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Watch Trump arrive in New York for his arraignment
01:18 – Source: CNN
- Former President Donald Trump arrived in New York City Monday, a day before he is expected to turn himself in to law enforcement and face more than 30 criminal charges in a Manhattan court following last week’s historic grand jury indictment.
- News outlets will not be allowed to broadcast the Tuesday arraignment, a judge ruled Monday night.
- Trump’s legal team said the former president will voluntarily surrender and will look to challenge “every potential issue” once the indictment is unsealed.
- Trump, who has vowed to continue his 2024 bid, is the first current or former president in US history who has faced criminal charges. The district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump’s alleged role in a hush money payment scheme involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election.
Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan wrote his Monday night order that the media’s request to broadcast the arraignment of former President Donald Trump was understandable, but that the news organizations’ interests in providing the broadest possible access to the proceedings must be weighed against “competing interests.”
In rejecting the request to broadcast the arraignment live on television, Merchan still wrote about the historical significance of the proceeding in stark terms.
News outlets will not be allowed to broadcast former President Donald Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday in a New York state court, a judge said Monday night, but he will allow some photographers to take pictures in the courtroom before the proceedings formally begin.
Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan rejected the request by several media organizations, including CNN, for permission to broadcast the historic proceedings. Trump’s arraignment — like most arraignments in the Manhattan courthouse — is a public proceeding, but news cameras are not usually allowed to broadcast from inside the courtroom.
However, the judge is allowing five pool photographers to take still photos at the beginning of the proceedings “until such time as they are directed to vacate the jury box by court personnel.”
Earlier on Monday, Trump’s lawyers urged the judge to reject the media’s request for live cameras in the courtroom. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office told the judge they didn’t have a position.
The media outlets that tried to get cameras into the courtroom argued that “the gravity of this proceeding … and, consequently, the need for the broadest possible public access, cannot be overstated.”
Trump is now in Manhattan ahead of the arraignment. A grand jury indicted the former president last week.
The arraignment is also expected to bring the unsealing of the criminal charges against Trump, which have not yet been seen by his lawyers or the public.
The indictment stems from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into hush-money payments, made during the 2016 presidential campaign, to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which he denies.
Trump denies all wrongdoing and his lawyers said last week that they’ll fight to get the charges dropped.
Donald Trump is not planning to speak publicly in New York on Tuesday, aides say, if he follows advice from members of his legal team who have urged the former President to refrain from the vitriol he’s been directing toward the prosecutor and judge presiding over the case.
But that restraint does not extend to Florida, aides said, where he is planning to deliver a full-throated defense of his New York case as well as other investigations he is facing during a prime time address from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night.
It’s the first test to see whether Trump can navigate two vasty different approaches to his legal case and his political campaign, which are now inextricably linked.
Alina Habba, lawyer for former President Donald Trump, gives an interview outside of Trump Tower on March 21 in New York City.
Alina Habba, who represents Donald Trump in several civil matters, spent time with the former president in New York today and said, “He’s in good spirits. Honestly, he’s as he normally would be. He’s ready to go in and do what he needs to do tomorrow.”
Habba — appearing on on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters” — was asked about the “game plan” for Trump’s appearance in court in Manhattan Tuesday and said, “It’s all mapped out.”
She added, “Barring any surprises, I think that it should be smooth. We’re trying to coordinate and cooperate with everybody to make sure that there are no problems.”
On whether Trump can get a fair trial in Manhattan, Habba said, “No, no. I think it’s very difficult. I’d like to have faith in this state, but I’ve been practicing for him now for a couple years and gone to court in New York for a few years, and I can tell you, it’s not the same as representing anybody else.”
From left to right: Susan Necheles, Todd Blanche and Joe Tacopina.
Former President Donald Trump met with his attorneys Susan Necheles and Joe Tacopina at Trump Tower after arriving in New York City Monday, a source familiar with the meeting told CNN.
It is unclear if the newest addition to Trump’s New York legal team, Todd Blanche, attended the meeting.
Trump is expected to be arraigned Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump has landed in New York’s La Guardia Airport ahead of his expected Tuesday arraignment in a Manhattan courthouse.
History was made Thursday when he was indicted by a New York grand jury. It’s the first time that a current or former US president has been criminally charged.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump’s alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump’s attorney said he plans to file “substantial” legal challenges. The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the matter and accused Democrats of targeting him politically.
