Former US President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, after his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City, US, April 4, 2023. (Reuters)Donald Trump Arraignment News Live Updates: Donald Trump made a momentous court appearance Tuesday as the only ex-president to be charged with a crime as he was confronted with a 34-count felony indictment accusing him in a scheme to bury allegations of extramarital affairs during his first White House campaign.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. His next court appearance is due in December. returned to his Florida home later in the day, saying that he never thought anything like this could happen in America. Trump is one of the frontrunners to become the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential elections.
Trump was indicted last week, becoming the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges, over a case involving a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. He has said he is innocent. Trump supporters, many of whom wore red hats, criticised the district attorney’s conduct, while counter-protestors celebrated the indictment.
The New York state will "not normalise" serious criminal conduct, "no matter who you are," Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, has asserted, hours after former US President Donald Trump was arraigned in a courtroom here.
Bragg is the first Black Manhattan District Attorney and a fellow New Yorker who handed over an indictment on criminal charges to Trump. “These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are. We cannot and will not normalise serious criminal conduct,” Bragg told reporters.
“Under New York state law, it is a felony to falsify business records with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime. That is exactly what this case is about: 34 false statements, made to cover up other crimes,” Bragg told reporters. (AP)
In the currency of today’s attention economy, Donald Trump is the world’s richest man. His media-engulfed arraignment in New York was an out-of-court Exhibit A.
In returning to the no-business-like-show-business metropolis that propelled him to tabloid-fodder fame so many years ago, the former president also returned to the very stage where he thrives the most. As he did so, even in an atypically sedate manner, he demonstrated the peculiar way he encounters the world — as luminary and aggrieved party rolled into one.
Love him? Hate him? Don’t care? Doesn’t matter. Just like during his presidency, he commands notice. Still. Thousands of New York City police officers, the U.S. Secret Service and swarms of journalists deployed across lower Manhattan can all attest to that.
It was a procedural court appearance, the low rung of drama in a criminal case, but it was a full-on spectacle. And calling it that, assessing it in that way, does not diminish it — not in today’s world, where spectacle and all its byproducts drive the attention economy and the cultural conversation. (AP)
With Stormy Daniels’ alleged affair with Donald Trump under the limelight recently, the criminal case unveiled also mentioned an alleged liaison with another woman, Karen McDougal.
McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who appeared on the magazine’s cover in its July 1998 edition, has claimed to have had an affair with former US president Donald Trump lasting ten months in 2006-07. Trump has thus far denied all allegations.
Read the full story here
The coverup is worse than the crime, the expression goes. And in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump, prosecutors say the coverup made the crime worse. In an indictment unsealed, prosecutors say the 45th president falsified records about three hush money payments in order to keep potentially damaging stories from coming to light as he campaigned for the presidency.
The indictment, however, raises many thorny issues about state and federal law that could provide openings for the defense to attack the charges to try to get them tossed before the case even gets to trial.
“The bottom line is that it’s murky,” said Richard Hasen, an expert in election law and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles law school. "And the district attorney did not offer a detailed legal analysis as to how they can do this, how they can get around these potential hurdles. And it could potentially tie up the case for a long time."
In the end, the case isn’t about the tawdry details of the hush money payments, Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen. It’s about a presidential candidate using his money and influence to silence potentially damaging stories that might make voters choose another candidate, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he’d made about women.
“There are an awful lot of dots here which it takes a bit of imagination to connect,” said Richard Klein, a Touro Law Center criminal law professor. Bragg said the indictment doesn't specify the potential underlying crimes because the law doesn’t require it. But given the likelihood of Trump’s lawyers challenging it, “you’d think they’d want to be on much firmer ground than some of this stuff,” said Klein, a former New York City public defender. (AP)
Trump's lawyers are certain to attack the credibility of his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, a convicted liar who is far from the ideal prosecution witness. The disbarred attorney has said that Trump directed him to arrange the payment of hush money to fend off damage to his White House bid.
But Cohen has also admitted in court to lying before, and Trump’s lawyers will no doubt try to use that to their advantage. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Moscow Trump Tower project on Trump’s behalf during his presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty in a parallel federal case to campaign finance violations and other charges in connection to the hush money payments.
