Closing summary
We’re closing the US politics blog now, after covering Donald Trump’s flight from Florida to New York ahead of his historic arraignment on Tuesday on charges he covered up a payment to an adult movie actress.
The former president made his way from LaGuardia airport to Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he will meet lawyers, then spend the night before surrendering to New York state court on Tuesday afternoon.
Judge Juan Merchan is currently weighing whether to allow cameras inside his courtroom tomorrow so Trump’s arraignment, set for late lunchtime, can be broadcast live.
Merchan has also yet to decide if the indictment, believed to include 30-35 charges, can be unsealed before the hearing.
Here are today’s other key developments:
Trump hired a new lead counsel, experienced white-collar crime attorney Todd Blanche, to represent him in the case brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
New York’s Mayor Eric Adams told Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to “behave yourself” while she’s in the city tomorrow protesting Trump’s arraignment with young Republicans.
Commissioner Keechant Sewell said tens of thousands of uniformed New York police department officers would be on duty on Tuesday to keep the peace, if any protests threatened to turn violent. “Violence and destruction are not part of legitimate lawful expression,” she said.
Fox News reported that “multiple secret service agents connected to [the] former president” have received subpoenas to testify Friday to a Washington DC grand jury investigating Trump’s improper handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Republican governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill allowing anyone in the state over 18 to carry a concealed firearm without need for a permit or training. Florida is third in the nation for mass shootings.
The blog is closed now, but stick with us for ongoing news coverage of the Trump arraignment. And please join us again tomorrow for what promises to be a momentous day on Tuesday.
And before you go, take a read of Simon Jenkins’ opinion piece on the Trump prosecution:
Joe Biden, speaking about his economic agenda this afternoon in Minnesota, has been completely ignoring the circus of his predecessor’s arrival in New York to face criminal charges.
An upbeat president extolled his administration’s successes during an appearance at a suburban Minneapolis facility of Cummins Inc, an engine maker that is investing more than $1bn in its plants in Indiana, North Carolina and New York.
“We’re turning things around in a big way,” Biden told the audience, listing investments of tens of billions of dollars by large tech and science companies he said were creating “tens of thousands of good-paying jobs.”
Biden has been touring the country in recent months promoting his Invest in America program, which he credits with helping a significant economic turnaround since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The plan is to invest in America in a literal sense, not overseas, in America. Invest in ourselves, and it’s working. Here’s what it looks like across the country. A record 12,400,000 brand new jobs, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs, just since we came to office,” he said.
Biden mentioned Donald Trump once, but not by name, during a segment in which he claimed credit for reducing the national deficit by $1.7tn in two years. “The last guy who had this job, he increased it by $2tn,” he said.
Updated
Trump lands in New York, will meet with lawyers
Donald Trump has arrived in New York, where he will meet his lawyers this afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s historic arraignment on charges he covered up a hush money payment to an adult movie star.
The former president’s private jet landed at LaGuardia airport at 3.27pm ET after a flight of little more than three hours from Florida. It marks the start of what will be an extraordinary 24 hours never before seen in this country.
Trump, the only present or past president in US history to be charged with a crime, will surrender to authorities in Manhattan ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s appearance in New York state court. The hearing is expected to be brief, and Trump plans to head straight home to Palm Beach and deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
During the flight north, Jason Miller, a senior Trump adviser, tweeted that his 2024 campaign for the Republican presidential nominated was boosted by “a record $7m” in the three days since the indictment was announced.
🚨In only three days since news of the indictment, President @realDonaldTrump’s campaign has raised a record $7M.🚨#MAGA 🇺🇸
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) April 3, 2023
“The president views this a challenge he has to take on for the American people,” Miller told CNN in a text message.
Yet the projection that the American public is behind the twice impeached, one-term president is contrasted by a CNN poll released earlier Monday that revealed six in 10 approved of the indictment announced Thursday by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg after a grand jury investigation.
A “few dozen” vocal supporters were gathered, CNN reported, outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he will spend the night. At lunchtime, authorities in New York held a press conference to announce security arrangements that include road closures and more than 35,000 NYPD officers on duty.
The city’s mayor, Eric Adams, had a specific warning for Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vocal Trump supporter who said she would join fellow republicans at a protest event.
