Donald Trump, the ex-president and front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, will appear in court on Tuesday to be fingerprinted, photographed and formally charged in a watershed moment ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Indicted last week, Trump is the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges, over a case involving a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. He has said he is innocent and is due to plead not guilty.
Trump, 76, will turn himself in on Tuesday amid tight security and street protests.
“We have to take back our Country and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on social media shortly after arriving in New York from Florida on Monday.
The arraignment, where Trump will be in court to hear charges and have a chance to enter a plea, was planned for 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) on Tuesday.
The specific charges reached by a grand jury are due to be disclosed on Tuesday. Yahoo News late on Monday said Trump would face 34 felony counts for falsification of business records. Any trial is at least more than a year away, legal experts said.
Judge Juan Merchan late on Monday ruled that five photographers will be admitted before the arraignment starts to take pictures for several minutes. Trump’s lawyers had urged him to keep them out, arguing they would worsen “an already almost circus-like atmosphere.”
The District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who led the investigation, will give a news conference afterwards. Trump and his allies have portrayed the case as politically motivated.
Trump will return to Florida and deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort at 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday (0015 GMT on Wednesday), his office said.