After federal prosecutors declined to file charges against Trump in the hush money case, a former law enforcement official told The Associated Press that prosecutors harbored concerns over the reliability of Cohen as a witness. And federal prosecutors believed it was far from clear that Trump could be convicted of a campaign finance crime, even if a jury believed Cohen’s allegations that he directed the hush money payments. (AP)
The New York case is just one of many legal worries for Trump. Georgia prosecutors are also investigating Trump’s attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in in the state. And federal prosecutors are investigating whether classified documents were criminally mishandled at Trump’s Florida home, as well as efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the presidential election.
Read here to know more about the ongoing cases against Trump
While the country's attention was trained on the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump was being arraigned, the White House did its best Tuesday to suggest that it wasn't paying much attention.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that “our focus right now is on the American people,” and was noncommittal when asked whether President Joe Biden was following the news.
“He will catch part of the news when he has a moment to catch up on the news of the day,” she said. “But this is not a focus for him today.” Jean-Pierre was similarly circumspect when asked about the potential for unrest over the prosecution of the former president, especially since Trump has called for protests. “We are prepared,” she said.
Fox News' Peter Doocy tried unsuccessfully to get Jean-Pierre to open up more.
“Why don't you have more to say about the Trump indictment?” he asked. “For better or worse, all that anybody in the country is talking about, at this exact moment while we're in here, is Trump. And they look here to find out what the White House thinks about it.” “I think the American people should feel reassured that when there is an ongoing case like this one, that we're just not commenting,” Jean-Pierre said.
But reporters didn't give up. “I love how you guys are asking me this in different ways,” Jean-Pierre joked. “You guys are clever.” (AP)
“This could very well lead under the Biden administration's leadership to an all-out nuclear World War III can happen. We're not very far away from it, believe it or not,” Trump said during the address at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, soon after he flew back from New York.
Trump, a Republican, said the US is now in a mess under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. “Our economy is crashing. Inflation is out of control. Russia has joined with China. Can you believe that? Saudi Arabia has joined with Iran,” he said. Trump said China, Russia, Iran and North Korea have formed together as a "menacing and destructive coalition" and could have never happened under his leadership.
"If I were your president it would never have happened. Nor would Russia attack Ukraine. All of those lives will be saved. All of those beautiful cities would be standing,” he said, referring to the destruction caused in Ukraine. “Our currency is crashing and will soon no longer be the world standard, which will be our greatest defeat frankly, in 200 years. There will be no defeat like that will take us away from being even a great power," Trump said.
He also accused his successor Biden of destroying the country. "If you took the five worst presidents in the history of the United States and added them up they would not have done near the destruction to our country as Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done,” Trump said. (PTI)
Donald Trump's son Eric Trump shared a short video of the ex-President's ride to his Mar-A-Lago home.
What US President Trump’s arrest might mean for American politics is perhaps less important than what it will mean for Americans in their daily lives.
In the short run, it will mean more rants, rage posts and blocks on social media. It will mean breakups and brawls, and all the rifts of the sort that friends and families have gone through ever since that fateful election of 2016 which seemed to up-end reality itself to some in America, leading to walkouts from schools and tears over Hillary Clinton’s failure to make history as expected.
In the longer run though, what it might mean poses a bigger question: If Americans cannot agree on the deepening divides in their country, what further escapes will they, or their leaders, pursue in place of that inevitable duty towards the truth that every sane person might demand from the world? (Read more)
Former US president Donald Trump spoke just six times, including when he entered the not guilty plea, before a judge in a Manhattan court during the nearly hour-long hearing at his arraignment, according to court records.
When Merchan said “Let’s arraign Mr Trump,” the court clerk responded, “Donald J. Trump, the grand jury of New York County has filed indictment 71543 of 2023 charging you with the crimes of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?” Trump replied, “Not guilty.”
When Merchan said “Mr. Trump, as you know, you have an absolute right to conflict-free representation. The People have alleged that there is a potential, Mr. (Joseph) Tacopina has a conflict, and the basis for their belief is that he may have represented a former client who is a witness in this case….I simply want to inform you that because it is an important right. I also want to — first, do you understand that right, Mr. Trump?” Trump replied “Yes.” (Read more)
On Tuesday, Trump arrived at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse at around 12.20 pm local time (9.50 pm IST), travelling in an 8-car motorcade from his residence about 6 km away. He surrendered at the court, and was fingerprinted and processed.