See more photos of the days leading up to Trump’s indictment:
Former President Donald Trump waves to supporters upon arriving at Trump Tower in New York on Monday, April 3. Trump is in New York for an expected arraignment on Tuesday.
Trump’s plane lands at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Monday, April 3.
Dan Ray waves an American flag as a plane carrying former President Donald Trump takes off from the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida on Monday, April 3. Trump was heading to New York for an expected arraignment on Tuesday.
A television news reporter from Spain is seen outside Trump Tower in New York on Monday, April 3.
Trump supporters cheer as his motorcade passes by in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, April 3.
A supporter of former President Donald Trump holds a “Trump Won” sign outside of Trump Tower in New York on Monday, April 3.
A small group of supporters chanted as former President Donald Trump arrived at his namesake tower on Monday afternoon, with a handful of people waving banners with messages like “Trump won” and “Arrest Biden.”
While Trump couldn’t see his admirers as he entered a side door on 56th Street, his arrival came with more fanfare and security than at any other time in his post presidency.
Now that he is inside the building — where he launched his presidential bid nearly eight years ago — Trump is expected to meet with lawyers and political advisers on the eve of his arraignment, an aide told CNN.
Trump’s mood was described by an adviser as “defiant and focused,” as he watched expansive television coverage while flying back to his native New York City from Florida.
Special counsel prosecutors have secured evidence including daily notes, texts, emails and photographs and are focused on cataloging how Donald Trump handled classified records around the Mar-a-Lago resort and those who may have witnessed the former president with them, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
The new details come amid signs the Justice Department is taking steps that are typically near the end of an investigation.
The recent investigative activity before a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, also includes subpoenaing witnesses in March and April who had previously spoken to investigators, the sources said. While the FBI interviewed many aides and workers at Mar-a-Lago nearly a year ago voluntarily, grand jury appearances are transcribed and under oath — an indication the prosecutors are locking in witness testimony.
The focus of both the mishandling of records and obstruction of justice probes has remained on the actions of the former president, the sources say. That includes prosecutors pursuing evidence of Trump’s intent to keep classified records after he left the White House, plus his knowledge that the records remained in his possession after the Justice Department demanded their return last May.
Witnesses are being questioned about what they saw in Trump’s private residential and work areas within the club, some of the sources said.
Read more about this here.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower ahead of his expected arraignment Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump has arrived at his midtown Manhattan property Trump Tower.
He will stay at Trump Tower tonight and is expected to depart New York immediately after Tuesday’s arraignment to head back to Florida — where he plans to deliver remarks at his Mar-a-lago home.
Law enforcement officers stand guard near Trump Tower.
President Joe Biden told CNN’s Betsy Klein he isn’t worried about unrest due to former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictment in New York.
“No, I have faith in the New York Police Department,” Biden said on Monday during a tour of a power generation facility in Fridley, Minnesota.
Asked if he had faith in the legal system, Biden replied: “Yes.”
As former President Donald Trump walked down from his plane at La Guardia Airport on the eve of his arraignment, CNN’s Gloria Borger noted the unique situation he’s in.
Trump is “one of the most famous people in the world, and he is a former president, presidential candidate, and now he’s a defendant. We haven’t seen that. It’s hard to kind of process that,” Borger said to CNN’s Dana Bash.
Borger also highlighted how Trump’s day in court is something he’s avoided for decades and that it will be a grievance he uses to rile up his supporters.
CNN’s Audie Cornish noted how Trump ending up in court seemed unavoidable given the “sheer number of investigations against him.”
Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan said he’ll likely issue a decision tonight on whether media outlets can broadcast former President Donald Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday.
CNN is part of the media coalition that asked the judge for permission to broadcast the hearing.
More on this: Trump’s attorneys said in their letter to Merchan that he is required under court rules to take into account potential security concerns.
“As Your Honor is well-aware, this case presents extraordinary security concerns (including Secret Service-related concerns) and we submit that any video or photography of the proceedings will only heighten these serious concerns,” they wrote.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office also responded Monday to the news outlets’ request and said that it was deferring to the judge to make a decision on how best to manage his courtroom.
Then-President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in 2020.
Donald Trump — the first former president in history to face criminal charges — has arrived in New York for an expected arraignment on Tuesday after being indicted last week by a Manhattan grand jury.
