Updates: Trump refutes hush-money charges in Mar-a-Lago remarks

A former US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, said there was “uncertainty” over the long-term impact of today’s arraignment.

“In the short term, it has definitely given Trump a boost among his supporters and even those who were on the fence in the Republican Party,” Volker told Al Jazeera in a television interview.

“What happens in the long term though, we still don’t know. We need to see whether there are more serious charges brought. The ones that were brought today, I think a lot of people will look at as rather frivolous.”

Volker, who also served as the US special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said Trump’s claim that the war in Ukraine would never have happened if he had remained president was “completely unknowable”.

After sounding a dark note about the state of the country, Trump said he had “no doubt, nevertheless, that we will make America great again”, signalling he hopes to return to the White House following the 2024 presidential election.

The former president raised a fist as he stepped away from the podium, with his supporters waving and holding up signs that read, “I stand with Trump”, as he exited the room.

Trump finished his speech on a dark note, stating that “the USA is a mess, our economy is crashing, inflation is out of control, Russia has joined with China. Can you believe that? Saudi Arabia has joined with Iran.”

“It would never have happened if I were your president,” he added.

Trump said that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was a “criminal” who should resign or be prosecuted.

“The DA’s office even had a webpage [to] ‘meet the team of executives who have done this to President Trump’,” Trump alleged.

He said that the judge in the hush-money case, Juan Merchan, was also biased against him. “I have a Trump-hating judge, with a Trump-hating wife and family,” Trump said.

As he spoke at Mar-a-Lago, Trump touched on the other criminal investigations he faces, including one in Georgia where he is being accused of interfering in the 2020 election.

The former president said he has no regrets about a phone call in which he asked for officials in Georgia to “find” him extra votes.

The former president says he has been attacked with an “onslaught” of investigations, lashing out at numerous investigations against him and decrying his two previous impeachments.

“The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” he said.

“From the beginning, the Democrats spied on my campaign. Remember, they attacked me with an onslaught of fraudulent investigations – Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine. Ukraine. Ukraine impeachment hoax, number one. Impeachment hoax, number two.”

He also repeated false claims that widespread fraud had robbed him of reelection in 2020 when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The former president slowly walks through a crowd of supporters gathered in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom as he approaches the stage to speak.

He stops to shake hands and pose for mobile phone photos as the song “God Bless the USA” plays in the background.

Trump supporters have filled the ballroom of the Mar-a-Lago resort, awaiting the former president’s first public remarks of the day, in a speech expected to begin shortly.

While Trump has not spoken since his arraignment in Manhattan earlier today, he has been active on the social media site Truth Social, where he shared videos of Republican figures declaring their support for him in interviews with Fox News.

An aide to the administration of Former President George W Bush, Matt Mackowiak, believes that Trump’s legal issues could become a rallying cry for voters in the Republican Party.

But, he warns, they could also alienate independent voters who see his legal troubles as a distraction from more substantive issues.

“There’s certainly been a rallying effect among Republican voters and Republican elected officials around Trump in the last 10 days. Whether that sustains in the next few weeks or few months is a huge question,” Mackowiak told Al Jazeera in a television interview.

“I think independent voters … are going to look at this and say, ‘This is chaos. It’s unpredictable. It’s drama, it doesn’t really affect my life.’ So unless he’s able to persuade people who haven’t supported him in the past to support him now, he’s not going to be in a better position November of next year if he’s the nominee.”

Bruce Fein, a former US associate deputy attorney general, told Al Jazeera he doubts the criminal charges in the hush-money case will significantly shift public opinion towards Trump.

“It’s not even close to January 6,” Fein said, referring to the 2021 storming of the US Capitol, led by Trump supporters.“I don’t think that this conviction on its own is going to say, ‘Well I have a whole new understanding of Mr Trump’.”

Fein does believe other criminal probes into Trump’s behaviour, including allegations of election meddling in Georgia, hold higher stakes for the ex-president.

“The stakes go to a different level when you talk about January 6 or the audio tape saying ‘Find 11,700 new votes for me’ in Georgia,” he said. “Those would be game-changers. This one? Probably not.”

Trump has arrived back in south Florida from New York.

He is scheduled to give a speech from the Mar-a-Lago resort at 8:15pm Eastern Standard Time (00:15 GMT).

The former president is likely to double down on claims that the charges against him are politically motivated as he tries to rally supporters to his side.

In posts on Truth Social over the last several days, Trump asked for donations and posted pictures of polls showing him leading Florida Governor Ron DeSantis among Republican voters who will decide on their party’s nomination later this year.

Jerrold Nadler, a senior House of Representatives Democrat from New York, has come to the defence of the Manhattan district attorney against what he called “political stunts” by Trump’s allies in Congress, saying that Alvin Bragg will not be intimidated.

