Trump is expected to arrive in New York on Monday from his Florida estate and head to his former home in Trump Tower, where he began his quest for the presidency in 2015 by descending a golden escalator. The exact timing of the former president’s arrival was unclear, though he is expected to spend the night there before heading to a courthouse in Lower Manhattan next Tuesday.
Law enforcement officials and outside experts have not warned of major threats from Trump supporters or opponents this week. But New York City officials and police were already preparing for protests near the courthouse and outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where street barricades were in place for several blocks surrounding the building on Sunday, in through camera crews and onlookers.
At the same time, Trump’s legal team was speaking out against the indictment, which came as a result of a grand jury vote in Manhattan on Thursday. In an interview Sunday, Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina called the impending charges “political persecution” and “a total abuse of power” that the former president was willing to fight.
“He’s a tough guy,” Tacopina said, adding that he hopes “to move this forward as quickly as possible to exonerate him.”
Trump, 76, is expected to turn himself in at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg’s office Tuesday afternoon before being arraigned at the sprawling Manhattan Criminal Courts building. The arraignment will take place in a courtroom on the 15th floor and Judge Juan M. Merchan, a justice of the state Supreme Court, will hear the case.
The exact charges have yet to be released, though they are linked to a payment made during the 2016 election to buy the silence of a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who says she had a brief sexual relationship with Trump in 2006. Trump denies the affair. . Prosecutors are expected to charge Trump with falsifying business records to hide the nature of the refunds from his former aide, who paid Daniels the hush money.
A conviction would likely not require a minimum prison sentence or prevent Trump from running for president. But the indictment has already roiled the political landscape in the United States.