“Although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she’s coming to town. While you’re in town, be on your best behavior,” Adams warned.
Here’s my colleague Chris Stein on today’s developments so far:
Updated
As we wait for Donald Trump to arrive in New York City, here’s some apposite reading from our contributor Lawrence Douglas, professor of law at Amherst College in Massachusetts, about the concurrent attempts to hold Trump and one of the leaders he most admires, Vladimir Putin, accountable for their actions…
Let’s not ignore the poetic justice: on 17 March, the international criminal court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin; a scant two weeks later, a grand jury in New York voted to indict Donald Trump.
Admittedly, the two cases are quite different. Putin is wanted for his role in orchestrating devastating war crimes. Trump stands accused of relatively minor crimes involving the payment of hush money to a former porn star. But there is a sense that these two men, so recently bound in mutual admiration of their bullying contempt for democratic norms and legal process, now find themselves in the clutches of the very systems of justice that they believed they could flout with impunity.
Of course, there is no guarantee that either man will ever be fully held to account. Those looking forward to the day of Putin’s reckoning before the ICC in The Hague should bear in mind that the only reason the allies succeeded in trying members of the Nazi leadership in Nuremberg was because Hitler’s Germany lay in ruins. Putin remains very much in power and presides over an arsenal of 6,000 nuclear warheads that he continues to recklessly brandish. Unless Putin finds himself ousted from power, his arrest warrant will remain a symbolic reminder that in the eyes of international law, the Russian leader is a pariah and a fugitive.
No such evasions will be possible for Trump. And yet the very legal system that Trump defames as hopelessly corrupt demands that an indictment have a coherent legal basis and that guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. It is possible, then, that a court could dismiss the New York charges or, should the case go forward, the trial result in an acquittal.
Which is why I believe those interested in seeing Trump brought to justice should look past this indictment – based on an untested legal theory and involving a constellation of tawdry wrongdoings – and train their attention on Fulton county, Georgia, where Trump faces likely indictment for soliciting election fraud. Or else look to the Department of Justice, which continues to investigate Trump for his actions culminating in the January 6 insurrection and for his refusal to hand over classified documents illegally stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
These investigations, particularly in Georgia and over January 6, involve far weightier allegations of criminal wrongdoing, allegations less vulnerable to attack as simply an exercise in political score-settling.
Read on…
A minor scare for the first lady, Jill Biden, has passed without incident, after her flight to Michigan from Denver today was turned back “due to an aircraft issue”.
Biden’s press secretary, Vanessa Valdivia, reports: “Everyone is safe. We’re back on the ground in Denver.”
The first lady’s planned visit to Michigan has been postponed.
CBS is under fire after devoting an interview on its flagship current affairs show, 60 Minutes, to Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right pro-Trump congresswoman from Georgia who has espoused conspiracy theories and faced censure for threatening behaviour towards Democrats.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York progressive among those threatened by Greene, told Semafor: “These kinds of extreme and really just unprecedented and dangerous notions are getting platforms, without much pushback or real kind of critical analysis.”
Matthew Gertz, of the progressive watchdog Media Matters, told the same outlet: “Anyone who believes that the congresswoman from QAnon is serious about renouncing far-right radicalism and conspiracy theories should make me an offer on my Jewish space laser.”
Greene memorably suggested California wildfires could be caused by solar technology connected to the Rothschild family, giving rise to the “Jewish space laser” meme.
Gertz also pointed to Greene’s support of Donald Trump, who last week became the first former US president ever to be criminally indicted after a New York grand jury handed up charges against him.
On Tuesday, Greene is set to address a protest in support of Trump outside the New York courthouse where the former president will be arraigned.
Gertz said: “Less than 48 hours after CBS News gives her a mainstream platform to airbrush her image, Marjorie Taylor Greene will be rallying with Jack Posobiec of Pizzagate fame and the quasi-fascists of the New York Young Republican Club to defend Donald Trump from what she calls the ‘political persecution’ of a ‘Soros-backed’ district attorney.”
Gertz also said Greene was “a rightwing extremist us[ing] a credulous mainstream press outlet”.
CBS did not comment. The network did receive support from public figures.
David Hogg, a Parkland school shooting survivor and campaigner for gun reform who has been harassed by Greene, said he was “glad 60 minutes gave Marjorie Taylor Greene airtime.