“On its face, this indictment seems methodical and well-reasoned,” Nadler said in a statement.

Top House Republicans, including the chair of the judiciary panel Jim Jordan, have requested Bragg’s testimony and information about the Trump case.

“I do not know how this case will be decided but I do know DA Bragg will not be deterred or intimidated by the political stunts Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy throw at him,” Nadler said.

Read my statement on former President Trump's Indictment: pic.twitter.com/zYnGcBzeSr

— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) April 4, 2023

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has dismissed the Manhattan district attorney’s assertion that Congress does not have the right to interfere in a local case in New York.

“Alvin Bragg is attempting to interfere in our democratic process by invoking federal law to bring politicized charges against President Trump, admittedly using federal funds, while at the same time arguing that the peoples’ representatives in Congress lack jurisdiction to investigate this farce,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter.

“Not so. Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress.”

Justin Amash, a Trump critic and former congressman who left the Republican Party in 2019, has questioned the charges against the former president, saying he was “stunned” that prosecutors moved forward with the case.

“It’s even flimsier than we were led to believe. Thirty-four stacked counts, bootstrapped to an unstated crime, to manufacture felony charges,” Amash said in a tweet.

Prosecutors are linking charges of falsifying business records to alleged election law violations centring on hush money payments to suppress embarrassing information about Trump ahead of the 2016 vote.

After reading DA Bragg’s indictment of Trump and accompanying statement of facts, I’m stunned any prosecutor would move forward with this. It’s even flimsier than we were led to believe. Thirty-four stacked counts, bootstrapped to an unstated crime, to manufacture felony charges.

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) April 4, 2023

In his first public remarks after he was presented with criminal charges, Trump reiterated that he did nothing illegal.

“The hearing was shocking to many in that they had no ‘surprises,’ and therefore, no case,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

“Virtually every legal pundit has said that there is no case here. There was nothing done illegally!”

Legal experts, including several interviewed by Al Jazeera, have expressed varying opinions about the case. Some have said it is winnable, while others predicted that prosecutors may have a hard time proving their complex allegations.

Alan Baron, a prominent lawyer and former US prosecutor, has said that Trump “is in a lot of trouble”, stressing that the case against the former president is a strong one.

“It’s a very winnable case,” Baron told Al Jazeera, noting that the allegations against Trump do not entirely hang on the credibility of his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump has tried to discredit Cohen, who served time in jail over the hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, often calling him a liar.

Baron said Trump could “easily end up with a jail sentence”.

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has slammed Trump, noting that the former president set another historic first with his arraignment.

“History will remember Donald Trump not only as the first president to be impeached twice, but the first president to be indicted on criminal charges,” Tlaib said in a statement.

Trump has previously directed bigoted attacks against Tlaib, telling the Palestinian-American congresswoman and her progressive colleagues in 2019 that they should “go back” to where they came from.

“Today, the law has finally caught up with Donald Trump and his corrupt and reckless behavior. No one is above the law, no matter how rich or powerful they are,” Tlaib said in her statement.

In an email to supporters after his court appearance, Trump said his campaign raised $10m since news of the indictment became public.

“While we are living through the darkest hours of American history, I can say that at least for this moment right now, I am in great spirits,” Trump said in the email.

Retired carpenter John Lee, 69, left Tuesday’s demonstrations on a motorbike outfitted with a US flag and a large sign that read, “Lock him up!”

Lee said he felt good about how the day unfolded outside the Manhattan Criminal Court.

“I just hope he goes to jail,” Lee said, adding: “I’m pretty sure he’s going to go to jail because, look, everybody else around him went to jail. So why can’t he go to jail? His lawyer went to jail. I mean, no one’s above the law.”

While Trump is being charged with falsifying business records, the offence is being tied to other alleged crimes related to the 2016 elections.

The links between the two sets of alleged offences make falsifying business records a felony, rather than a misdemeanor in New York.

And so, Trump is being accused of mischaracterising reimbursements for a payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a broader effort to hide embarrassing stories ahead of the elections, which prosecutors say is illegal.

“The scheme violated New York election law, which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means. The $130,000 wire payment exceeded the federal campaign contribution cap,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.

An hour after former President Trump’s motorcade departed lower Manhattan in New York City, hundreds of people have departed the area surrounding the courthouse.

Only a handful of protesters remain. Cable news crews are disassembling mountains of gear.

NYPD officers, many wearing expressions of exhaustion, look relieved that the heavy foot traffic in the area appears to be winding down. One officer in Foley Square tells Al Jazeera he hasn’t seen any arrests or violent outbreaks as of yet.

As police in Foley Square disassembled the barricades that separated Trump supporters from those backing his prosecution, a Black woman chanted “Trump is not above the law” while waving a flag. It’s harder than before to spot those in Trump’s camp.

