Donald Trump turned himself into a New York court Tuesday, marking the first time in U.S. history that a former president has been arrested and faced with criminal charges.
The embattled business executive and Republican frontrunner for the 2024 presidential election entered the courthouse just before 1:30 p.m., EST, surrounded by Secret Service agents.
The charges stem from an investigation into whether Trump’s hush money payments to an adult film star weeks before the 2016 election count as falsifying business records and a violation of campaign finance law.
Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, made six-figure payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both women claimed to have had sexual liaisons with the married Trump years prior to his political career.
Trump’s indictment, announced on March 30, had remained sealed until today. He denies the allegations as well as any wrongdoing involving payments.
Trump’s legal counsel includes Todd Blanche, a former partner at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, as well as Joseph Tacopina, who in the past has represented famous clients such as retired New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez.
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan will preside over the trial. He previously presided over the Trump Organization case where the company was found guilty of tax fraud and falsifying business record.
In the days leading up to the arrest, New York City has dealt with bomb and death threats.
Police officers lined Lower Manhattan streets around Manhattan Supreme Court with barricades and dispatched bomb-sniffing dogs. There were estimated to be some 300 pro-Trump protestors on the scene.
While Congressional Republicans have derided the matter as purely politically motivated, the former president has a litany of legal issues to contend with separate from Alvin Bragg’s investigation, including a number of investigations. Fulton County D.A. Fani T. Willis is current investigating into the election interference in Georgia. Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump’s handling of classified materials taken to his Mar-A-Lago resort and the insurrection on January 6. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 2.
Trump’s ongoing legal drama comes amid the pending merger of Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corp. If the deal ever comes to fruition, Trump is expected to remain in control of the combined entity regardless of the trial’s outcome.
There’s also whether Trump’s arrest will hurt or benefit his presidential campaign. As Trump claimed in his book “The Art of the Deal,” ghostwritten by author Tony Schwartz, “Good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all.”
Whether that axiom holds true in this saga remains to be seen.
Produced in association with Benzinga