The former president will stay at Trump Tower tonight, according to a source familiar with his plans. But even before Trump’s appearance, his presence will be felt in the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday, as all trials and most other court activity is being halted before he is slated to arrive.
Here is what we know about tomorrow’s events:
- The Secret Service is scheduled to accompany Trump in the early afternoon to the district attorney’s office, which is in the same building as the courthouse.
- Trump will be booked by the investigators, which includes taking his fingerprints. Ordinarily, a mug shot would be taken. But sources familiar with the preparations were uncertain as to whether there would be a mugshot – because Trump’s appearance is widely known and authorities were concerned about the improper leaking of the photo, which would be a violation of state law.
- Typically, after defendants are arrested, they are booked and held in cells near the courtroom before they are arraigned. But that won’t happen with Trump. Once the former president is finished being processed, he’ll be taken through a back set of hallways and elevators to the floor where the courtroom is located. He’ll then come out to a public hallway to walk into the courtroom.
- Trump is not expected to be handcuffed, as he will be surrounded by armed federal agents for his protection.
- By the afternoon, Trump is expected to be brought to the courtroom, where the indictment will be unsealed and he will formally face the charges. After he is arraigned, Trump will almost certainly be released on his own recognizance. It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that conditions could be set on his travel.
- Ordinarily, a defendant who is released would walk out the front doors, but Secret Service will want to limit the time and space where Trump is in public. So instead, once the court hearing is over, Trump is expected to walk again through the public hallway and into the back corridors to the district attorney’s office, back to where his motorcade will be waiting.
- Then he’ll head to the airport so he can get back to Mar-a-Lago, where he’s scheduled an event that evening to speak publicly.
CNN’s John Miller, Jeremy Herb, Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed, Sydney Kashiwagi, Kristen Holmes, Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, Paula Reid, Alayna Treene, Gregory Clary and Devan Cole contributed reporting to this post.
Former President Donald Trump arrives in New York on Monday.
Former President Donald Trump has landed in New York’s La Guardia Airport ahead of his expected Tuesday arraignment in a Manhattan courthouse.
The former president touched down shortly after 3:25 p.m. ET.
Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, CNN has reported, but the indictment remains under seal. He is the first current or former president to face criminal charges in American history.
He will spend Monday night at the Trump Tower, according to a source familiar with his plans.
The Secret Service is scheduled to accompany Trump in the early afternoon Tuesday to the district attorney’s office, which is in the same building as the courthouse, where he is expected to be arraigned.
The former president is expected to return to Florida shortly after his court appearance and has scheduled an event that evening to speak publicly.
Former President Donald Trump’s plane taxis on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, April 3, in New York.
Members of the media are seen positioned outside Trump Tower in New York on Monday.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump told a New York judge on Monday that they oppose the request by media outlets to broadcast Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday.
Trump’s attorneys said in their letter to Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan that he is required under court rules to take into account potential security concerns.
“As Your Honor is well-aware, this case presents extraordinary security concerns (including Secret Service-related concerns) and we submit that any video or photography of the proceedings will only heighten these serious concerns,” they wrote.
Among the Trump lawyers signing the new letter was Todd Blanche, who, CNN reported, recently joined the former president’s legal team.
Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office also responded Monday to the news outlets’ request, and said that it was deferring to the judge to decide how best to manage his court room.
However, the district attorney’s office wrote that it would “be a defensible exercise of the Court’s discretion to exclude or restrict videography, photography, and radio coverage of the arraignment in the interest of avoiding potential prejudice to the defendant, maintaining an orderly proceeding, assuring the safety of the participants in the proceeding, or for other reasons within the Court’s broad authority to manage and control these proceedings.”
But the prosecutors also noted that there “does not appear to be a categorical prohibition on cameras during an arraignment” under existing New York statutes and case law.
While the district attorney’s office stopped short of opposing the request, its lawyer pointed out to Merchan that a similar request for audio-video broadcasting was made for the 2021 arraignment in the tax fraud case against Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg.
The judge responded to that 2021 request by “allowing a limited number of still photographs to be taken prior to the commencement of proceedings,” the prosecutors noted Monday.
CNN is one of the outlets requesting camera access for Tuesday’s arraignment.
Todd Blanche speaks to the press in 2019.
Former President Donald Trump has hired a new attorney to serve as lead counsel in his defense against charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, multiple sources tell CNN.