District Attorney Bragg repeatedly faced questions about why Trump was indicted now, despite the investigation stretching on for years, and at times, appearing to be completely stalled.

“I’ve been doing this for 42 years, I’m no stranger to rigorous, complex investigations,” Bragg said. “Having now conducted a thorough, vigorous investigation, the case was ready to be brought, and it was brought”

However, he added, “We have had available to the office additional evidence that was not in the office’s possession prior to my time here.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has said the case is about Trump’s committing crimes in New York – namely falsifying business records to conceal payments that were made hide embarrassing information about Trump before the 2016 elections.

“These are felony crimes in New York State, no matter who you are. We cannot and will not normalise serious criminal conduct,” Bragg told reporters in his first public remarks after Trump’s arraignment.

Bragg stressed that the falsification of business records was done to hide another crime: violations of election campaign laws.

Most of the cheques to reimburse Trump’s personal lawyer for the hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 elections were signed by Trump himself, prosecutors have said.

The reimbursements were mischaracterised as legal expenses to conceal their “true nature”, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a statement.

“In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose. Nine of those checks were signed by TRUMP,” the office said.

“Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement.”

Trump travelled directly from the Manhattan criminal court to LaGuardia airport in a police-escorted motorcade, where he boarded a private plane.

The former president was set to travel to Florida, where he is expected deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort at 8:15pm (00:15 GMT on Wednesday).

In a statement following the arraignment, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office explained the 34 felony charges against Trump for “falsifying business records”.

The office said that was done to “conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election”.

“During the election, Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” the statement said.

“Trump then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws,” the statement said.

The unsealed indictment said the charges against Trump stem from three hush-money payments.

The first included a $30,000 payment by American Media Inc (AMI), which owns the National Enquirer tabloid, to a former Trump Tower doorman “who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock”, according to a New York District Attorney’s Office statement.

The second involved a $150,000 payment from AMI to a woman who alleged she had a sexual relationship with Trump. The District Attorney’s Office said Trump “explicitly directed a lawyer who then worked for the Trump Organization as Trump’s Special Counsel … to reimburse AMI in cash”. The allegation appeared to reference Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, as well as former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

The final payment appeared to reference the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.

“The People of the State of New York allege that Donald J Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” District Attorney Bragg said in a statement.

“Manhattan is home to the country’s most significant business market. We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct. As the Statement of Facts describes, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws.”

We just announced a 34-count felony indictment of former President Donald J. Trump. Learn more: https://t.co/PTTh2zlsvv pic.twitter.com/IUE6JjdrS2

— Alvin Bragg (@ManhattanDA) April 4, 2023

The unsealed indictment accuses Trump of directing three different instances of hush-money payments to cover up alleged affairs.

Trump was indicted for “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election”, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.

The statement said from “from August 2015 to December 2017, Trump orchestrated his ‘catch and kill’ scheme through a series of payments that he then concealed through months of false business entries”.

Al Jazeera correspondent Dorian Geiger was on the ground as the motorcade carrying Donald Trump drove away from the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. He sent these photos of the scene:

Democratic US Congressman Joaquin Castro has described Trump’s arraignment as an “important” moment that shows that everyone is under the law.

“While the arraignment of a former president is unprecedented, the Manhattan district attorney has shown great courage in holding Donald Trump accountable,” Castro said in a statement.

“To allow a president to break the law with impunity would set a dangerous precedent for American democracy, encouraging future presidents to do the same.”

Judge Juan Merchan warned Trump to refrain from social media posts that could incite violence against officials, according to reporters in the courtroom.

The warning comes after Trump has repeatedly lashed out at New York District Attorney Bragg via various campaign channels and through his social media account, accusing the official of pursuing a politically motivated case.

Still, Merchan did not impose any pre-trial restrictions, such as a gag order, on Trump.

For 63-year-old maintenance worker Tadeusz Otlowski, the criminal charges against Donald Trump remind him of life in his home country of Poland, under Communist rule.

“I come from a Communist country. I spent almost 30 years over there,” he explained. “I go through all this stuff. That’s what happened in Poland.”

Otlowski believes the charges are politically motivated. “Nothing happened. That’s no case,” he said of the recently unsealed charges. “That’s a fabrication.”

But he struck a confident note about Trump’s legal prospects: “He will beat them like he beat all those Ukrainian stuff, Russian stuff, impeachment stuff, whatever.”

Police appear on high alert as the crowds outside the court continue to swell with Trump supporters and anti-Trump activists clashing with one another.

Onlookers have gathered on Worth Street to see if they can catch a glimpse of Trump, who just departed the Manhattan Criminal Court following his arraignment.

