Donald Trump will be arraigned on Tuesday after his indictment in Manhattan, marking a historic moment as a former US commander in chief faces charges. Court officials confirmed the timing on Friday, and Trump’s surrender and arrest will present a shocking scene.
He will be booked like anyone else facing charges, mugshot and all, but he isn’t expected to be put in handcuffs. He’ll have Secret Service protection and will almost certainly be released that day.
The indictment comes after a grand jury probe into hush money paid during the 2016 presidential campaign to squelch allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter.
The indictment itself remains sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment. Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina has said that he will very aggressively challenge the legal validity of the Manhattan grand jury indictment, while Trump himself has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the investigation as a “scam,” a “persecution,” an injustice.
Since no current or former president had ever been charged with a crime, there’s no rulebook for booking the defendant. Trump was asked to surrender on Friday, but his lawyers said the Secret Service, which protects him as a former president, needed more time to make security preparations.
For weeks, court officials and representatives from the district attorney’s office, the New York Police Department, and U.S. Secret Service have been discussing logistics and planning for a Trump indictment.
The former president will be fingerprinted, and a mugshot will be taken. Investigators will complete arrest paperwork and do a check to see if he has any outstanding criminal charges or warrants.
Trump would then appear before a judge for an afternoon arraignment. Even for defendants who turn themselves in, answering criminal charges in New York generally entails at least several hours of detention while being fingerprinted, photographed, and going through other procedures.
The investigation dug into six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both claim to have had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics, but he denies having sexual liaisons with either woman.
Trump’s allies paid the women to bury their allegations as he ran for president in 2016. The publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story and sat on it, in an arrangement brokered by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. After Cohen himself paid Daniels $130,000, Trump’s company reimbursed him, added bonuses and logged the payments to Cohen as legal expenses.
Federal prosecutors argued — in a 2018 criminal case against Cohen — that the payments equated to illegal aid to Trump’s campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violation charges, but federal prosecutors didn’t go after Trump, who was then in the White House. However, some of their court filings obliquely implicated him as someone who knew about the payment arrangements.
Women who have sex for money will even more gladly LIE for Democrat’s money!
how true, even that dog face, slut. I one time paid for a BJ, will they be coming after me next?
Seems to me if I was Trump or Cohen I would sue for my money back Stormy didn’t keep it a secret so she violated the contract.
thhen devil rats start getting hunh no waitingm all good marines loaded for guilty devils
Why do they bother with this when he’s done so many more serious crimes . He should have been hung for treason. Will be interesting if they put him on the stand. He can’t tell the truth.
We aren’t discussing evil senile Hitlerite Communist Jokementia Bribery here…