This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on Trump’s arraignment – and the aftermath – here.
We’ll be closing this blog shortly. Here is a summary of today’s events so far:
Donald Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a historic case over allegations he orchestrated hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 US election to suppress publication of their alleged sexual encounters with him. Prosecutors in Manhattan accused Trump, the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges, of trying to conceal a violation of election laws during his successful 2016 campaign. The two women in the case are adult film actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges. The frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination in 2024, Trump was subdued, responding briefly when the judge asked him if he understood his rights. At one point, the judge put his hand to his ear as if to prompt an answer. Trump made no comment when he left court just under an hour later.
Trump flew home to Florida where he addressed family, friends and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, delivering a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference.
Prosecutor Chris Conroy said: “The defendant Donald J Trump falsified New York business records in order to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and other violations of election laws.” While falsifying business records in New York on its own is a misdemeanour punishable by no more than one year in prison, it is elevated to a felony punishable by up to four years when done to advance or conceal another crime, such as election law violations.
Attorney general Alvin Bragg defended the charges in a press conference after the arraignment. “We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law. No amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring American principle,” Bragg said.
“We’re going to fight it hard,” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters after the arraignment. He said that while Trump was frustrated, upset and angry about the charges, “ … he’s motivated. And it’s not going to stop him. And it’s not going to slow him down. And it’s exactly what he expected.”
Justice Juan Merchan, the judge assigned to Trump’s case, did not impose a gag order but warned Trump to avoid making comments that were inflammatory or could cause civil unrest. Prosecutors said Trump made a series of social media posts, including one threatening “death and destruction” if he was charged. If convicted of any one of the 34 felony charges, Trump could face a maximum of four years in prison.
The judge set the next hearing for 4 December. Legal experts said a trial may not even get under way for a year. An indictment or conviction will not legally prevent Trump from running for president.
Trump’s mugshot was not taken, according to two law enforcement officials, though the Trump camp did create their own one to put on a T-shirt as part of a fundraising effort.
In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, argues that every indictment will make Trump stronger:
The indictment of Donald J Trump has not driven a wooden stake through his heart. He has risen, omnipresent and ominous again, overwhelming his rivals, their voices joined into his choir, like the singing January 6 prisoners, proclaiming the wickedness of his prosecution. As he enters the criminal courthouse to pose for his mugshot and to give his fingerprints, evangelicals venerate him as the adulterous King David or the martyred Christ.
Trump does not have to raise his hand to signal to the House Republicans to echo his cry of “WITCH-HUNT”. He owns the House like he owns a hotel.
…
From the report of every new indictment to its reality, Republican radicalization will accelerate. Every concrete count will confirm every conspiracy theory. Every prosecution and trial, staggered over months and into the election year, from New York to Georgia to Washington, will be a shock driving Republicans further to Trump. Every Republican candidate running for every office will be compelled to declare as a matter of faith that Trump is being unjustly persecuted or be themselves branded traitors.
Politico has painted a picture of the atmosphere at Mar-a-Lago, with a telling comment from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Allies, aides, club members and the press were packed into the gilded ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, waiting for former President Donald Trump to arrive… In the ballroom at the Florida estate, there was no sense of sobriety in the air. It felt, instead, like a Maga movie set.
The room was lit up with bright spotlights for the cameras. And as the assembled guests waited for the man of the hour to arrive, the setting took on the feel of a catwalk for Trump world’s upper crust. Family, staff and top surrogates walked in smiling and waving.
…
Tuesday, in a way, was like a campaign relaunch, still grievance-filled but with Trump world feeling that they are in a better position. The polling that just months ago was used as evidence of his failure to rally the base has dramatically shifted, now showing the former president with leads upward of 20 percentage points over DeSantis. It underscored the central paradox of Trump’s political career: His standing benefits from the crises he endures.
“We’re back to all Trump all the time,” said former House Speaker and past presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. “Nothing makes him happier.”
