Daily Times

Donald Trump pleaded not guilty during a court appearance in New York on Tuesday as he became the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges, a dramatic legal reckoning while he plots a return to the White House in 2025.

Trump entered the plea after arriving at a Manhattan courthouse shortly before 1.30pm, where he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records during a hearing that lasted just over an hour. The charges related to payments allegedly made to buy the silence of a porn actress ahead of his 2016 presidential campaign, as well as another woman who said she had an affair with Trump. Trump was ashen-faced as he and his lawyers walked into the courtroom after being processed ahead of the arraignment and appeared downbeat as he sat before the judge.

The judge asked the former president’s attorneys to remind him to “refrain from making statements likely to incite violence or civil unrest” on social media. The next hearing is scheduled for December 4. “He’s frustrated, he’s upset, but I tell you what, he’s motivated and it’s not going to stop him, it’s not going to slow him down,” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters outside the court after the hearing. Earlier, Trump had pumped his fist before departing in a motorcade from Trump Tower at just after 1pm to make the roughly six-mile journey to the courthouse, which he entered without making any remarks. Trump posted on his Truth Social profile as the procession snaked down the Franklin D Roosevelt East River Drive.

He wrote: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL – WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!” Trump left the courthouse at just before 3.30pm en route to LaGuardia airport. He is expected to return to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and deliver a speech later on Tuesday. Many of the charges relate to the $130,000 allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels, a porn actress, via attorney Michael Cohen to cover up an affair she claimed to have had with Trump years earlier.

The transactions were allegedly recorded as legal fees and prosecutors will attempt to show that they were in fact made to protect Trump’s campaign and therefore violated federal campaign finance law. Before the arraignment, Joe Tacopina, an attorney for Trump, had said the former president’s defence team would move quickly to challenge the legitimacy of the indictment by filing motions to dismiss the case.