Donald Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony counts in New York court over 2016 hush money case
- ‘We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct,’ said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
- Trump returned to his Mar-a-Lago estate after arraignment, giving an acrimonious speech and calling Bragg a ‘criminal’
During the arraignment, Trump, 76, was read his rights, heard the charges read aloud and had his fingerprints taken, emerging as an accused criminal, but was spared having to stand for a mugshot.
In a speech on Tuesday evening from his home at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump characterised himself as the victim in a system arrayed against him.
“The only crime I’ve ever committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” Trump said before a crowd of family members, supporters and media. “Even hardcore Democrats say there is no crime and that it should never have been brought.”
“There’s nothing. The indictment itself is boilerplate,” said Todd Blanche, a member of Trump’s legal team, speaking to reporters afterwards.
“His reaction was exactly what would happen if it happened to anybody that I’m looking at now. He’s frustrated, he’s upset, but I’ll tell you what, he’s motivated and it’s not going to stop him.”
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“I have a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife,” the former president said in meandering and acrimonious comments on Tuesday evening that slammed the FBI, Justice Department, the US court system, the Biden administration and the many litigants bringing cases against him nationwide, including Bragg. “The criminal is the district attorney.”
After his nearly hour-long arraignment – significantly longer than usual – Trump was released on his own recognisance given that the case involves nonviolent felony charges.
Trump immediately got into a black car as part of a convoy of vehicles headed for the airport to catch his plane back to Florida.
The 16-page indictment brought by Bragg, a Democrat, centres upon a US$130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election that Trump won. Trump has dismissed the indictment as political persecution and election interference “at the highest level in history”.
“We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct,” Bragg said in a statement on Tuesday. “We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law.”
Trump’s lawyers argued that the former president should not be required to appear in person at his next hearing set for December. The judge denied the request but said he might reconsider it in the future.
The district attorney’s office also reportedly said in the closed courtroom that it was very concerned by Trump’s threatening social media posts and was requesting a protective order given the potential danger to prosecutors, witnesses and jurors.
In particular, prosecutors mentioned a Trump post in late March involving a picture of himself holding a baseball bat that appeared beside an image of Bragg’s head. Trump’s attorneys countered later that someone else manipulated the image.
The DA’s office also reportedly expressed concern that Trump or others in his party could reveal discovery material in the court of public opinion, potentially compromising the trial.
Trump’s attorneys countered that this was an issue of free speech.
The judge did not immediately rule on a trial date but said that the discovery process – the presenting of evidence – would start in four months.
Under New York law, falsification of business records is only a misdemeanour. But by pairing it with a second charge, potentially related to what essentially amounted to a conspiracy to pay hush money and affect the election, the district attorney can bring felony charges. Paying hush money is not in itself a crime in New York.
A separate 13-page “statement of facts” accompanying the indictment that lacks the weight of a formal charging document flushed out more details, depicting the former president as an active participant in efforts to avoid paying taxes and “to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election”.
Citing a timeline from August 2015 to December 2017, it outlines Trump’s direct involvement in meetings over the payment to Daniels and US$30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman trying to sell information “regarding a child that the Defendant had allegedly fathered out of wedlock”.
It also alleged a US$150,000 payment to another woman widely believed to be Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who, like Daniels, claimed she had an affair with Trump “in exchange for her agreement not to speak out about the alleged sexual relationship”.
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Outside the courthouse on Tuesday and in front of Trump Tower a few miles uptown, hundreds of both pro and anti-Trump demonstrators gathered before the arraignment, yelling at one another across barriers and holding signs and waving flags.
An anti-Trump gathering held outside the heavily barricaded Trump Tower erected a “Don’t Buy Trump Lies” banner as two Trump supporters across the street held Trump 2016 flags, calling him “the best president”.
Trump Tower also saw a doppelgänger of the former president arrive in a limousine and wave at journalists waiting outside for Trump. “It’s not a prosecution,” the lookalike said. “It’s a persecution. It’s a witch hunt.”
A few miles away in front of the courthouse, Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia organised a “Rally for Trump” a day after New York Mayor Eric Adams advised protesters to “control yourselves”. Greene spoke briefly but was drowned out by a crowd outnumbering Trump supporters. Security escorted her away.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump described the Manhattan court as a “very unfair venue” and called for the case to be transferred to Staten Island, which typically votes Republican.
And the complex and untested nature of the case – involving a state misdemeanour charge paired with a state election violation involving a federal presidential election – carries risks given the lack of precedent and, Trump’s team argues, tenuous or even illogical links.
The Stormy Daniels case is widely seen as the weakest of the legal cases facing the former president. Trump is under investigation in Georgia over his bid to nullify that state’s 2020 election results. Separately, prosecutors are looking into Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol as well as his handling of classified documents.
Trump’s indictment on Tuesday does not necessarily preclude his retaking the White House. The US Constitution outlines only three requirements to become president: the person must be a natural-born US citizen, 35 years or older and a resident of the US for at least 14 years.
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Cohen, who pleaded guilty to charges related to his work with the Trump Organisation, has said he paid Daniels at Trump’s direction and that Trump reimbursed him. Trump has acknowledged the reimbursement, but denied it was “hush money”.
Bragg started closely examining the payments last summer, then impaneled a grand jury in January, which voted last week to indict the former president.
Top Republicans have rallied behind Trump, calling the indictment “politicised” and “un-American”.
Political analysts differ on how the indictment will affect Trump in his bid for re-election, although it has given him a short-term boost as his fundraising and polling numbers have soared in recent days.