Here’s a video report on Trump’s speech in Florida earlier, during which he delivered a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference:
I’m just cutting away from the indictment for a moment to the results in Wisconsin, where a Democratic-backed Milwaukee judge has won the high stakes supreme court Race, ensuring liberals will take over majority control of the court for the first time in 15 years with the fate of the state’s abortion ban pending.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Dan Kelly, who previously worked for Republicans and had support from the state’s leading anti-abortion groups.
The new court controlled 4-3 by liberals is expected to decide a pending lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 law banning abortion. Protasiewicz made the issue a focus of her campaign and won the support of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups.
Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. Trump turned to the courts in 2020 in his unsuccessful push to overturn his roughly 21,000-vote loss in the state.
Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, largely focused her campaign around abortion, saying she supports abortion rights but stopping short of saying how she would rule on a pending lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s 174-year-old ban that was enacted a year after statehood.
With that, let’s take a look at the day’s newspaper front pages with my colleague Jonathan Yerushalmy.
The Guardian says, “Trump pleads not guilty to 34 charges in hush-money case”, with the paper highlighting the judge’s order that the former president refrain from rhetoric that could cause civil unrest.
Time magazine gained a reputation for producing iconic covers throughout the Trump presidency, and they hit the mark again on Wednesday, with the simple headline: “Unprecedented”.
The Times splashes with, “Trump in the dock”. The paper’s US correspondents describe how a “stony-faced Trump was released from custody after an hour-long arraignment hearing ahead of a trial likely to take place next year”.
“Trump in the eye of the Stormy”, is the Mirror’s headline. The paper goes on to say that, “Finally… ex-President charged over ‘hush-money’ payments to porn star”.
You can read the full roundup here:
So, how was Trump’s arraignment covered in the US media – and have any lessons been learned since 2016? The AP’s David Bauder has taken a look:
“It’s hard to over-dramatize what this means for Donald Trump,” MSNBC’s Chris Jansing said today.
Oh, but many tried.
Hour after hour today, the story occupied the full attention of broadcast and cable news networks. They waited for glimpses of Trump’s face to interpret his expression, followed his motorcade’s movements from the air, speculated on how it must feel to be arrested.
On Monday, Trump’s travels from Florida to New York led cable news networks to revisit the worst of earlier excesses. Throughout the day, aerial camera shots followed Trump’s plane as it took off from Florida and landed in New York, and as his motorcade traveled to Trump Tower in Manhattan – the backdrop to hours of speculation about the case.
At one point, Trump’s son Eric posted on social media a picture of a television set inside the plane showing a Fox News Channel picture of the plane waiting on a Florida tarmac. “Watching the plane … from the plane,” he said.
New York state supreme court Judge Juan Merchan declined media requests for video coverage of the hearing where Trump heard the charges against him and pleaded not guilty. That led to constant, mostly empty talk about what might happen.
Will Trump’s motorcade to the court take Fifth Avenue or the FDR Drive? (The latter.) Will a mug shot of Trump be taken and released? (No.) Would the former president speak to the media before he goes into the court? (No.) After the hearing is done? (Also no.)
His walk out the door was judged “five seconds of history” by ABC’s David Muir. Those views of Trump, along with still pictures of him during the arraignment, turned political and legal commentators into facial-expression and body-language experts.
Mitt Romney, the former presidential nominee, who as a Utah senator was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in both his impeachment trials, has criticised the Manhattan district attorney’s office for its handling of the hush money case in which the former president pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said in a statement, as Trump was arraigned.
“Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
“No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”
There are thorny legal issues raised by Trump’s indictment.
“The bottom line is that it’s murky,” Richard Hasen, an expert in election law and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles law school told the Associated Press. “And the district attorney did not offer a detailed legal analysis as to how they can do this, how they can get around these potential hurdles. And it could potentially tie up the case for a long time.”
“There are an awful lot of dots here which it takes a bit of imagination to connect,” said Richard Klein, a Touro Law Center criminal law professor. Bragg said the indictment doesn’t specify the potential underlying crimes because the law doesn’t require it. But given the likelihood of Trump’s lawyers challenging it, “you’d think they’d want to be on much firmer ground than some of this stuff,” said Klein, a former New York City public defender.
