Donald Trump, the former president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, arrived at a Manhattan courthouse to be formally charged on Tuesday in a watershed moment for the United States as his supporters and detractors noisily rallied outside.
Wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, the 76-year old, exhibited little emotion on his face as he waved to a crowd assembled outside the courthouse after he was driven in a motorcade from his New York residence at Trump Tower.
He held his fist in the air in a gesture to reporters as he departed Trump Tower.
The first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges, he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week in a case stemming from a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, though the specific charges had yet to be disclosed.
From his motorcade, he posted on social media: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL – WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America.”
He was due to surrender to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg before an arraignment proceeding before Justice Juan Merchan. The arraignment, where Trump will hear charges and is expected to enter a not-guilty plea, was planned for 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT).
In other social media posts ahead of the arraignment, he renewed his attacks on Merchan, who last year presided over a trial in which Trump’s real estate company was convicted of tax fraud.
Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, in November announced a bid to regain the presidency in 2024 in a bid to deny Democratic President Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020, a second term in the White House.
On a cool and sunny early spring day in the most-populous US city, his supporters and detractors were separated by barricades set up by police to try to keep order, though there were some confrontations.
“Let’s keep it civil, folks,” a police officer told them.
Hundreds of his supporters, at a park across from the Manhattan courthouse, cheered and blew whistles, outnumbering his detractors. The Trump critics held signs including one of Trump dressed in a striped jail uniform behind bars and another that read, “Lock Him Up.”
Typically, people facing arraignment are fingerprinted and have mugshot photographs taken. The court appearance was likely to be brief.
“It won’t be a long day in court,” Joseph Tacopina, one of Trump’s lawyers, said on ABC.
Yahoo News late on Monday reported that he would face 34 felony counts for falsification of business records.
Any trial is at least more than a year away, legal experts said. Being indicted or even convicted does not legally prevent Trump from running for president.
Five photographers will be admitted to the courtroom before the arraignment starts to take pictures for several minutes. Trump’s lawyers had urged a judge to keep them out, arguing they would worsen “an already almost circus-like atmosphere.”