Trump has hired Todd Blanche, who was most recently a partner at law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Blanche has previously represented Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Igor Fruman, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who was also a key figure in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Politico was first to report the news of Blanche’s hiring.
Trump attorney’s Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles will remain on Trump’s legal team.
Blanche’s hiring has been seen by some inside Trump’s orbit as a sidelining of Tacopina, who up until this point has been one of the most forward-facing attorney’s dealing with Trump’s defense. However, a senior adviser to Trump pushed back on that characterization and said the addition of Blanche was intended to add more legal firepower to Trump’s defense.
When pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday if Tacopina was the right lawyer in New York to take Trump to trial, another lawyer representing the former president, Tim Parlatore, pointed to a potential conflict of interest.
“I know that Joe has certain potential conflict issues, given his prior contacts, with Stormy Daniels. So, who’s the right attorney, to take it to trial, is something that the client will have to decide. Ultimately, the decision of who to stand next to, before a jury, is a decision that only the client can make,” Parlatore said.
Asked by CNN’s Paula Reid if he is still on the case and whether he will be in court tomorrow, Tacopina said: “Yes of course ! And I will be the lead trial lawyer when the bell rings!”
CNN’s Paula Reid contributed reporting to this post.
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters said he has not seen any indication that protests in Washington, DC, over former President Donald Trump’s indictment will become dangerous.
Peters, who is also a member of Senate Democrat leadership, said it is unclear what effect the indictment will have on the Senate. “We don’t know what’s gonna transpire tomorrow, let alone what’s going to happen in the few weeks and months. I think we’d have to take a look at what the indictment is all about.”
Foi president Donald Trump takes off from Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 3, 2023. – Former US President Donald Trump is to be booked, fingerprinted, and will have a mugshot taken at a Manhattan courthouse on the afternoon of April 4, 2023, before appearing before a judge as the first ever American president to face criminal charges. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump has departed Florida and is en route to New York to face criminal charges.
His personalized Boeing 757 took off from the Palm Beach International Airport this afternoon at about 12:59 p.m. ET ahead of his Tuesday appearance in a Manhattan courtroom to be arraigned.
Trump, the first current or former president to face criminal charges in American history, is expected to land at New York’s LaGuardia airport around 3 p.m. ET, according to a source familiar with his plans. He will stay at Trump Tower tonight, the source told CNN.
Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, according to two sources familiar with the case. A New York grand jury handed down the sealed indictment late last week. The charges have yet to be made public.
The former president is not expected to stay in New York City for very long. Immediately after his Tuesday court appearance, Trump plans to return to Florida, the source said, where he has scheduled an event to speak publicly.
Track Trump’s plane from Florida to New York here.
Former President Donald Trump waves from a vehicle as he leaves his Mar-a-Lago home on Monday.
CNN’s Alta D. Spells and Jack Forrest contributed reporting to this post.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams pauses during a briefing on Monday about security preparations ahead of former President Donald Trump’s arrival in New York.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to “be on your best behavior” after the Republican firebrand said she will travel to the city to protest former President Donald Trump’s indictment.
Adams made the statement at a press conference as New York security officials detailed plans ahead of Trump’s arrival in Manhattan for his arraignment scheduled on Tuesday.
“As always, we will not allow violence or vandalism of any kind. And if one is caught participating in any act of violence, they will be arrested and held accountable. No matter who you are,” he added.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams
New York City Mayor Eric Adams began his Monday news conference by reiterating that there have been “no specific credible threats” to the city in connection with former President Donald Trump’s travel to NYC for his arraignment.
He encouraged all New Yorkers to “go on with their regular activities,” while noting that commuters and other people traveling about the city may experience “some disruptions” due to additional traffic and street closers near the courts in lower Manhattan.
Adams issued a warning to any “rabble rousers” considering coming to New York because of Trump, saying his message is “is clear and simple: control yourselves.”
“New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger. We have the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law in New York City,” Adams said.
Rep. Jim Jordan speaks to the press on Capitol Hill in January.
Some House Republicans are threatening to use the annual spending process to exact retribution on the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, as Trump’s congressional allies ratchet up their response to his indictment ahead of Tuesday’s arraignment.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who is a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, echoed a similar sentiment on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
In response to the House GOP’s previous inquiries into how federal funds were used in the probe, the Manhattan DA’s office disclosed in a letter on Friday that out of the more than one billion dollars in asset forfeiture funds it helped the federal government secure, approximately $5,000 was spent on expenses relating to Trump or the Trump organization between October 2019 and August 2021.
