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.