Amid the electrified atmosphere, a woman in a red dress plays, God Bless America, on a saxophone at nearby Foley Square.

The president has left the Manhattan criminal court where he surrendered and pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records. US media has also reported the charges included a “conspiracy” count.

Trump left in a motorcade.

“We saw a glimpse of Donald Trump, he was in the fourth vehicle there. A historic moment, the former president of the United States leaving the courthouse,” Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said.

US media reported Trump was expected to travel directly to a local airport to fly home to Florida.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz has decried the charges against Trump, saying that the former president’s arrest makes a “mockery of the rule of law”.

In a social media post, Cruz tried to link Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor overseeing the case, to liberal donor George Soros – an accusation that features frequently in Republicans’ criticism of the charges. Soros denies donating to Bragg or ever communicating with him.

“Not only is the indictment frivolous, this political persecution marks a dark day for our country,” Cruz wrote.

The arrest and arraignment of former President Donald Trump by a left-wing Soros prosecutor today is making a mockery of the rule of law.

Not only is the indictment frivolous, this political persecution marks a dark day for our country.

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 4, 2023

The New York City Police Department has corralled off the intersections of Worth and Baxter streets. Hundreds of onlookers are now standing around, waiting for Trump’s motorcade to depart the court.

A helicopter circles overhead while a bewildered newlywed bride pushes herself through the masses after emerging from the nearby county clerk’s office.

The atmosphere is more hushed here than at the frenzied protester sections by Foley Square. People are speaking in quiet murmurs. A siren echoes off the lower Manhattan skyscrapers.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents New York, has said Trump will have a “fair trial that follows the facts and the law”.

“There’s no place in our justice system for any outside influence or intimidation in the legal process. As the trial proceeds, protest is an American right, but all protests must be peaceful,” Schumer said on Twitter.

I believe that Donald Trump will have a fair trial that follows the facts and the law. There’s no place in our justice system for any outside influence or intimidation in the legal process. As the trial proceeds, protest is an American right, but all protests must be peaceful.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 4, 2023

Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, the former Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has called Trump’s arraignment a “somber moment” for the US.

“As the case falls to the DA to prove, we must recognize what is most important: Even the most powerful are held to account, and that nobody is above the law,” Schiff wrote on Twitter.

A somber moment in the life of our country, when it’s necessary to arraign a former president on criminal charges.

As the case falls to the DA to prove, we must recognize what is most important:

Even the most powerful are held to account, and that nobody is above the law.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 4, 2023

Details of the charges have been emerging after Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts.

After the indictment was unsealed on Tuesday, NBC News reported that among the falsifying business records charges, Trump has also been charged with conspiracy related to hush money payments made in 2016.

Bennett Weiss, a 75-year-old retiree, travelled more than 97 km (60 miles) from his home in Newburgh, New York, to demonstrate against the Trump indictment in Manhattan.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Foley Square, near the court, Weiss clarified that he was no fan of Trump’s. But he expressed concern about what he considered to be a prosecution for “political purposes”.

“I came down here because I think what’s going on with this prosecution bodes horribly for the future of the United States,” he said.

Gesturing across the barricades that separated Trump supporters from Trump critics, Weiss explained that he had noticed a lot of signs saying that no one was above the law. But he believes that is not what is happening in Trump’s case.

“I say no one is below the law,” Weiss said. “When political prosecution is used to suppress political activity and speech, that person is being treated below the law.”

He speculated that, if Trump were to be found guilty in the criminal charges, it would only further stoke division in American society.

“I think a guilty verdict would create a tremendous amount of unnecessary violence and a huge schism in this already divided country. Why pour gasoline on a fire?”

Jennifer Victor, a political science professor at George Mason University, has said that Trump is “capitalising” on his legal trouble by ensuring that he remains in the headlines.

“He is taking a strategy of using this opportunity to profile himself in the media and to expand his own image even further – if that is possible – but certainly to keep the spotlight on him, which is a part of both his political media and legal strategy,” Victor told Al Jazeera.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records during his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court.

Trump is in the New York courtroom where he will be arraigned.

Andre, a 37-year-old musician, decided to show his support for Trump by joining the protesters on Centre Street outside the court.

“The specific thing I like about Trump is one thing: He stands by his word,” Andre, who declined to give his last name, explained.

“He says he’s going to clean up the swamp. He cleaned up the swamp. He says he’s going to help my community, which is the Black community. He helped us. He got rid of the red tape.”

The musician said he has found it harder to get bank loans since Trump’s successor, Democrat Joe Biden, took office in January 2021.

Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign has sent an email to supporters promoting a shirt with a fake mugshot of the former president captioned, “not guilty”.

The fundraising email, sent after Trump arrived at the court, promises the “free” shirt for a $47 donation.