Bragg’s office maintains that no federal grant money was used toward expenses in the Trump investigation. It shared details with Congress about the three federal grant programs the office participates in regarding its casework and stated in Friday’s letter, “no expenses incurred relating to this matter have been paid from funds that the Office receives through federal grant programs.”
Joe Tacopina at a press conference in 2017.
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team will look to challenge “every potential issue” in his indictment once the charges are unsealed, an attorney for the former president told CNN Sunday.
Tacopina and other Trump lawyers have done several TV interviews in anticipation of the former president’s first appearance in court Tuesday, when he will learn the charges that the Manhattan grand jury has approved against him.
At times, the lawyers have vowed to ask for the charges to be dismissed. But the full slate of charges still aren’t known. And crucially, a judge will ultimately determine if the law is sound enough for the case to move forward to trial.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in an interview with NBC News on Sunday, “We can speculate on what evidence we think they may or may not have, but even with the indictment published, we really will not know what the district attorney’s evidence is and what they would present at trial.”
Vance’s team investigated the case but did not charge it, leaving it under the purview of his successor, Alvin Bragg.
What we know so far: Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud in the indictment. The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office began when Trump was still in the White House and relates to a $130,000 payment made by his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels in late October 2016, days before the presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.
The Trump team’s court strategy could center around challenging the case because it may rely on business record entries that prosecutors tie to hush money payments to Daniels seven years ago, beyond the statute of limitations for a criminal case.
Tacopina suggested in TV interviews Sunday that the statute of limitations may be passed, and said the Trump businesses didn’t make false entries.
“They’re not false entries. But assuming they were, they’re misdemeanors way beyond the statute of limitations, so they had to cobble them together to try and get a felony,” he said.
Tacopina on Sunday also said a request to move the case to a different New York City borough isn’t on the table yet for Trump’s legal team.
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan district attorney, announces charges against Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump, during a press conference in New York, on September 8, 2022.
Alvin Bragg, a former New York state and federal prosecutor, drew national attention when he made history as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office first Black district attorney. Now, he is back in the spotlight after a grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump after a yearslong investigation into the former president’s alleged role in a hush money scheme.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Harvard-educated attorney previously served as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, worked as a civil rights lawyer and as a professor and co-director of the New York Law School Racial Justice Project, where he represented family members of Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being placed in an unauthorized chokehold by a then-police officer, in a lawsuit against the City of New York seeking information.
Bragg has aggressively pursued Trump and other progressive priorities so far in his tenure, including not prosecuting some low-level crimes and finding alternatives to incarceration.
Before Bragg’s swearing-in last year, he had already worked on cases related to Trump and other notable names in his role as a New York state chief deputy attorney general.
He said he had helped sue the Trump administration more than 100 times, as well as led a team that sued the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which resulted in the former president paying $2 million to a number of charities and the foundation’s dissolution.
Bragg also led the suit against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein and his company, which alleged a hostile work environment.
Bragg emerged the winner in a crowded Democratic primary in the summer of 2021 to lead the coveted Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, for which Vance had announced earlier that year he would not seek reelection. While campaigning, he often spoke about his experience growing up in Harlem, saying he was once a 15-year-old stopped “numerous times at gunpoint by police.”
Bragg ran as a reformer, releasing a memo just days after taking office detailing new charging, bail, plea and sentencing policies – a plan that drew criticism from police union leaders. He said his office would not prosecute marijuana misdemeanors, fare evading and prostitution, among other crimes.
Alina Habba, an attorney representing former President Donald Trump in several civil matters, argued Trump shouldn’t need to take a mugshot, telling CNN This Morning, “There’s no need for theatrics.”
Habba told host Don Lemon, “Mugshots are for people so that you recognize who they are. He’s the most recognized face in the world, let alone the country, right now, so there’s no need for that.”
Sources familiar with the preparations were uncertain as to whether there would be a mugshot.
Trump’s attorney says she believes that the indictment will be unsealed “no matter what,” and accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of leaking the number of counts in the indictment.
When pressed by host Don Lemon about the claim, Habba declared, “it’s not speculation.”
On Trump’s social media posts attacking the judge in the case, Habba said, “We have many judges, frankly, and I’m before some of them, who have shown a venomous vitriol against President Trump that is like nothing we’ve ever seen in the state of New York.”