Clad in a signature navy blue suit and red tie, he reached the 15th-floor courtroom over an hour after he first entered the building, local media reported. Trump spoke six times in court, in one of which he told the judge that he was pleading “not guilty” to the 34 felony counts. He also said that he had been advised of his rights. The ex-President left around an hour later.
Trump's next court appearance is due in December, but his lawyers have asked that he be excused from having to appear in person because of the extensive security required.
No date has been set for a trial.
While prosecutors are pushing for a date in January (before the 2024 presidential polls), Trump's lawyers have asked that it be pushed to March.
The criminal case against former President Donald Trump, unveiled on Tuesday, rests not just on his high-profile alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels but also on a separate liaison with Playboy model Karen McDougal.
A 52-year-old former model and actress from Indiana, McDougal was a Playboy magazine Playmate of the Year in the late 1990s.
She has said she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. Trump has denied having a sexual relationship with her. (Read more)
Adult film star Stormy Daniels has been ordered to pay, over $120,000 in legal fees to the attorneys of former US President Donald Trump, by a federal appeals court in California.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday (local time) ordered Daniels to pay Trump's attorneys just over $120,000 in legal fees. That's on top of the over $500,000 in court-ordered payments to Trump attorneys that she has to pay.
Daniels had filed and lost a defamation suit against the former president, reported CNN.
The order was delivered on the same day that a Manhattan court arraigned Trump on 34 charges related to alleged hush money payments to Daniels to cover up a purported affair between the two. (ANI)
The unsealed indictment against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday laid out an unexpected accusation that bolstered what many legal experts have described as an otherwise risky and novel case: Prosecutors claim he falsified business records in part for a plan to deceive state tax authorities.
For weeks, observers have wondered about the exact charges Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg would bring. Accusing Trump of bookkeeping fraud to conceal campaign finance violations, many believed, could raise significant legal challenges. That accusation turned out to be a major part of Bragg’s theory — but not all of it. (Read more)
When the news of Donald Trump’s indictment on criminal charges by the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg became official last Thursday, the former President called it (incongruously) an unprecedented “attack on our once free and fair elections”. In an all-caps posting on Truth Social, he declared, “The USA is now a third world nation, a nation in serious decline”. Others in Trump-land, including his sons, repeated the same charge comparing the indictment on charges related to hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels with the actions of “third world” dictators and “banana republicans” — as Trump ally Karry Lake put it— against political opponents.
This is not the first time that phrases like third world dictatorship and banana republic have been bandied about in the context of Trump’s shenanigans. And it is not only Trump and his allies who have used this language. While criticising the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, former president George W Bush said, “This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.” (Read more)
A subdued former President Donald Trump lashed out on Tuesday at New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg for bringing criminal charges against him and declared himself the victim of election interference without offering evidence.
"I never thought anything like this could happen in America," Trump told supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida. "The only crime that I've committed has been to fearlessly defend our nation against those who seek to destroy it."
Trump accused Manhattan District Attorney Bragg of being out to get him "before he knew anything about me." He said the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, is "a Trump-hating judge." But he did not offer any evidence to support his claim that they were taking their actions in order to undermine his White House bid. (Reuters)
Hours after he appeared before the court in New York, Donald Trump accused judge Juan Merchan of being a 'Trump hater.'
'I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris,' he said in a speech from his Florida home. His son, Donald Trump Jr, took to the right-wing social media platform Truth Social to share a photo of the judge's daughter, claiming that she has worked with sitting US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Hours after he appeared before the court in New York, Donald Trump accused judge Juan Merchan of being a "Trump hater."
"I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating family, whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris," he said in a speech from his Florida home. His son, Donald Trump Jr, took to the right-wing social media platform Truth Social to share a photo of the judge's daughter, claiming that she has worked with sitting US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaking after his arraignment in New York, Trump said that he "never thought anything like this could happen in America."
"The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it," he said in his speech from his Mar-A-Lago home in Florida.
If you are just joining us, here's a quick summary of the details from the New York prosecutor's Trump hush-money indictment.
? 34 payments: The indictment sets out 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, which each carry a maximum charge of four years in prison.
? Cover-up: According to a separate legal document that accompanies the indictment, Trump falsified those records as he worked with his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen and others to cover up a series of unflattering stories that threatened his 2016 presidential bid. Along the way, he and others violated election laws, the statement of facts said.
