of investigations into his personal, business and political dealings. The case is unfolding against the backdrop not only of his third campaign for the White House but also against other investigations in Washington and Atlanta that might yet produce even more charges.
A silent and stone-faced Mr. Trump, his lips pursed in apparent anger, entered the courtroom shortly before 2:30 p.m. without saying anything. Minutes earlier, he narrated his feelings in real time, describing the experience as “SURREAL” as he traveled from Trump Tower to lower Manhattan to face a judge as the first former president in American history to be criminally prosecuted.
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It represents the new split-screen reality for Mr. Trump as he submits to the dour demands of the American criminal justice system while projecting an aura of defiance and victimhood at celebratory campaign events.
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Wearing his signature dark suit and red tie, Mr. Trump turned and waved to crowds outside the building before heading inside to be fingerprinted and processed. He arrived at court in an eight-car motorcade from Trump Tower, communicating in real time his anger at the process.
“Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse,” the voluble ex-President posted on his Truth Social platform. “Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!”
The booking and appearance before Judge Juan Merchan should be relatively brief — though hardly routine — as Mr. Trump learns for the first time the charges against him. Mr. Trump will plead not guilty, according to his lawyers, and is expected to enter the plea himself, as is standard in the court.
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Mr. Merchan has ruled that TV cameras won’t be allowed in the courtroom.
Mr. Trump, who was impeached twice by the U.S. House but was never convicted in the U.S. Senate, is the first former president to face criminal charges. The nation’s 45th commander-in-chief was escorted from Trump Tower to the courthouse by the Secret Service and may have his mug shot taken.
“He is strong and ready to go,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina told The Associated Press. Earlier, Mr. Tacopina said in a TV interview that the former president wouldn’t plead guilty to lesser charges, even if it might resolve the case. He also said he didn’t think the case would make it to a jury.
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New York police said they were ready for large protests by Trump supporters, who share the Republican former president’s belief that the New York grand jury indictment and three additional pending investigations are politically motivated and intended to weaken his bid to retake the White House in 2024. Journalists often outnumbered protesters, though.
Mr. Trump, a former reality TV star, has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, saying he raised more than $8 million in the days since the indictment on claims of a “witch hunt.” His campaign released a fundraising request titled “My last email before arrest” and he has repeatedly assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case “hates me” — something his own lawyer has said is not true.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to return to his Palm Beach, Florida, home, Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday evening to give remarks. At least 500 prominent supporters have been invited, with some of the most pro-Trump congressional Republicans expected to attend.
A conviction would not prevent Mr. Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Inside the Manhattan courtroom, prosecutors led by New York’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, are expected to unseal the indictment issued last week by a grand jury. This is when Mr. Trump and his defence lawyers will get their first glimpse of the precise allegations against him.
The indictment contains multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press last week.
After the arraignment, Mr. Trump is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set.
The investigation is scrutinizing six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Mr. Trump years before he got into politics. Mr. Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.
The arraignment will unfold against the backdrop of heavy security in New York, coming more than two years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win.
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Mr. Trump was defiant ahead of his arraignment. He used his social media network to complain that he was going to court in a heavily Democratic area, declaring, “KANGAROO COURT” and “THIS IS NOT WHAT AMERICA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!” He and his campaign have repeatedly assailed Bragg and even trained scrutiny on members of Bragg’s family.
Despite that, the scenes around Trump Tower and the courthouse where Mr. Trump will stand before a judge did not feature major unrest. Police tried to keep apart protesters supporting the former president and those opposing him by confining them to separate sides of a park near the courthouse using metal barricades.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress, staged a brief rally at the park, but the scene was so chaotic that it was hard to hear her over the crush of reporters and protesters.
“We’re the party of peace,” Greene said, thanking those Trump supporters present. “Democrats are communists.”
Embattled Republican New York Rep. George Santos also showed up in solidarity with Mr. Trump, saying, “I want to support the president.”
“I think this is unprecedented and it’s a bad day for democracy,” Santos said, suggesting that future prosecutors could target Biden and other presidents with other cases, which “cheapens the judicial system.”
New York’s ability to carry out safe and drama-free courthouse proceedings in a case involving a polarizing ex-president could be an important test case as prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington conduct their own investigations of Mr. Trump that could also result in charges. Those investigations concern efforts to undo the 2020 election results as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The former president and his aides are embracing the media circus. After initially being caught off guard when news of the indictment broke Thursday evening, Mr. Trump and his team are hoping to use the case to his advantage. Still, they asked the judge in a Monday filing to ban photo and video coverage of the arraignment.
Many top Republicans, including some of Mr. Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s GOP presidential primary, have criticized the case against him. Biden, who has yet to formally announce that he’s seeking reelection next year, and other leading Democrats have largely had little to say about it.
Prosecutors insist their case against Mr. Trump has nothing to do with politics.
(with inputs from AFP)