“What better way to PROVE that our campaign will NEVER SURRENDER our country to the Left’s tyranny than countless grassroots patriots proudly wearing their very own ‘NOT GUILTY’ T-Shirts,” it said.

Trump has been briefly seen in the halls of the Manhattan Criminal Court before his arraignment.

“An historic scene, a former US president, technically under arrest, in the process of being charged criminally,” Al Jazeera’s Sami Zeidan said.

Sahai Hill, a protester sitting on a park bench near the New York Supreme Court, has said she decided to join the demonstrations to show support for US democracy.

“I’m here because I support our democracy, and I’m glad that this man has finally been held accountable for something,” Hill told Al Jazeera. “I’m just out here to raise my voice and to be with other people who feel the same way.”

She added that she believes Trump also should take responsibility for the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. “He doesn’t take responsibility for anything – nothing.”

Bragg, the New York district attorney, is set to address the media following Trump’s arraignment, Al Jazeera’s Saloomey reported.

“We’re waiting with bated breath for this process to take place because we will for the first time hear what the district attorney has to say,” she said.

Bragg’s silence, she added, has allowed Trump and his allies to seize the narrative that the case is politically motivated.

“There’s a lot of pressure on [Bragg] right now because of the accusations, to show that he has an actual, prosecutable case,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine he would go through all of this if he didn’t think that he did, but we don’t yet know the specific charges.”

US President Joe Biden is not focused on Trump’s arraignment, the White House has said, reiterating its refusal to comment on the details of case.

“The president is going to focus on the American people like he does every day. This is not something that is a focus for him,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio has bemoaned the charges against Trump, saying they set a “new normal” of political prosecutions.

“It’s poison to our country. It will permanently change politics in America forever … Whether you like Trump or not, we are going to regret this day for a very long time,” Rubio said in a video message.

“We are setting a new normal – a damaging new normal – that is going to disfigure American politics and put us on a destructive road.”

Today is a bad day for all of us & we are all going to regret it for a very long time pic.twitter.com/Nc2oMpeFz0

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 4, 2023

Several hundred people, including dozens of protesters, have gathered blocks from the Manhattan court where Trump will soon face a judge.

On the corner of Centre Street and Avenue of the Americas, anti-Trump activists grossly outnumber the ex-president’s supporters, who were delegated to an opposite corner. A few shouting matches have broken out under a heavy police presence.

A couple of blocks away at 130 Leonard Street, hundreds of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” supporters shouted overtop barricades separating them from a group of anti-Trump demonstrators. New York police appeared to have separated the two camps.

Hank Norton, a 32-year-old home health aide, leaned on a barricade as he watched Trump supporters and protesters yell at one another. He was in an area where he said people have been talking through their political differences in advance of the arraignment.

“I think there’s a lot of people here – even though they are anti-Trump or pro-Trump – who are just so sick of this partisanship,” Norton told Al Jazeera. “People are so sick of all this yelling and screaming, it looks so stupid and ridiculous, that people want to come over here and actually talk to the person on the other side and really get a feel for them.”

Trump has waved after arriving in a motorcade at the Manhattan criminal court.

US media has reported that after Trump is booked, he will be taken from the processing area through a back set of hallways and elevators on the way to the courtroom.

He will then come out into a public hallway before walking into the courtroom where he will be arraigned.

Citing law enforcement sources, Al Jazeera’s Elizondo has reported that Trump is unlikely to be handcuffed.

“When you handcuff someone, you want to detain them. There’s really no reason in this situation to detain somebody as high-profile as an ex-president who’s turning himself in willingly,” Elizondo said.

As to whether there will be a mugshot of the former president or not, Elizondo said many of the details of Trump’s processing into the criminal justice system remain unclear. “It’s unprecedented,” he said.

Just moments before Trump arrived at the court, he posted on his Truth Social platform: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL – Wow, they are going to ARREST ME.”

Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the court, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo has reported.

Trump was not immediately visible.

Trump is travelling in a motorcade to Manhattan’s criminal court to face charges related to a hush-money payment made to an adult film star.

Trump will be booked and fingerprinted before he is arraigned, which will be the first time the charges will be officially read to him.

Trump has departed his Manhattan home to surrender to the authorities.

Trump Tower, the former president’s New York residence, is about 6 km (3.7 miles) from the court.

Police presence has ramped up at the New York criminal court in Manhattan as Trump is expected to soon arrive, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reports.

“In the last 10 minutes we’ve seen police presence ramp up, the street has been closed to traffic, more barricades have been put up,” she said.

“Police are being very deliberate in redirecting pedestrians away from the courthouse,” she said.

“We’re all waiting on tenterhooks rights now,” she said.

