Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree related to his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign - the first time a former president has had to plead to criminal charges.
The indictment was unsealed in a brief proceeding before Judge Juan Merchan. Trump was flanked by his lawyers inside the courtroom. Trump arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan in a presidential-style motorcade from Trump Tower in midtown, where he’d stayed overnight.
He was informed he was under arrest, finger printed and processed ahead of his arraignment. The legal troubles, media spectacle and pornstar-hush-money salaciousness at the heart of the case are a new chapter for the New York tycoon-turned TV-star-turned-politician, whose career has careened from scandal to success for four decades. This time, unlike his bankrupted casinos or failed marriages, many of Trump's supporters and detractors argue that the fate of American democracy is hanging in the balance as the former president increasingly conflates any legal woes as an effort to illegitimately deny him a return to power.
With the failures of Jan 6 US Capitol riot still fresh in officials' minds, security was high in the courthouse and nearby areas as the police department, court officers and Secret Service braced for protests amid the unprecedented arraignment of a former president. While police shut down streets and the sound of a helicopter buzzed overhead, news outlets from around the world set up cameras near long lines of spectators, some of whom had camped out overnight in the hopes of getting a coveted seat inside.
The judge has barred TV cameras from inside the courtroom but decided to allow some photographers, who will capture historic images likely to end up on newspaper front pages, in election-season ads and in future history books.
"I think we’re on the eve of destruction. It’s just like surreal to me,” Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said