She also called Bragg a “woke DA who’s now bringing a misdemeanor stacking it and trying to make it a felony” and dismissed the looming indictment as “30-34 counts of garbage.”
When asked about her role in searching Mar-a-Lago for documents, Habba said she wasn’t looking for classified documents, adding, “I was looking for tax documents in another garbage case by [New York Attorney General] Leticia James.”
When pressed by Lemon about the accuracy of these claims, Habba responded, “I’m not in a deposition right now and I’m not going to continue this conversation.” She said her affidavit “is very public and I recommend you read it.”
“Yes, that’s not a secret. I testified to the grand jury,” she acknowledged.
Former President Donald Trump arrives for a rally in Waco, Texas, on March 25.
The Trump campaign says it raised more than $5 million in the 48 hours after the former president’s indictment.
“Poll after poll show this political persecution by the Manhattan DA has surged overwhelming support for President Trump,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “Over $5 million in donations and more than 16,000 volunteer signups since the announcement of this witch-hunt hoax are key indicators that Americans from all backgrounds are sick and tired of the weaponization of the justice system against President Trump and his supporters.”
CNN reported that Trump spent the weekend before his history-making arraignment playing golf, posting on social media, meeting with advisers, and calling and texting allies to tout the political positives of his recent indictment.
He disclosed fundraising numbers and internal poll numbers in these conversations, and vowed to fight the charges, according to more than half a dozen people who spoke with the former president or members of his inner circle this weekend.
Despite the initial shock of the indictment that caught Trump and his advisers “off-guard,” the former president has remained surprisingly calm and focused in the days ahead of his court appearance, according to the sources. Some believed he was compartmentalizing the situation, while others believed he was convinced the case against him was weak and would only help him politically.
Protesters gather outside Trump Tower on Friday, March 31, in New York.
Sixty percent of Americans approve of the indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS following the news that a New York grand jury voted to charge him in connection with hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
About three-quarters of Americans say politics played at least some role in the decision to indict Trump, including 52% who said it played a major role.
Here’s how views about the indictment break down by political affiliation:
- Independents largely line up in support of the indictment — 62% approve of it and 38% disapprove.
- Democrats are near universal in their support for the indictment — 94% approve, including 71% who strongly approve of the indictment.
- Republicans are less unified in opposition — 79% disapprove, with 54% strongly disapproving.
While views on the indictment are split along party lines, the poll finds that majorities across major demographic divides all approve of the decision to indict the former president. That includes gender (62% of women, 58% of men), racial and ethnic groups (82% of Black adults, 71% of Hispanic adults, 51% of White adults), generational lines (69% under age 35; 62% age 35-49; 53% age 50-64; 54% 65 or older) and educational levels (68% with college degrees, 56% with some college or less).
A supporter of former US President Donald Trump holds a flag that read “Trump Won” to show support near his Mar-a-Lago home on March 31 in Palm Beach, Florida.
A scant 10% overall see Trump as blameless regarding payments made to Daniels, but Americans are divided about whether his actions were illegal or merely unethical. About 4 in 10 say he acted illegally (37%), 33% unethically but not illegally, and another 20% say they aren’t sure. Only 8% of political independents say Trump did nothing wrong, and among the rest, they are mostly on board with the indictment even if they aren’t already convinced Trump did something illegal.
The survey suggests that the indictment has not had a major effect on views of Trump personally. The poll finds his favorability rating at 34% favorable to 58% unfavorable, similar to his standing in a January CNN poll, in which 32% held a favorable view of the former president and 63% an unfavorable one. Among Republicans, 72% hold a favorable view in the new poll, similar to the 68% who felt that way in January.
Note: The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS on March 31 and April 1 among a random national sample of 1,048 adults surveyed by text message after being recruited using probability-based methods. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.0 percentage points. It is larger for subgroups.
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect the correct percentage of independents who approve of the indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Former US President Donald Trump attends a rally to support Republican candidates ahead of midterm elections in Dayton, Ohio, in 2022.
Former President Donald Trump is headed to New York this week for an expected arraignment on Tuesday after being indicted last week by a Manhattan grand jury. Here is what we know:
What will it look like and will Trump be handcuffed?
- Trump is expected to leave Florida around noon ET on Monday, and land at New York’s LaGuardia Airport around 3 p.m. ET, according to a source familiar with his plans.