Trump is set to be arraigned shortly but that has not stopped proceedings related to other investigations into the former president’s conduct.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, denied an emergency petition from Trump’s legal to team to stop a group of his aides from testifying in front of a grand jury investigating the former president’s alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss.

Top Republicans who lead the judiciary and oversight panels in the US House of Representatives have warned that a gag order on Trump would be “unconstitutional”.

Legal experts have suggested that the judge in the New York case may prevent the former president from discussing the case to preserve the integrity of the justice system.

Trump, who has been incessantly posting on social media about the case, warned last month of “death and destruction” if he were to be indicted.

“To put any restrictions on the ability of President Trump to discuss his mistreatment at the hands of this politically motivated prosecutor would only further demonstrate the weaponization of the New York justice system,” House Republicans Jim Jordan and James Comer said in a joint statement.

pic.twitter.com/NxVJwQTRaY

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 4, 2023

Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey has said Trump’s arraignment will mark the start of a lengthy and “complicated” legal process.

“This is a state court, not a federal court. The process of being charged and tried for a crime takes time – probably up to a year,” Saloomey said.

She added that there will be legal manoeuvres by Trump’s lawyers and pre-trial hearings that could take months to play out.

Saloomey called the case a “complicated situation that we’re only just seeing the beginning of”.

Trump has become the first president in US history to be indicted on criminal charges. But former US President Ulysses S Grant was the first leader of the country to be arrested – in 1872.

Grant, who was in office at the time, was stopped by police in Washington, DC for speeding in his horse and buggy.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said the arresting officer, William West “made a point to show the president … that no one is above the law, no matter the political power they may possess”.

“I am very sorry, Mr. President, to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation and I am nothing but a policeman, but duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest,” West is recorded as saying.

At the time, Grant paid a $20 bond for his release.

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has suggested that the charges against Trump are political and linked to the former president’s 2024 campaign for the White House.

“The indictment wouldn’t happen if President Trump didn’t run for office,” Jordan wrote on Twitter.

Bragg, the New York prosecutor overseeing the case, has dismissed claims of political motives behind the indictment as “baseless”.

The indictment wouldn’t happen if President Trump didn’t run for office.

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 4, 2023

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina has said he does not “think this case is going to see a juror”, teasing what is expected to be a series of requests from the defence to the court to have the case dismissed following the arraignment.

“I think there’s a legal challenge that will be made and should be made successfully,” he said on ABC’s Good Morning America.

“It won’t be a long day in court,” he added. “One thing I can assure you as I sit here today: There’ll be no guilty plea in this case. That’s one thing I can guarantee you.”

Two controversial Republican Congress members – George Santos and Marjorie Taylor Greene – have shown up outside the court in support of the former president.

Santos, a disgraced first-term legislator, has been facing growing calls to resign after it was discovered that he fabricated large parts of his life story, including employment history and education.

Greene, a far-right firebrand, has been widely condemned for previously making racist comments and promoting conspiracy theories.

Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, an outspoken Trump critic, has said the US needs to “move on” from the ex-president.

Kinzinger also said that Trump, who is once again dominating headlines across the country, has become “exhausting” and “boring”.

As we begin today I just want you to cycle through three mantras all day:

1) Trump has become exhausting and…
Boring

2) America needs to move on.

3) DC is Hollywood for ugly people.

— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) April 4, 2023

Trump’s legal team is widely expected to request a change of venue.

However, such a motion is “probably going to go nowhere”, given the prominence of the story, and strong feelings felt across the country, Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor, told Al Jazeera.

“Where are you going to move it to where people don’t know who Donald Trump is?” he said. “Where can he go? Alaska? I mean, everybody knows about this case.”

Stephen Miller, a former top aide to Trump, has come to the ex-president’s defence, proclaiming that “America is on trial.”

Miller was involved in establishing some of Trump’s most restrictive immigration policies, which rights groups have denounced as cruel and “racist”.

Democracy is on trial in New York. Freedom is on trial. America is on trial. President Trump is being prosecuted for the crime of trying to save our Republic by ending the reign of the corrupt and wretched politics class that has raided and ransacked this nation to enrich itself.

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) April 4, 2023

Former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton has said he is worried the indictment will give a political boost to his former boss, Trump.

“Well, the perception that this prosecution is politically motivated, it’s very strong within the Republican Party, and it is produced, according to public opinion polls, upsurge in Trump’s support,” he told Al Jazeera. “That’s what I worry about.”

“The potential outcome if Trump is acquitted I think would be rocket fuel for his presidential campaign,” he said. “I’m not worried the prosecution is going to hurt Trump. I’m worried the prosecution, particularly if it fails, is going to help him. I think that’s disastrous for our prospect of keeping him from getting the Republican nomination.”