Hasen said it’s not clear whether candidates for federal office can be prosecuted in cases involving state election laws. The defense may also argue the case can’t be brought in state court if it involves a federal election law.
While the prosecution’s theory is certainly unusual, it’s not unwinnable, some experts said.
Bragg is “going to bring in witnesses, he’s going to show a lot of documentary evidence to attempt to demonstrate that all these payments were in furtherance of the presidential campaign,” said Jerry H. Goldfeder, a veteran election lawyer in New York and the director of Fordham Law School’s Voting Rights and Democracy Project.
“It remains to be seen if he can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” Goldfeder said. But, he added, “Do not underestimate District Attorney Alvin Bragg and do not overestimate Mr. Trump.”
On Fox, Laura Ingraham is running a segment on the decision by MSNBC to not broadcast Trump’s remarks in Florida.
They’re embarrassed by the “flimsy” indictment and knew Trump would “use his comments to tell the truth,” she says.
Hi, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’m taking over our live coverage of this historic day from my formidable colleague Maanvi Singh.
If you have questions, comments, or would like to get in touch you can find me on Twitter.
After Donald Trump surrendered to authorities and New York and pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying business records, he delivered a brief, grievance-laden speech from his his Florida residence.
Trump became the first American president to face criminal charges. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said the ex-president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying documents “with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime” adding that “these are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are”.
Trump’s court appearance, during which he was finger-printed, but not cuffed, came five days after a New York grand jury voted to indict him, based on a years-long investigation.
The charges are focused on payments Trump made to hide an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, as well as hush money deals with Playboy model Karen McDougal and a former Trump Tower doorman. The district attorney’s office has accused Trump of having “orchestrated a scheme” with the intent “to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects”.
Separately, Trump faces a criminal investigation into his role during the January 6 insurrection and his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. He is also facing an investigation into efforts to overturn the elections in Georgia. The New York state attorney general has sued Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization over financial wrong doing. He is also facing a defamation suit arising from allegations of rape.
In a rambling speech, Trump collapsed long-held grievances with complaints about the several investigations he is facing, focused especially on the classified documents case. He repeated falsehoods about the nature of the accusations he is facing, and personally attacked the prosecutors and investigators leading the cases.
The president only spoke for about 25 minutes – which was much shorter than his standard. But otherwise, the remarks had many elements of his standard rally stump speech.
I’m signing off, but my colleagues in Australia will continue to bring you updates and analysis.
– Maanvi Singh
Fact check: Judge in hush money case
Trump called justice Juan Merchan a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris”.
Merchan’s daughter is president of Authentic, an agency that has worked with the campaigns of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris , Cory Booker and other Democrats. But that is not a conflict of interest for the justice, or grounds for a recusal by judicial ethics standards.
Fact check: Classified documents
During the speech, Trump also claimed that the Presidential Records Act involves a negotiation with the National Archives and Records Administration over documents, which is false. In fact, Nara gets custody of presidential documents the moment he leaves office.
Trump was joined tonight by his children Don Jr, Eric and Tiffany, as well as supporters including Roger Stone, Mike Lindell, far-right representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
Missing tonight were Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who has distanced herself from her father after working for his administration, and Melania Trump.
CNN cut away from its live coverage of Trump’s speech as the former president continued to rail against the charges against him.
Meanwhile, MSNBC opted not to broadcast Trump’s remarks at all. Instead, host Rachel Maddow said the outlet would monitor his remarks for any news rather than cover them in full.
“This is basically a campaign speech in which he is repeating his same lies and allegations against his perceived enemies,” Maddow said. “He’s just giving his normal list of grievances. We don’t consider that necessarily newsworthy and there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.”
NPR also did not air Trump’s speech live.
Donald Trump has repeatedly misconstrued the investigation into his possession of classified documents, comparing what he did to what his predecessors did.
Trump took classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, whereas former president Barack Obama turned over documents, according to the National Archives and Records Administration itself. In the cases of other former presidents, the Nara moved documents out of DC to other facilities.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