It’s important to interview one of the main leaders of the Republican party so the American people know everything and I mean everything they support. Including denying school shootings.”
Asked how she thought the interview went, Greene told Semafor: “I thought it was pretty good.”
Full story:
Joe Biden has arrived in Minnesota, where he is touring a clean energy technology manufacturer in suburban Minneapolis. It is, according to the Associated Press, part of his effort to highlight his investment agenda ahead of an expected reelection campaign.
Biden will highlight job growth and investments nationwide while pushing clean energy and manufacturing in the US during his visit to engine maker Cummins Inc, the AP says.
The company intends to announce it’s investing more than $1bn in its engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York to update facilities so they can produce low- to zero-carbon engines.
According to the White House, Biden’s economic plan has led to $2.7bn in federal funding for roughly 182 infrastructure projects across Minnesota, including transportation projects and better access to clean water.
Joe Biden has congratulated four Nasa astronauts who were named on Monday to become the first humans to return to the moon in more than half a century.
The space agency identified Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, all experienced astronauts aged in their 40s, as the crew of Artemis II, which is scheduled to make a 10-day flight around the moon and back, without landing, in late 2024.
The @NASA Artemis II crewed mission around the Moon will inspire the next generation of explorers, and show every child – in America, in Canada, and across the world – that if they can dream it, they can be it. pic.twitter.com/X8q3GLTBiQ
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 3, 2023
“I want to thank you for your incredible service. The mission you’re about to go on, the US can return people to the moon, it’s hard to believe, for the first time in over 50 years,” Biden told the quartet by phone on Monday morning.
“The world just holds their breath when things like this happen. The work you’re doing is going to inspire countless people around our country and the world.”
He invited the astronauts and their families to the White House at the conclusion of the mission.
The uncrewed Artemis I made a successful test flight in November. Artemis III, scheduled for sometime in 2025, aims to land the first woman on the lunar surface, and the first humans since the final Apollo mission in December 1972.
Interim summary
It’s lunchtime on an historic Monday in which a former president of the United States is for the first time on his way to face a criminal reckoning for alleged crimes.
Donald Trump’s private jet took off within the last hour from Palm Beach international airport in Florida, en route to New York, where he will be arraigned on Tuesday for allegedly covering up an illicit payment to an adult movie star.
Here are the day’s other developments so far:
Trump has hired a new lead counsel, experienced white-collar crime attorney Todd Blanche, to represent him in the case brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
New York’s Mayor Eric Adams has told Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to “behave yourself” while she’s in the city tomorrow protesting Trump’s arraignment with young Republicans.
Commissioner Keechant Sewell said tens of thousands of uniformed New York police department officers would be on duty on Tuesday to keep the peace, if any protests threatened to turn violent. “Violence and destruction are not part of legitimate lawful expression,” she said.
Fox News reported that “multiple secret service agents connected to [the] former president” have received subpoenas to testify Friday to a Washington DC grand jury investigating Trump’s improper handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Republican governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill allowing anyone in the state over 18 to carry a concealed firearm without need for a permit or training. Florida is third in the nation for mass shootings.
Updated
Trump hires new lead counsel
Donald Trump has hired a new lead counsel one day ahead of his historic arraignment in New York on criminal obstruction charges, Politico is reporting.
He is Todd Blanche, a leading white-collar criminal defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, the news outlet says.
Blanche was until recently a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. He said in an email obtained by Politico that he was resigning because: “I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up.”
He is a former assistant US attorney in the Manhattan US attorney’s office, and previously represented Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager and acolyte who served a prison term for unregistered lobbying, tax fraud, bank fraud and money laundering before Trump pardoned him in December 2020.
Another former client was Igor Furman, as associate of Rudy Giuliani. Furman pleaded guilty in a campaign finance case brought by the Manhattan US attorney’s office.
The former president’s private jet, a Boeing 757 somewhat grandiosely nicknamed Trump Force One, has just taken off from Palm Beach international, after a couple of slight delays.
No longer in office, Trump’s loss of power was evident on both the trip from his Mar-a-Lago resort and on the taxiway.
