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Donald Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina has been on television and said the former president wouldn’t plead guilty to lesser charges, even if it might resolve the case.
Associated Press report he said he didn’t believe the case would ever make it to a jury, but he conceded: “Really, there’s a lot of mystery here because we’re doing something that’s never been done before.”
“I think there will be a typical processing, which does not take long, 20-30 minutes. There won’t be handcuffs,” Tacopina told ABC’s Good Morning America. “But, yeah, he’ll be processed the way anyone else would be – to a degree.”
Here is a reminder, courtesy of Reuters, of the timeline of how we got to today:
January 2018 – The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in October 2016 to prevent her from discussing a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Trump has consistently denied having an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
February 2018 – Michael Cohen, a former private lawyer and fixer for Trump, says he paid Daniels using his own money and was not directed by Trump’s company or campaign to make the payment. He said Trump never reimbursed him for the payment. Cohen would later contradict both statements under oath, stating Trump did in fact direct him to make the payment and reimbursed him.
April 2018 – Trump, when asked by reporters if he knew about the payment to Daniels, responded, “No.” Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said, “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen.”
May 2018 – In an ethics disclosure, Trump acknowledges reimbursing Cohen for the $130,000 paid for Daniels.
August 2018 – Cohen pleads guilty to criminal charges in Manhattan federal court, including campaign finance violations over the hush money payments. He testified that Trump directed him to make the payments “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.”
August 2019 – Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney at the time, issues a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records of hush money payments.
July 2021 – Vance’s office indicts the Trump Organization and its top financial executive on tax fraud charges. Trump himself is not charged with a crime, and the indictment contains no references to hush money payments.
December 2022 – The Trump Organization is found guilty of tax fraud after a trial in New York state court in Manhattan.
January 2023 – Having replaced Vance as district attorney, Alvin Bragg’s office begins presenting evidence about Trump’s alleged role in the 2016 hush money payments to a grand jury.
March 2023 – Manhattan prosecutors invite Trump to testify before the grand jury, which legal experts say is a sign an indictment could come soon. Cohen testifies before the grand jury.
18 March 2023 – Trump says on his social media platform Truth Social that he expects to be arrested on 21 March and calls on his supporters to protest. A spokesperson for Trump said the former president had not been notified of any arrest.
23 March 2023 – Bragg’s office says Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested, and tells Republican congressmen seeking communications, documents and testimony about the probe that they were interfering with an ongoing investigation.
24 March 2023 – Trump warns of potential “death and destruction” if he is charged with a crime.
30 March 2023 – Media reports say Trump is indicted.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Kristen Holmes report that sources close to Donald Trump have said that the former president is keen to speak while in New York today, ahead of his already planned speech this evening. They write:
Former President Donald Trump is eager to speak publicly about his indictment, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking.
Though he is not scheduled to speak until he arrives at Mar-a-Lago tonight, Trump has weighed saying something while still in Manhattan. He had initially considered doing so outside the courthouse but decided against that because of security considerations.
It remains unclear if he will talk while in New York, and advisers have urged him to hold off until he has the command of his own ballroom tonight, where hundreds of his supporters, surrogates and friends are expected to gather.
Advisers have warned Trump that any unplanned remarks put him at high risk of hurting his case. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago speech is expected to have legal eyes on it before he delivers it tonight.
The Hill this morning is carrying some quotes from Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former member of the House Republican leadership. Weber is warning that the indictment of former president Donald Trump sets a dangerous precedent.
He argues that the impeachment of Bill Clinton lowered the bar for what might be considered an impeachable offence, and that the Stormy Daniels hush money case is doing the same, and risks people attempting political prosecutions of their opponents in the future. He said:
I think it’s bad for America, bad for the Republican Party and it’s bad for the political system in our country. Once you start down this path, there’s no way you’re going to reverse it. That’s what we saw with impeachment.