? Eyes and ears: According to the charges, tabloid publisher David Pecker met with Trump at Trump Tower in August 2015, shortly after he announced his presidential bid, and offered to act as "eyes and ears" for the campaign by looking out for negative stories and altering Cohen before they were published.
? The doorman's tale: In October or November of 2015, Pecker learned that a former Trump Tower doorman was saying that Trump had allegedly fathered a child out of wedlock and paid him $30,000 for the rights to the story. It was later concluded that the story was not true.
? Karen McDougal: According to the charges, $150,000 was paid to buy the silence of a woman to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. That woman, who is not named, matches the description of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, 52, who has publicly talked about her relationship with Trump and her arrangement. (Reuters)
Flanked by American flags, former President Donald Trump delivered a campaign-style speech to cheering supporters at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night.
Trump was defiant, referring, among other things, to his two impeachment trials during his presidency. He called the New York indictment the latest in an "onslaught of fraudulent investigations.” “This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election and it should be dropped immediately," Trump said.
Trump's plane has landed in Florida, and his motorcade headed to his Mar-a-Lago resort where hundreds of supporters, many in red MAGA hats, awaited him in a grand ballroom. Trump was expected to speak there in a campaign-like setting.
One man wore a jacket patterned with star-shaped American flags, and another man wore a red tie with the message “No Crime!” Members of a motorcycle club sported black leather vests that read on the back “Born To Ride for 45 Donald Trump.” Trump was the 45th US president.
Alex Gonzalez, a motorcycle club member, said he supports Trump in his 2024 presidential bid. “If he did something wrong, like anybody else, he should be held liable for it, but at the same time this is a witch hunt. This is not a real case,” said Gonzalez. (AP)
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, has been charged with 34 felony charges of falsifying records. Trump appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to the accusations.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has entered the courtroom. Former President Donald Trump is already inside te building getting processed for arraignment.
Donald Trump arrives at the Manhattan courthouse to be formally charged. He is being processed ahead of arraignment. Trump will plead not guilty, and make comments later in Florida.
Trump is the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week in a case stemming from a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, though the specific charges had yet to be disclosed.
Former US president Donald Trump's supporters today demonstrated outside Manhattan Criminal Courthouse before his planned appearance amid tight security arrangements.
Hours before his arraignment, former president Donald Trump sent an email to his supporters, which he claimed was the last one before his arrest, saying that the United States is becoming a 'Marxist Third World' country and went on social media questioning the fairness of the judiciary.
"My last email before my arrest," Trump said in the subject line of the email sent to his supporters hours before he was scheduled to be arraigned in the Manhattan court. "Today, we mourn the loss of justice in America. Today is the day that a ruling political party ARRESTS its leading opponent for having committed NO CRIME," Trump wrote.
"Our nation is becoming a Marxist Third World country that CRIMINALIZES dissent and IMPRISONS its political opposition. But do NOT lose hope in America! We are a nation that declared its independence from the world's biggest empire, won two world wars, and landed the first man on the moon. Resilience is in our blood," he added.
"Our movement has overcome so much. And there is no doubt in my mind that we will prevail once again and WIN the White House in 2024,” Trump wrote. (PTI)
Donald Trump, the former U.S. president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, will be formally charged on Tuesday in a watershed moment ahead of the 2024 presidential election as his supporters and detractors noisily rallied outside the Manhattan courthouse where he will appear.
Trump, 76, is the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week in a case stemming from a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, though the specific charges have yet to be disclosed. Trump has said he is innocent and is due to plead not guilty.
"Today (Tuesday) is the day that a ruling political party ARRESTS its leading opponent for having committed NO CRIME," Trump, who flew to New York from his Florida home on Monday, said in a fundraising email sent out on Tuesday morning. (Reuters)
New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, said there was no known specific security threat, adding that vandalism of any kind will not be tolerated.
“While there may be some rabble-rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow (Tuesday), our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves. New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger,” Adams told reporters.
“Our country needs him,” said Cindy Falco, 65, of Boynton Beach, Florida. “He’s pro-God, pro-family and pro-country.” Falco predicted exoneration, saying: “Nothing is going to stick to him.”