- He will stay at Trump Tower Monday night, the source said.
- The Secret Service, the New York Police Department and the court officers are coordinating security for Trump’s expected appearance. The Secret Service is scheduled to accompany Trump in the early afternoon to the district attorney’s office, which is in the same building as the courthouse.
- Trump is expected to be brought to the courtroom by Tuesday afternoon, where the indictment will be unsealed and he will formally face the charges. All trials and other activity at the Manhattan courthouse are being halted before he is slated to arrive.
- The former president will be booked by the investigators, which includes taking his fingerprints. Ordinarily, a mug shot would be taken. But sources familiar with the preparations were uncertain as to whether there would be a mugshot – because Trump’s appearance is widely known and authorities were concerned about the improper leaking of the photo, which would be a violation of state law.
- Typically, after defendants are arrested, they are booked and held in cells near the courtroom before they are arraigned. But that won’t happen with Trump. He will almost certainly be released on his own recognizance. It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that conditions could be set on his travel.
- Trump is not expected to be handcuffed, as he will be surrounded by armed federal agents for his protection.
- Ordinarily, a defendant who is released would walk out the front doors, but Secret Service will want to limit the time and space where Trump is in public. So instead, once the court hearing is over, Trump is expected to walk again through the public hallway and into the back corridors to the district attorney’s office, back to where his motorcade will be waiting.
- He is expected to depart New York immediately after Tuesday’s arraignment to head back to Florida, the source said. He has scheduled an event that evening to speak publicly.
Will the arraignment be televised? Several media outlets, including CNN, have asked a New York judge to unseal the indictment and for permission to broadcast Trump’s expected appearance in the courtroom on Tuesday. If the judge does not grant the media outlets’ unsealing request, it is expected that the indictment will be made public when Trump appears in court.
Who’s the presiding judge? Judge Juan Merchan is no stranger to Trump’s orbit. Merchan, an acting New York Supreme Court justice, has sentenced Trump’s close confidant Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and overseen former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.
Merchan does not stand for disruptions or delays, attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN, and he’s known to maintain control of his courtroom even when his cases draw considerable attention. Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said during an interview Friday on CNN that Merchan was “not easy” on him when he tried a case before him but that he will likely be fair.
How might Trump’s team fight the charges? Trump attorney Joe Tacopina told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday that the former president will plead not guilty. His team “will look at every potential issue that we will be able to challenge, and we will challenge,” Tacopina said.
The Trump team’s court strategy could center around challenging the case because it may rely on business record entries that prosecutors tie to hush money payments to Daniels seven years ago, beyond the statute of limitations for a criminal case. Tacopina suggested in TV interviews Sunday the statute of limitations may have passed, and said the Trump businesses didn’t make false entries.
How is this affecting the Trump campaign? Trump’s team says it has raised more than $5 million dollars since he was indicted Thursday. Despite the initial shock of the indictment, the former president has remained surprisingly calm and focused in the days ahead of his court appearance, CNN’s Kristen Holmes reported.
CNN’s John Miller, Jeremy Herb, Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed, Sydney Kashiwagi, Kristen Holmes, Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, Paula Reid, Alayna Treene, Gregory Clary and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
Then-President Donald Trump exits the Oval Office and walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in 2020.
Donald Trump will take America through yet another grave and unprecedented national drama this week when he becomes the first ex-president to appear in court charged with a crime.
The 45th president is expected to turn himself in on Tuesday in Manhattan, the stage where he built his legend as a brash popular culture figure and real estate magnate but which could now, in the case of “The People of the State of New York against Donald J. Trump,” engineer his downfall.
In what will be extraordinary scenes, Trump will return to New York after a grand jury voted to indict him last week in a case involving a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. His appearance, accompanied by Secret Service agents, will come as he fires up his 2024 campaign for the White House. Trump plans to make a make a speech when he gets back to Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night in which he will seek to leverage political advantage out of a perilous, personal legal crisis.
Yet a criminal indictment takes Trump into unique political territory. And however the case turns out, his return to the spotlight in these circumstances is another twist in an exhausting saga featuring a double impeachment, false claims of a stolen election, and a mob attack on the US Congress during an unruly four-year presidency that pushed the nation to the point of exhaustion and deepened its polarization.
Some legal experts, without having seen the still-sealed indictment, have questioned whether a case that appears to revolve around infringements of accounting practices and possible campaign finance violations is sufficiently serious to merit the historical step of indicting an ex-president who is already running again.