His Secret Service motorcade was forced to stop at least once for a red light, something that would never happen to a sitting president; and then, approaching the runway, Trump’s jet was held up behind at least four other planes heading for various places.
Trump's motorcade has to stop at a red light pic.twitter.com/tsuOMMGMKh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2023
As commander-in-chief, Trump’s pathway was cleared of all obstacles. As a former president, the first to be criminally charged, it seems he has to wait in line like everybody else.
His flight is expected to touch down in New York somewhere around 3pm ET.
Former President Trump departs West Palm Beach, Florida, en route to New York City to turn himself in on 30+ criminal charges https://t.co/cdWIieowWC pic.twitter.com/VCghZMueEr
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) April 3, 2023
Updated
New York mayor to Taylor Greene: 'Behave yourself'
Officials in New York have just updated reporters on security arrangements for Donald Trump’s court appearance tomorrow, including a stark warning to Republican firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to behave herself.
The Georgia politician and election denier, one of the former president’s most vocal supporters, has said she’ll be joining New York’s Young Republicans club for a “peaceful protest” in Manhattan ahead of Trump’s arraignment.
But sensing the potential for any protests to turn violent, Eric Adams, had a blunt warning for Taylor Greene, who has called for the arrest of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg who brought the case against Trump:
While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow, the message is clear and simple: control yourselves. Your city is our home, not a place for your misplaced anger.
We are the safest large city in America because we respect the rule of law in New York city. And although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she’s coming to town. While you’re in town, be on your best behavior.
As always, we will not allow violence or vandalism of any kind. And if one is caught participating in any act of violence, they will be arrested and held accountable, no matter who you are.
About 35,000 uniformed New York city police officers will be on duty on Tuesday, ready to deal with any threat of violence or unrest by Trump supporters, police commissioner Keechant Sewell told the briefing.
There will be street closures around the courthouse and on other streets she said:
As always, the NYPD is prepared to ensure that everyone is able to have their voices heard peacefully while exercising their first amendment rights.
But I will remind everyone that violence and destruction are not part of legitimate lawful expression. And that will never be tolerated in our city.
Trump leaves Mar-a-Lago for Manhattan court date
Donald Trump is on his way to New York for his arraignment tomorrow on criminal charges related to his pay-off of an adult film star.
The former president’s motorcade has just left his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida en route to Palm Beach international airport, where he will board his private jet to LaGuardia airport in New York.
A fleet of black secret service SUVs and other vehicles pulled out of the resort gates shortly after 12.15pm for the short ride to the airport. Trump himself was not visible behind the blacked out glass of the vehicles, as pockets of his supporters waved flags and shouted support towards the motorcade.
Trump is expected to land shortly after 3pm ET, and will likely head straight for his residence at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Tomorrow, he will surrender to authorities for his afternoon arraignment on a reported 30-34 charges that he attempted to cover-up a $130,000 payment to adult movie star Stormy Daniels immediately before the 2016 presidential election.
New York state supreme court judge Juan Merchan is expected to rule imminently on a motion filed by several media outlets, including CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post, for permission to broadcast Tuesday afternoon’s hearing.
They also want Merchan to unseal the indictment against Trump, details of which are as yet unclear, other than it contains more than 30 charges and reportedly at least one felony for falsifying documents relating to the pay-off.
In support of the motion, lawyers for the media outlets insist:
The right of access is at its zenith when applied to the first ever indictment of a former US president.
Lawyers for the former president, meanwhile, say they are expecting Merchan to issue a gag order Monday, or at his arraignment, on all parties in the case, after Trump maintained a furious tirade against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg over the weekend.
Such an order could substantially impact what Trump will have to say in comments he is scheduled to make from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday evening, immediately after returning from New York.
Updated
Joe Biden is planning on skipping the coronation of King Charles III in early May, following the tradition of US presidents not attending such occasions, the Guardian’s Gloria Oladipo writes.
In his stead, first lady Jill Biden is expected to lead the US delegation to attend the event, the Washington Post reported.
The president’s absence was rumored last month after an anonymous White House official told Time that the coronation did “not feel like an event Joe Biden will attend”.
Charles became king following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September.
Biden, along with other world leaders, attended her funeral – the first time a US leader had attend a British state funeral, according to the UK ambassador to the US.