“Isn’t it ironic that they couldn’t get Donald Trump for all of the crimes he’s committed, except payment to a porn star?” said New Jersey resident Robert Hoatson, 71, outside of Trump Tower. “It always comes down to the lowliest of charges.”
“It’s a terrific day. I hope it goes well and that he is eventually found guilty,” Hoatson added.
(Reuters)
Trump’s campaign raised $7 million in the three days after word of the indictment emerged last Thursday, senior adviser Jason Miller said. The campaign on Monday issued the latest in a series of fundraising emails, taking aim at the media’s reporting on his indictment.
Remarks attributed to Trump in the email stated: “Our country has fallen. But I’m not giving up on America. We can and we will save our nation in 2024.”
A motorcade of several vehicles took Trump at midday from his Mar-a-Lago estate to the airport in nearby West Palm Beach. Trump climbed out of an SUV before he and members of his entourage climbed a set of stairs to enter his plane.
The indictment of Donald Trump by a grand jury in Manhattan has returned the spotlight on a woman named Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actor whom the former president allegedly paid to buy her silence about a sexual encounter that took place in 2006.
The payment — of $130,000 — was made in October 2016, days ahead of the presidential election, by Michael Cohen, a former lawyer and fixer for Trump. In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to — among other things — violating campaign finance laws in making the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
Read the full story here
When the news of Donald Trump’s indictment on criminal charges by the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg became official last Thursday, the former President called it (incongruously) an unprecedented “attack on our once free and fair elections”.
When the news of Donald Trump’s indictment on criminal charges by the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg became official last Thursday, the former President called it (incongruously) an unprecedented “attack on our once free and fair elections”.
It is not unlikely that Trump’s decision to enter the 2024 presidential race and rallying his political base is the sum total of his legal strategy. It has already yielded political dividends. His rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have all rallied around him.
Read the full article here
In the days ahead, Donald Trump is expected to walk through the routine steps of felony arrest processing in New York, now that a grand jury has voted to indict him in connection with his role in a hush-money payment to a porn star. But the unprecedented arrest of a former commander-in-chief will be anything but routine.
Accommodations may be made for Trump. While it is standard for defendants arrested on felony charges to be handcuffed, it is unclear whether an exception will be made for the former president because of his status.
Read the full New York Times report here
Beyond the alleged false accounting for hush money payments to a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with him, Trump is under investigation by a special counsel in Washington DC for his role in seeking to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, and for his potential mishandling of classified documents that travelled to his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, from the White House.
And a special grand jury in Georgia that investigated election interference in the state by Trump and his allies has recommended indictments for multiple people in a report that remains mostly sealed.
Read on to know the cases against Donald Trump
Donald Trump will try to turn his indictment to his advantage by stoking anger among core supporters over what they see as the weaponization of the justice system, though it may also push more Republicans tired of the drama around him to look for another presidential candidate.
The prosecution of a former president is unprecedented in U.S. history. But his supporters view it as politically motivated, and it may only harden their resolve to back him in the 2024 Republican primary, rank-and-file Republican voters, party officials and political analysts told news agency Reuters.
Read the Reuters analysis here
The seeds of Donald Trump’s indictment by the Manhattan district attorney’s office were planted 17 years ago, at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada, where he met Stormy Daniels in July 2006.
At the time, Trump was the 60-year-old star of “The Apprentice,” a reality show in which contestants competed in a test of their business acumen. She was a 27-year-old pornographic film star and director.
Read here about the Donald Trump-Stormy Daniels saga
Though far from the only US president dogged by legal and ethical scandals, Donald Trump now occupies a unique place in history as the first indicted on criminal charges. Two others, like Trump, found themselves impeached by Congress — Bill Clinton for lying under oath about his affair with a White House intern, and Andrew Johnson for pushing the limits of his executive authority in a bitter power struggle following the Civil War.
Read the full story here
While the Stormy Daniels episode carries worrying allegations of misappropriation of campaign funds, it is only one among the many alleged improprieties and illegalities of the former president, including deliberate incitement of the Capitol riots.
Trump is clearly hoping to shore up his base by playing the victim card — that is also of a piece with his politics. He has constantly maintained, often with leaps of logic characteristic of conspiracy theorists, that the entire US polity is against him. He has called the indictment a “witch hunt”, and said that the Democrats have attacked a “completely innocent person in an act of blatant election interference”. Read the full editorial here