We’re going to see political prosecutions brought, some of them for meritorious reasons, some of them to advance the careers of the prosecutors. But all of this is harmful to America and our political process.
There are people in this vast country of ours who have less than sterling motivations and you want them to be inhibited by rules that we’ve established, informal rules, that are designed to protect the whole system.
Donald Trump will not be making a hugely long journey from Trump Tower to court today. He is expected to appear at about 14.15 ET (18.15 GMT / 19.15 BST).
There are already some people on the streets waiting for the day to unfold.
The Trump arraignment is not the only big political story today. Chicago, the third largest city in the US, goes to the polls today for a mayoral run-off.
Leigh Giangreco reports from Chicago for the Guardian that the election pits two Democrats from the furthest ends of their party’s spectrum against each other. Democrats across the country are watching to see if Brandon Johnson, a progressive who has previously supported the defund the police movement, will defeat Paul Vallas, who nabbed the endorsement of Chicago’s police union and once described himself as a Republican.
Voters in Wisconsin are also casting ballots today in one of the most important elections of 2023 – a contest that will determine the ideological balance of the state’s supreme court.
My colleague Sam Levine writes that the court will likely determine the future of abortion in Wisconsin, as a lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 ban is already winding its way through the courts. It is also poised to play a hugely consequential role in setting election rules for the 2024 presidential election in Wisconsin, a key battleground state.
Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee judge, is facing off against Dan Kelly, a conservative who lost his seat on the supreme court in 2020. Conservatives currently have a 4-3 majority on the state’s highest court, but one of its conservative justices is retiring, meaning that the outcome of the election will determine the ideological balance of the court.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, writes about Wisconsin for the Guardian today, saying:
What’s happening in Manhattan’s criminal court is obviously important. Holding a former president accountable to the rule of law is essential.
But what’s happening today in Wisconsin may prove as, if not more, important to the future of American democracy. It will either strengthen or weaken the levers of self-government in a state where those levers could make all the difference.
You can read more here: Robert Reich – The most consequential politics story in the US isn’t the Trump arraignment
Stephen Collinson at CNN offered this analysis earlier this morning, writing that today’s courthouse appearance is not Donald Trump’s only woe:
The ex-president – the first to face criminal charges – also appears to face serious problems in a potentially more perilous case involving his alleged mishandling of secret documents being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith. Charges look like an increasing possibility as the Justice Department secures evidence about Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Smith’s prosecutors have secured daily notes, texts, emails and photographs and are focused on cataloguing how Trump handled classified records around Mar-a-Lago and those who may have witnessed the former president with them. The new details coincide with signs the Justice Department is taking steps consistent with the end of an investigation.
Monday was a dark day for Trump. He was returning to his old stomping ground in Manhattan under duress, to turn himself in on Tuesday over the first-ever criminal charges ever laid against an ex-president. Trump has long been a force of nature who rebels against constraints and has always been impossible for his staff to control. But now he will be subject to the dictates of a judge and the rules and conventions of the legal system, which will be far harder for him to disrupt and divert than the institutions of political accountability he has subverted.
Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, writes for the Guardian today, arguing that every indictment will make Trump stronger – and Republicans wilder:
Between the motion of Trump’s first indictment and the act of the last Republican primary, more than a year from now, on 4 June 2024, the shadow will fall on the only party with an actual nomination contest. Trump’s pandemonium will only have an electoral valence for the foreseeable future in its precincts. His damage to the constitution, the national security of the United States and the rule of law will be extensive, but his most intense and focused political destruction will be circumscribed within the Republican party.
From the report of every new indictment to its reality, Republican radicalization will accelerate. Every concrete count will confirm every conspiracy theory. Every prosecution and trial, staggered over months and into the election year, from New York to Georgia to Washington, will be a shock driving Republicans further to Trump. Every Republican candidate running for every office will be compelled to declare as a matter of faith that Trump is being unjustly persecuted or be themselves branded traitors.
