The moment marks the first time a former US president has ever been charged for a criminal offence, let alone one who is currently the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee to run for the White House next year.
But in a sign of America’s deepening chasm, hundreds of protesters gathered at Collect Pond Park outside the court ahead of the arraignment, with those in favour of Trump assigned to the south side of the square, while those against were assigned to the north.
“Lock him up! Lock him up!” the anti-Trump forces sang as they faced off against the pro-Trump crowd. Some banged pots and pans or waved “F--- Trump” flags as they danced in unison, others wore costumes of the former president in prison uniform.
According to the unsealed indictment, between August 2015 and December 2017, Trump orchestrated a “catch and kill” scheme through a series of payments that he “concealed through months of false business entries”.
That “catch and kill scheme” was to “identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects”.
Loading
One of those payments was the $US30,000 made to a former Trump Tower doorman who “claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock”, the District Attorney’s office alleges.
The second instance is a $US150,000 payment to a woman who alleged she had a sexual relationship with Trump.
The third instance, made 12 days before the presidential election, relates to the $US130,000 alleged payment to Stormy Daniels.
“The people of the state of New York allege that Donald J Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” said District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement released after the hearing.
Donald Trump has now formally pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records.
Trump and his lawyers have indicated this would be the case all along. The former president always denied any wrongdoing relating to these allegations.
Former president Donald Trump sits at the defence table in court.AP
The moment marks the first time a former US president has ever been charged with a criminal offence, let alone one who is currently the frontrunner to be the Republican nominee to run for the White House next year.
Our US correspondent Farrah Tomazin is in New York City covering the event. You can read the full report here.
Latest Posts
3.24pm on Apr 5, 2023
That concludes our live coverage of Trump’s arrest and arraignment
By
Another unprecedented day in US politics, with Donald Trump appearing in court as a criminal defendant, facing 34 charges relating to alleged hush money payments.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Brag says the payments formed part of a “catch and kill” scheme used by Trump and his associates in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election to “identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects”.
Former President Donald Trump appears in court for his arraignment in New York.AFP
During his court appearance, Trump pleaded not guilty, returning to his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago and launching an attack on Bragg, Juan Merchan who is the judge who is overseeing the case and their families.
Thankfully, fears of civil unrest and violent protests have so far not amounted to anything.
As the Trump arraignment unfolded, Wisconsin voters elected a liberal to the state’s Supreme Court, which could have implications for the 2024 presidential election.
Janet Protasiewicz has been elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, flipping control to a liberal majority ahead of rulings that could play a role in the 2024 presidential election.
(In the US some states elect Supreme Court justices while other states appoint them.)
Protasiewicz defeated conservative candidate Daniel Kelly in what New York University’s Brennan Centre for Justice called the most expensive judicial election in US history.
The result turns a court with a former 4-3 conservative majority to liberal control after 15 years, likely affecting a number of issues that have polarised Americans in other states such as voting rights and partisan control over drawing legislative maps.
Just as it did in 2020, the court could issue crucial voting decisions before and after the 2024 presidential election, when Wisconsin is again poised to be a vital swing state.
In addition, the court may revisit the state’s congressional and legislative maps, which Republicans have drawn to maximise their political advantage.
Kelly reluctantly conceded in an address to supporters, calling Protasiewicz an unworthy opponent who ran a “deceitful, dishonourable, despicable campaign.”
But he added, “I respect the decision that the people of Wisconsin have made.”
The decision by the Manhattan District Attorney to charge Trump for hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign is just one of the many probes facing the Republican as he makes another run at the White House.
Here’s a snapshot view of the other legal woes Trump faces.
Georgia election-tampering probe
A prosecutor in the US state of Georgia is investigating Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in that state.
The investigation focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on January 2, 2021. Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss in Georgia.
Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.
Trump could argue that his discussions were constitutionally protected free speech.
US Capitol attack
The US Justice Department has investigations under way into both Trump’s actions in the 2020 election and his retention of highly classified documents after departing the White House in 2021.
Both investigations are being overseen by Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor and political independent. Trump has accused the FBI, without evidence, of launching the probes as political retribution.
Only the US Justice Department can decide whether to charge Trump, who has claimed the Democratic-led panel’s investigation is a politically motivated sham.
Pro-Trump rioters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.AP
Garland also appointed former US Attorney Robert Hur to investigate the removal of classified records in President Joe Biden’s possession dating to his time as vice president.
