Late on Monday morning, Trump left his private property Mar-a-Lago in Florida to fly to the east coast metropolis in a private plane. “Tuesday morning, believe it or not, I’m going to the courthouse. This is not America as it should be!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, a network he co-founded.
TV cameras followed his journey from Florida to New York on Monday. First you might see a motorcade leaving Trump’s property. The ex-president then flew from West Palm Beach Airport to LaGuardia Airport in New York, where he landed in the followingnoon.
First criminal proceedings once morest ex-presidents
Trump is the first ex-president in the history of the United States to face criminal charges. The District Attorney’s Office under Chief Prosecutor Alvin Bragg in Manhattan announced charges once morest the Republican on Thursday.
Court date: Trump landed in New York
Former US President Donald Trump has arrived in New York, where an indictment is to be read out once morest him in court. Trump is the first ex-president in the history of the United States to face criminal charges.
For the court date in New York, Trump is likely to be briefly detained so that fingerprints and police photos can be taken of him. In these situations, the accused are often handcuffed – but it is very questionable whether this will happen in Trump’s case.
Around 30 charges expected
The indictment hearing in Manhattan is scheduled for Tuesday. According to media reports, around 30 charges are to be brought once morest the 76-year-old. The background: Shortly before his election as president in 2016, Trump had hush money paid to the porn producer Stephanie Gregory Clifford (stage name Stormy Daniels).
Political scientist Heinisch on the Trump indictment
Political scientist Reinhard Heinisch analyzes the charges once morest former US President Donald Trump.
She claimed she had sex with him. Trump denies an affair, but not that money flowed. The payment might conflict with campaign finance rules.
Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina once more rejected the allegations over the weekend. “It was a personal issue, not a campaign issue,” Tacopina said. There is also no evidence of an alleged falsification of business documents. The indictment has so far been kept under wraps – the exact charges and details are therefore still unclear and will only become public when the indictment is read out.
New York prepares for protests
In New York, the authorities are preparing for possible protests. “I want to remind everyone that violence and destruction are not part of legitimate, lawful expression,” said New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
Mayor Eric Adams said New York is not a “playground for misplaced anger.” Vandalism or violence would not be tolerated under any circumstances. The first protests, such as those by radical Republican and Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene, have already been announced. Trump himself had called on his supporters to protest before the indictment was announced.
The White House stressed that it was monitoring the situation in New York very closely. “We will be prepared should the need arise,” said National Security Council communications director John Kirby. Violence has no place in the USA, but peaceful protest does.
Trump presents himself as a victim of justice
The former US President is using the indictment to once once more portray himself as a victim of a politically controlled judiciary and to mobilize his supporters, on whose votes he will depend when running for the 2024 presidential election. From a purely legal point of view, Trump might theoretically also stand as a convicted criminal in the 2024 election, as experts emphasize.
Prior to the indictment, prominent representatives of the Republican Party backed Trump. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted that Attorney Bragg had “instrumentalized our sacred legal system once morest President Donald Trump.” Trump’s former deputy, ex-Vice President Mike Pence, also described the charges as a “scandal”.
A party colleague, however, openly opposed Trump: the former Republican governor of the state of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, called on Trump in an interview on Sunday to withdraw from the race because of the indictment. At the same time, Hutchinson announced his own candidacy for the presidency.