Bolton left the Trump White House in 2019, maintaining he had resigned from his post. Trump said on Twitter he had fired Bolton.

Protesters, both for and against Trump, have gathered outside the court where the former US president is set to arrive.

Echoing Trump himself, many of his supporters have lambasted the case as politically motivated.

But Trump critics have welcomed the prosecution.

Despite Trump using his legal woes to raise funds for his presidential campaign, the judge could issue a so-called “gag order” and change the political dynamics of the case, University of Pennsylvania law and philosophy professor Claire Finkelstein has said.

“There’s a very distinct possibility that the judge will put Donald Trump under a gag order. That means that Donald Trump will be forbidden to make statements about the case,” she told Al Jazeera.

“And if Donald Trump violates that gag order, [he could] go to jail for contempt of court, so that would have the effect of accelerating the tension around the case.”

Meanwhile, Finkelstein said Trump “presumably is going to plead not guilty” and the arraignment hearing would likely be “very short”.  She added: “I expect that his lawyers will move to dismiss all charges … That would be a typical thing to do at this stage.”

Anticipation has been growing in front of the court where Trump is set to be arraigned, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reports.

“There are a lot of police here and across the street from the courthouse. Dozens and dozens if not hundreds of news crews just hoping to get a glimpse of Donald Trump as he enters the courthouse later this morning for the proceedings,” she said.

Saloomey said barricades were in place and police were preparing for protests in a nearby park. The entire 35,000-officer force also was put on alert for the day, she added.

“The reason for all of this concern [is that] District Attorney Alvin Bragg has received some death threats leading up to today. Republicans and Donald Trump have accused him of trying to sway the 2024 presidential election by bringing this case, and so there’s a lot of anger on the part of supporters on that side of the fence,” she said.

Trump has called for his trial to be moved to another jurisdiction: specifically, the right-leaning New York borough of Staten Island.

The former president’s legal team is widely expected to submit a motion to change the venue of the trial, likely arguing that Trump will not receive fair treatment from the judge or jurors in liberal-leaning Manhattan.

“VERY UNFAIR VENUE,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump received about 57 percent of the vote in Staten Island in the 2020 presidential election. In Manhattan, just 22 percent of the vote went to Trump.

In his first comments of the day, Trump has taken to his Truth Social platform to decry “RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS”.

Trump has portrayed his indictment as a political attack, something the Manhattan district attorney has vehemently denied.

Trump has repeatedly made the allegation, using it to raise funds for his 2024 presidential campaign.

Bragg has arrived at court ahead of Trump’s arraignment.

He became Manhattan district attorney in 2022 and inherited a years-long grand jury investigation into hush money paid on Trump’s behalf to an adult film star during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Al Jazeera has spoken to New Yorkers about what they think of Trump’s return to his hometown, the spectacle of the former president’s approaching arraignment, and how people feel about the heightened security presence throughout the city.

Read more here.

“I can’t get a fair trial in New York!” Trump fumed when he learned he was being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury.

When Trump was elected to the White House in 2016, his surprise win was received poorly in Manhattan with protesters chanting, “New York hates Trump!”

At the time, The New York Times and BBC reported on Trump’s love for the metropolis that did not love him back, saying the real estate magnate “hates being hated” by the city, the economic and multicultural hub of the country.

Arriving on Monday evening at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the billionaire may have found some reassurance in the handful of supporters gathered outside chanting, “We love Trump!”

But he may have been less happy with the signs of opponents demanding to “Lock him up”, an echo of the chants he led at rallies in his first campaign against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The decision by the Manhattan District Attorney to charge Trump is a move in just one of the many probes facing the Republican as he makes another run at the White House.

Here is a look at some of the investigations and lawsuits that Trump currently faces.

New York City police have thrown up metal barriers around Trump Tower and blocked roads near the Manhattan Criminal Court as they brace for potential protests.

The New York Young Republican Club says it is planning a demonstration at a park across the street from the court. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in the US Congress, says she will attend.

“Protesting is a constitutional right,” Greene said on Twitter, adding she would “protest this unprecedented abuse of our justice system and election interference”.

Adult film star Daniels has built a lucrative business empire around her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump and earned legions of fans for her breezy retorts to those who cast her as an immoral woman.

Her popularity and profits appeared to get a boost with the news of Trump’s indictment in a case allegedly involving a $130,000 hush payment she received in the waning days of his 2016 election campaign.

“Thank you to everyone for your support and love!” she posted on Twitter after news of the criminal charges broke.”#Teamstormy merch/autograph orders are pouring in.”

Read more about her here.

As Trump prepares to go to court to hear the criminal charges filed against him, a poll shows he has widened his lead over his rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest.

Forty-eight percent of self-described Republicans say they want Trump to be their party’s presidential nominee, up from 44 percent in the previous Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on March 14-20.