In Trump’s case, the FBI seized 13,000 documents from Mar-a-Lago in an August 8 search. About 100 documents were marked classified; some were designated top secret, the highest level of classification.
Trump has accused the Justice Department of engaging in a partisan witch hunt.
E. Jean Carroll alleges Trump raped her in a dressing room in Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman store in the 1990s.AP
New York attorney general civil lawsuit
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump and his Trump Organisation last September for fraud.
James said her office found more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations between 2011 and 2021, and that Trump inflated his net worth by billions of dollars.
The attorney general said the scheme was intended to help Trump obtain lower interest rates on loans and better insurance coverage.
She also said her probe uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing, and referred it to federal prosecutors and the US Internal Revenue Service.
The civil lawsuit seeks to permanently bar Trump and three of his adult children from running companies in New York state, and recoup at least $US250 million obtained through fraud.
Trump has called James’ lawsuit a witch hunt, and the defendants have called the claims meritless.
Defamation lawsuits
E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, has filed two lawsuits accusing Trump of defaming her by denying he raped her in New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996.
The second lawsuit arose from an October 2022 social media post where Trump called the rape claim a “hoax”, “lie”, “con job” and “complete scam”.
That lawsuit includes a battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which gave adults a one-year window to sue their alleged attackers even if statutes of limitations have expired.
Reuters
1.40pm on Apr 5, 2023
Trump’s humbling entrance
By
The public has picked up on one detail of the Manhattan hearing -- the moment Trump came into the courtroom.
One piece of footage appears to show that no one held the door for the ex-president as he entered.
While Trump has taken centre stage, US President Joe Biden has remained quiet today about his predecessor – and very possibly his 2024 presidential rival’s – criminal charges.
The White House said earlier that unlike the rest of the country, Biden would be going about his business and not glued to the television as Trump’s legal dramas played out live.
“Our focus right now is on the American people,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters when asked if Biden was following the news. “He will catch part of the news when he has a moment to catch up on the news of the day,” she said.
Biden has instead been tweeting about balancing the positives and dangers of AI and welcoming Finland as it becomes part of NATO.
He was, however, asked last week if he thought he would still be running against Trump in 2024.
No mugshot of former president Donald Trump was taken at the courthouse in Manhattan.
Trump was, however, fingerprinted.
Ironically, the fundraising email Trump sent to supporters offered a T-shirt with a fake mugshot as a gift for any donation over $US47.
The Trump fake mugshot T-shirt.Trump Save America
12.34pm on Apr 5, 2023
Justice Juan Merchan – the judge who (Trump claims) hates the former president
By
Trump says his case is being overseen by a judge who hates him. So who is Justice Juan Merchan?
Merchan last year oversaw a criminal trial of the Trump Organisation that ended with the real estate company convicted by a jury of tax fraud and hit with fines, while one of its longtime executives, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and was sent to jail.
Judge Juan Merchan (far right) addresses Trump (far left) regarding his rights and requirements.AP
Merchan sentenced the Trump Organisation to pay $US1.6 million after jurors convicted the company in December. The judge also sentenced Weisselberg – who long served as an executive under Trump but was the prosecution’s star witness in the trial – to five months of incarceration.
The Trump Organisation trial is not Merchan’s only recent encounter with people close to the former president. Merchan is also presiding over a criminal case involving former Trump campaign and White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud related to a nonprofit that raised funds for building a wall on the US border with Mexico.
Merchan has been a Manhattan criminal court judge since 2009, after prior stints on the state’s Court of Claims, which hears cases against the state and its agencies, and family court in the Bronx.
The judge was born in Colombia and moved to the United States aged 6, growing up in the New York City borough of Queens, according to news reports. Merchan began his legal career in the same US District Attorney’s office that is now prosecuting Trump.
Reuters
12.09pm on Apr 5, 2023
‘Bad day for us all’: Some initial reactions
By
Some reactions to Donald Trump’s arraignment:
Advertisement
11.58am on Apr 5, 2023
Melania missing in action
By
Trump’s wife Melania was not with him during his appearance in Manhattan, where New York state authorities brought charges against the former president for paying hush money to suppress reports of his alleged affairs before the 2016 election.
Porn star Stormy Daniels, to whom Trump is accused of paying $US130,000, said they had a sexual encounter in 2006 – a year after Trump married Melania.
In Florida, the Trump-friendly crowd at Mar-a-Lago included supporters like failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and longtime ally Roger Stone.
But Melania was not present there either.
Melania Trump during her final days in the White House.AP