Read more here: Sidney Blumenthal – Every indictment will make Trump stronger, and Republicans wilder
Joan E Greve
If you are still slightly confused as to what Donald Trump has actually been charged with, you can be forgiven, since the precise details are yet to emerge. My colleague Joan E Greve has what we do know:
Why is Trump appearing in court?
A grand jury voted to indict Trump last Thursday over allegations that he illegally reimbursed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who claims to have had an extramarital affair with the former president beginning in 2006. Cohen paid Daniels in the final days before the 2016 presidential election, as she was preparing to go public with her story about the alleged affair. (Trump has said the affair never took place.)
Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen, but he denies any illegal wrongdoing. The office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has been investigating the matter for months, and Bragg confirmed on Thursday that he was working with Trump’s team to coordinate his surrender.
What charges is Trump facing?
That remains unclear. As of Tuesday morning, the indictment remains under seal, but the document will probably be released to the public after Trump is formally arrested and appears at his arraignment.
According to NBC News, Trump is facing about 30 charges related to document fraud in the hush-money scheme. Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, has already started challenging the charges, accusing Bragg of having “taken a misdemeanor and tried, cobbled together, to make it a felony by alleging a violation of federal campaign violations”.
Read more of Joan E Greve’s explainer here: Trump is being arraigned – here’s what that means and what happens next
Donald Trump will make history this week as the first US president to be charged with a criminal offence. Ahead of this landmark moment, Hugo Lowell spoke to Michael Safi for our Today in Focus podcast and told him that once again, with Trump we are in uncharted territory. You can listen to the podcast here:
It is worth noting that today’s proceedings in Manhattan are expected to be relatively brief, and that being charged will not prevent Donald Trump running for the Republican nomination, or indeed the presidency.
Even a conviction would not prevent that, although the projected timeframe for the case is such that it may not even get back to court before the election in November 2024.
After today’s arraignment, Trump is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set.
Associated Press report that a demonstration of support is expected, and that New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, had a message for Trump fans heading to the city, saying on Monday “While there may be some rabble rousers thinking of coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves.”
Trump pollster John McLaughlin said the former president would approach the day with “dignity”. “He will be a gentleman,” McLaughlin said. “He’ll show strength and he’ll show dignity and … we’ll get through this and win the election.”
If you missed it, here is what the former president’s arrival at Trump Tower in New York yesterday ahead of today’s courthouse appearance looked like:
What we know so far …
Welcome to our live coverage of what is set to be an historic day in US politics, with Donald Trump due to appear in a New York courthouse as the first American president to be indicted on a criminal charge. Here is what we know so far …
At about 14.15 ET (18.15 GMT / 19.15 BST) on Tuesday, he will appear at the courthouse where a grand jury convened by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg handed down its indictment last week, to learn the exact details of which laws he is alleged to have broken.
At his arraignment, he is expected to be photographed and fingerprinted, but will not be handcuffed per an agreement his legal team reached with Bragg, Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said last week.
Trump’s lawyers opposed videography, photography and radio coverage of the arraignment, saying it would “exacerbate an already almost circus-like atmosphere around this case”.
Late on Monday, Judge Juan Merchan ruled that five photographers would be admitted for several minutes before the arraignment, with TV cameras allowed only in the hallways of the building.
Important details of the case could be revealed before Trump sets foot in the courtroom. Media organizations have petitioned Merchan to make public Bragg’s indictment, which reportedly contains upwards of 30 charges and at least one felony related to the hush money payment he facilitated to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
A protest by Trump supporters is expected to be held a few streets away from the Manhattan criminal court at noon ET (16.00 GMT / 17.00 BST).
Trump is expected to leave New York as soon as the hearing has finished, and has will deliver remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, at 8.15pm ET (12.15am GMT / 1.15am BST). He may be limited in what he can say if the judge decides to issue a gag order on those involved in the case.
I’m Martin Belam in London, and I’ll be bringing you all the latest reaction as the day builds to Trump’s court appearance.
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