Former US President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, will Trump Appears In Court In New York today Tuesday to be fingerprinted, photographed and formally charged next year ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Trump, 76, is the first sitting or former US president to be charged with a crime. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week in a case related to a 2016 hardship payment to actress Stormy Daniels, though specific charges have not yet been released. Trump has said he is innocent and denies any wrongdoing.
“Today (Tuesday) is the day the ruling party arrests its primary opponent without committing a crime,” Trump, who flew from Florida to New York on Monday, said in a fundraising email.
It was decided to charge Trump in court and give him a chance to answer today at 18:15 GMT, and the hearing is likely to be short.
“It’s not going to be a long day in court,” Joseph Tacubina, one of Trump’s lawyers, said on ABC.
Yahoo News reported late Tuesday that Trump faced 34 criminal charges for falsifying company information.
Legal experts said the trial would not take place for more than a year. Impeachment, or even conviction, does not legally prevent Trump from running for president.
Five photographers are allowed into the courtroom to take pictures several minutes before the hearing begins. Trump’s lawyers urged the judge to remove them, saying it would worsen an “already circus atmosphere.”
Some of Trump’s supporters and opponents gathered in front of the hall under tight security before the session began.
A video posted on Twitter by a BuzzFeed reporter showed two female Trump supporters, one dressed in an American flag, arguing with another woman in a courtroom over a large black banner reading “Trump lies all the time” before police intervened.