At the same time, it is ultimately Trump’s norm-busting behavior that pushed the country to this somber moment. He’s also being investigated over efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia, and by a special counsel probing his hoarding of classified documents and conduct in the run up to January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. In several of these cases, Trump could face even more serious legal problems than in the Stormy Daniels matter, but that case is the only one so far that has yielded an indictment.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases. But once more, America’s political and legal systems, under a near-constant stress test since he came down the escalator in Trump Tower to launch his campaign in 2015, will be put under enormous pressure that is likely to only deepen the country’s internal estrangement.
A New York police officer sets up a fence outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on March 22.
Several media outlets, including CNN, have asked a New York judge to unseal the grand jury indictment against former President Donald Trump. The news organizations are also asking for permission to broadcast Trump’s expected appearance in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday for his arraignment on the charges.
In their letter Friday seeking to make the indictment public, the media outlets told Judge Juan Merchan – who is slated to preside over the historic proceedings – that “the right of access is at its zenith when applied to the first ever indictment of a former U.S. president.”
The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal are among the outlets making the request.
If the judge does not grant the media outlets’ unsealing request, it is expected that the indictment will be made public when Trump appears in court Tuesday.
Merchan is expected to issue an order Monday on camera access in the courtroom for the arraignment. On Sunday, he invited lawyers for Trump and for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to submit by 1 p.m. Monday any concerns or objections to the media outlets’ request to broadcast the arraignment.
The news organizations are asking for a “limited number of photographers, videographers, and radio journalists to be present at the arraignment,” and said in the letter that they are making “this limited request for audio-visual coverage in order to ensure that the operations of the Court will not be disrupted in any way.”
In this courtroom sketch, Judge Juan Merchan presides during the Trump Organization’s criminal tax trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on November 15, 2022.
When Donald Trump enters a New York courtroom Tuesday, he’ll face a seasoned judge who is no stranger to the former president’s orbit.
Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Trump’s close confidant Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and overseen former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.
But Trump’s historic arraignment can be viewed as Merchan’s most high-profile case to date, even after a long career atop the state-level trial court.
Merchan has been described by observers as a “tough” judge, yet one who is fair, no matter who is before him.
Here’s more background on the justice whose courtroom will soon be thrust into the spotlight:
Born in Bogota, Colombia, Merchan emigrated to the United States at the age of six and grew up in the New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, according to a New York Times profile of the judge. He was the first in his family to go to college.
Merchan initially studied business at Baruch College in New York. He dropped out of school to go work, only to return several years later to finish school so that he could get his law degree, the Times reported.
He eventually received his law degree from Hofstra University.
Attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN that Merchan does not stand for disruptions or delays, and he’s known to maintain control of his courtroom even when his cases draw considerable attention.
Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said during an interview Friday on CNN that Merchan was “not easy” on him when he tried a case before him, but said the judge likely will be fair.
“I’ve tried a case in front of him before. He could be tough. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be something that’s going to change his ability to evaluate the facts and the law in this case,” Parlatore said.
A secret service agent stands with security guards outside of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday, April 1, in Palm Beach, Florida.
Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when he returns from his arraignment Tuesday night, according to a news release from his campaign.
Trump is expected to appear in court Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan, sources tell CNN.
His attorney said the former president will voluntarily surrender to New York law enforcement and plans to mount legal challenges.
Former President Donald Trump is expected leave Florida around noon ET on Monday and land at La Guardia Airport in New York around 3 p.m. ET.
The former president will stay at the Trump Tower Monday night.
Immediately after his arraignment scheduled for Tuesday, he is expected to depart New York and head back to Florida, where he will deliver remarks at his Mar-a-Lago home, according to a source familiar with the plans.
A small group of aides and advisers, including campaign heads Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, are expected to travel with Trump to New York Monday afternoon ahead of his arraignment, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance exits the courtroom after a verdict at New York Criminal Court in Manhattan in 2020.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who was previously investigating former President Donald Trump, said Trump’s statements regarding current District Attorney Alvin Bragg have the potential to strengthen the case against him with an added obstruction charge.
“I’ve got to say, I was disturbed to hear the former president speak in the way he spoke about the District Attorney Bragg and even the trial court in the past week,” Vance said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
Vance said adding an obstruction count to the charge could “change the jury’s mind about the severity of the case that they’re looking at.”
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