Former President Donald Trump is heading to New York this week for a court appearance scheduled for Tuesday after being indicted last week by a Manhattan grand jury. Here’s what we know:
What will it look like and will Trump be handcuffed?
- Trump is expected to leave florida around noon ET Monday, and landing at New York LaGuardia Airport around 3 p.m. ET, according to a source familiar with his plans.
- He will do it stay at Trump Tower Monday evening, the source said.
- The Secret Service, New York Police and law enforcement officers are coordinate security for Trump’s expected appearanceThe Secret Service is expected to accompany Trump early this afternoon to the prosecutor’s office, located in the same building as the courthouse.
- Trump should be brought to the courtroom Tuesday afternoonwhere the indictment will be unsealed and he will have to formally answer to the charges. All trials and other activities at the Manhattan courthouse are suspended until his arrival.
- The former president will be reserved Investigators conducted an investigation, including taking fingerprints. Normally, a mug shot would have been taken. But people familiar with the preparations were unsure whether a mug shot would be taken because Trump’s appearance is widely known and authorities were concerned the photo could be released inappropriately, violating state law.
- Typically, after arrest, defendants are taken into custody and held in cells near the courthouse before being arraigned. But that won’t happen with Trump. will almost certainly be published It is possible, although unlikely, that conditions will be imposed on his travel.
- Trump is he is not expected to be handcuffedbecause he will be surrounded by armed federal agents for his protection.
- Normally, a released defendant would exit through the front door, but the Secret Service will want to limit the time and space Trump is in public. So once the hearing is over, Trump would have to walk through the public hallway again and in the back corridors to the prosecutor’s office, back to where his motorcade will be waiting for him.
- It is expected that he leave New York immediately After his court appearance Tuesday, he is expected to return to Florida, the source said. He has planned an event that evening to speak publicly.
Will the indictment be televised? Several media outlets, including CNN, have asked a New York judge to unseal the indictment and allow the broadcast of Trump’s scheduled court appearance on Tuesday. If the judge does not grant the media’s request to unseal it, the indictment is expected to be made public when Trump appears in court.
Who is the presiding judge? Judge Juan Merchan is no stranger to Trump’s inner circle. Merchan, an acting New York Supreme Court justice, sentenced Trump confidant Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial and oversaw former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.
Merchan does not tolerate disruptions or delays, attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN, and he is known for maintaining control of his courtroom even when his cases attract considerable attention. Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said in an interview Friday on CNN that Merchan had “not been easy” on him when he argued a case before him, but that he would likely be fair.
How could Trump’s team fight these accusations? Trump attorney Joe Tacopina told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that the former president will plead not guilty. His team “will look at all the potential issues that we can challenge, and we will challenge,” Tacopina said.
The Trump team’s legal strategy could focus on challenging the case because it could rely on business records entries that prosecutors link to cash payments to Daniels seven years ago, beyond the statute of limitations for a criminal case. Tacopina suggested in television interviews Sunday that the statute of limitations may have passed, and said Trump’s businesses did not make false entries.
How does this affect the Trump campaign? Trump’s team says it has raised more than $5 million since his indictment Thursday. Despite the initial shock of the indictment, the former president has remained surprisingly calm and focused in the days leading up to 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.
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