Trump indictment – live: Trump becomes first criminally-charged president and pleads not guilty to 34 felonies⊃
On a historic and unprecedented day for America, former president Donald Trump has been arrested and arraigned at a Lower Manhattan courthouse on criminal charges relating to a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
He pleaded ‘not guilty’ to 34 counts against him before Judge Juan Merchan shortly after 2.40pm, becoming the first current or former US president ever to be charged with a crime.
The felony charges against him are believed to relate to falsified business records. Mr Trump was flanked by police in court but was not handcuffed or put in a jail cell, and no mugshot was taken.
Mr Trump responded angrily to those details being released on Monday, fuming on Truth Social that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg should now “INDICT HIMSELF” over the “leak”.
Mr Trump flew into New York on Monday aboard his Boeing 757 plane before spending the night at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
After Tuesday’s hearing, he will fly straight back to his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, to deliver a primetime address at 8.15pm ET.
Ivanka Trump paid her father Donald a visit two days before he surrendered to authorities to face criminal charges over hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The former first daughter went to Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, Page Six reported – three days after a grand jury voted to indict Mr Trump.
It came after Ivanka broke her silence on the criminal indictment to say that she is “pained” for both him and her country.
A deflated and unhappy-looking Donald Trump has been arraigned after his indictment on 34 charges relating to his alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
The White House says it does not comment on ongoing criminal cases
What we know about ex-president’s historic 34 criminal charges
Former president faced 34 felony charges as he was arraigned on Tuesday
Donald Trump has officially been arraigned on 34 counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy, making him the first former US president to be a defendant in a criminal case.
Mr Trump pleaded not guilty in proceedings before New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the same judge who last year presided over the criminal tax fraud trial of two of the ex-president’s companies.
The indictment in People of the State of New York v Donald J Trump lays out the specific charges against the twice-impeached ex-president, who has spent the five days since it became known that he’d been indicted railing against the case and attacking the Manhattan prosecutors who are leading it.
It alleges that he falsified records to conceal payments to two women with whom he had affairs, in order to silence them and keep their accounts of their liaisons from harming his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election.
The women who Mr Trump is thought to have paid are Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Ms McDougal was paid $150,000 by the National Inquirer for her silence, while Ms Daniels was paid by Mr Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, in a scheme which led to Cohen spending a year in federal prison and two more on home confinement.