Nineteen percent back his closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose support dropped from last month’s 30 percent. Other likely rivals polled in the single digits.

The online poll was conducted from Friday to Monday after news broke that Trump would face criminal charges.

Trump has said the indictment is part of a coordinated “witch hunt” aimed at preventing him from running for president in 2024, regularly lashing out at Bragg.

Bragg has called allegations that the charges are politically motivated “baseless and inflammatory” and further admonished Republican lawmakers for what he described as an “unlawful incursion” into his jurisdiction.

Amid the political war of words around the case, several analysts told Al Jazeera that Trump is likely to receive a bump in support from his Republican base in the wake of the charges, but opinion could shift depending on what is revealed.

Alvin Bragg, 49, took office in January 2022 after becoming the first African American to be elected Manhattan district attorney. Raised in New York City’s Harlem neighbourhood, Bragg decided to go to law school, he said, after having a gun pulled on him six times growing up, three of those times by police.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bragg served as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, where he handled fraud and money laundering cases.

He later joined the New York state attorney general’s office, where he oversaw a lawsuit that forced Trump’s namesake foundation to dissolve.

“I’ve done this type of work under this type of scrutiny,” Bragg said, referring to the case against the Trump Foundation.

Here is what is expected as the 76-year-old Trump becomes the first former US president to face criminal charges:

• Trump’s arraignment is anticipated to be a carefully choreographed spectacle. The city has ordered its 35,000 officers to be in uniform and ready for any security threats.
• The Secret Service will reportedly lead a motorcade from Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan to the court on the lower end of the island.
• Trump is expected to be fingerprinted and may have a mugshot taken.
• Joe Tacopina, one of Trump’s lawyers, said the former president would not be placed in handcuffs.
• Following his booking, Trump will be arraigned before Justice Merchan, at which time he will be presented with the charges against him and enter a plea.
• Tacopina said he would seek to have the charges dismissed without going to trial, adding there is “zero” chance the former president will enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors.
• Trump will return to Florida and deliver remarks from Mar-a-Lago at 8:15pm on Tuesday (00:15 GMT on Wednesday)
• Fast forward to 2024, Trump can – and undoubtedly will – pursue his 2024 White House run despite facing criminal charges.
• Nothing in the US Constitution prevents someone from running for the nation’s highest office while facing charges.
• Legal experts say any potential trial is still at least more than a year away.

Former US President Donald Trump has arrived in New York for his expected arraignment on charges related to hush money payments during his 2016 campaign ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/JDuGIKxbGE

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 3, 2023

Media outlets had asked the judge presiding over the case for Trump’s hearing be broadcast, but Trump’s lawyers opposed their request.

They argued that videotaping, photography and radio coverage would “exacerbate an already almost circus-like atmosphere around this case” and would detract from dignity and decorum.

Merchan late on Monday ruled that five photographers will be admitted before the arraignment starts to take pictures for several minutes. They will leave before the hearing gets under way. Cameras will be allowed in the hallways of the courthouse.

When Trump walks into Justice Juan Merchan’s courtroom on Tuesday to face criminal charges, it will be a first for a former US president but familiar territory for the veteran judge who serves on Manhattan’s Criminal Court.

Merchan, who has been a judge for 16 years, oversaw a criminal trial in 2022 of the Trump Organization, which ended with a jury convicting the real-estate company of tax fraud. The company was fined and one of its longtime executives, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and was sent to jail.

On Friday, Trump, who was not charged in his company’s case, lashed out at Merchan on his Truth Social platform.

“The Judge ‘assigned’ to my Witch Hunt Case, a ‘Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME,” wrote Trump, who has launched a campaign to run again for the presidency in 2024.

The New York investigation centres on a $130,000 payment that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, allegedly made to adult film star Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

But Cohen and Daniels are only two of the key players in the widely watched case.

Read more about who else is involved.

An arraignment is a court hearing at which defendants hear the charges brought against them and have a chance to enter a plea, which is generally guilty or not guilty.

A judge or prosecutor reads the charges aloud. A defendant is usually represented by lawyers, especially in cases that are high profile or could lead to jail time.

If a defendant pleads not guilty, a judge will typically accept the plea and schedule the next court appearance and perhaps a tentative trial date.

If a defendant pleads guilty, the judge will impose punishment, usually at a later date.

Thanks for joining us as we build up to former United States President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated arraignment.

Trump was indicted last week in a case believed to involve a 2016 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He has said he is innocent and will plead not guilty.

The former president will turn himself in under tight security because demonstrations are expected – both for and against him.

“We have to take back our Country and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social messaging platform shortly after arriving in New York from Florida on Monday. He also urged his supporters to donate to his fundraising committee.