The date and time of the court hearing for the arraignment of former President Donald Trump have been confirmed by the court, and will take place on Tuesday 4 April at 2.15pm ET.
A Manhattan grand jury voted on Thursday to indict former President Donald Trump for falsifying business records in connection to a 2016 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels for her to remain silent about a 2006 affair she claims to have had with Mr Trump, an allegation he denies.
It has been reported that Mr Trump faces 34 felony counts of business fraud.
Court officials revealed the timing of the arraignment on Friday, according to the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, it will be the first time in history that a US president is arraigned.
Mr Trump, a Republican, has called the probe a “scam” and a “witch hunt” and he has argued that he’s the target of political persecution by the Manhattan District Attorney, Democrat Alvin Bragg.
Since no former president has ever been criminally charged, there’s no precedent for how to handle the proceedings. Mr Trump is under the protection of the Secret Service, meaning that agents are with him at all times.
Mr Trump was asked to surrender on Friday, the AP notes, but his legal team said the Secret Service required additional time to prepare. He arrived in New York on Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the scheduled arraignment.
Defendants who turn themselves in after facing criminal charges in the state of New York are generally detained for several hours while their fingerprints are taken, their photo is taken and they also go through other procedures.
On Thursday, the office of Mr Bragg said that it had reached out to Mr Trump’s lawyer to settle how the surrender would happen. Before the court announced that the arraignment was set to happen on Tuesday, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said that Tuesday was a likely date for the court hearing.
The hush money probe looked into allegations that six-figure payments were made to Ms Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both said they had affairs with Mr Trump years before he stepped into the political arena. Mr Trump has denied those allegations.
Allies of Mr Trump paid the women to not speak out about their claims during the 2016 campaign.
The publisher of the National Enquirer paid Ms McDougal $150,000 for her story and then didn’t publish it. The deal was organised by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen.
Cohen himself paid off Ms Daniels. He was then reimbursed for the $130,000 by Mr Trump, with additional bonuses, and with the payments to Cohen being inaccurately logged as legal fees.