It is not unusual for US presidents to skip the British coronation: no US leader has attended the ceremony. Elizabeth’s coronation, in 1953, was not attended by then president Dwight Eisenhower, although the US did send an appointed delegation.
Read more:
DeSantis signs permitless carry for Florida
Florida, number three in the nation for mass shootings, is now a permitless carry state for firearms after Republican governor Ron DeSantis signed the controversial measure into law on Monday.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis, renowned for showcasing his signing of other pieces of legislation at high-profile, stage-managed events with large numbers of supporters, chose to instead sign this one quietly at the state capitol, with fewer than two dozen present.
The only notification from the governor’s office was an email informing media that he had received the “public safety bill” from the state legislature and had until 10 April to sign it.
The law, which allows anybody over 18 to legally carry a concealed weapon, removes all permitting and training regulations. It was immediately condemned by gun control advocates.
I have said often @GovRonDeSantis is a fraud & weak. This morning without announcement, he signed permitless carry. He was afraid for Floridians to watch. Ron, your weakness won't make you less responsible. The inevitable next shooting because of this will be because of you.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 3, 2023
“He was afraid for Floridians to watch,” said a tweet from Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was among the victims of the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida.
“Ron, your weakness won’t make you less responsible. The inevitable next shooting because of this will be because of you.”
Democratic state senator Christine Hunschofsky, who was mayor of Parkland at the time of the shooting, was equally scathing. “Permitless carry does not make our communities safer and the bill is wildly unpopular in Florida, which is probably why it was signed quietly, behind closed doors, and with no fanfare,” she tweeted.
This morning our Governor quietly signed the permitless carry bill - effective 7/1/23. Permitless Carry does not make our communities safer and the bill is wildly unpopular in Florida which is probably why it was signed quietly, behind closed doors, and with no fanfare…
— Christine Hunschofsky (@CHunschofsky) April 3, 2023
Updated
We’re learning more about the intelligence collected by the Chinese spy balloon that infamously traversed the skies above the US before being shot down by a military jet in February.
It turns out the balloon gathered more information that originally believed, flying over some military bases on multiple occasions and sending the information back to Beijing in real time, NBC News reported on Monday.
The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani writes:
Its flight was closely tracked as it glided from Alaska to Montana, where the US Department of Defense stores some nuclear assets at the Malmstrom air force base. The balloon sped up as China tried to get it out of American airspace as quickly as possible.
[Joe] Biden’s administration played down the balloon’s capabilities at the time. But after it was shot down, the White House confirmed the vessel was carrying equipment capable of intercepting and geolocating communications.
Read the full story:
Donald Trump has the support of at least one world leader as he prepares to be arraigned on criminal charges, none other than Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.
The hard right politician is the only one we know of to publicly tweet his backing, telling Trump on Monday to “keep on fighting” and that “we are with you”.
Orbán does not specify who the “we” is.
Keep on fighting, Mr. President! We are with you, @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/EZFMYHDRzl
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) April 3, 2023
Updated
There’s movement in another of the criminal investigations hovering over Donald Trump. Fox News host Bret Baier said Monday he’d learned that “multiple secret service agents connected to [the] former president” have received subpoenas to testify Friday to a Washington DC grand jury.
The justice department, through independent special counsel Jack Smith, is investigating Trump in two areas: his efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, including the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection; and his improper handling and storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving office.
FOX News is told multiple U.S. Secret Service agents connected to Former President Donald Trump have been subpoenaed & are expected to testify before the D.C. grand jury likely on Friday. The grand jury appearances are related to the Special Counsel Jack Smith probe into the…
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) April 3, 2023
Baier says the latest subpoenas are related to the documents inquiry.
The Washington Post reported Monday that the justice department had obtained more evidence that Trump obstructed the investigation, even after receiving a subpoena to return any documents immediately.
“Investigators now suspect, based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence, that boxes including classified material were moved from a Mar-a-Lago storage area after the subpoena was served, and that Trump personally examined at least some of those boxes,” the Post reported.
In keeping with long-standing tradition, the justice department would not comment on the report.
Lawyers for the former president insist the investigation is a “witch hunt”.
Updated
Donald Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba has made a prickly appearance on CNN’s This Morning, insisting that a mugshot of her boss, something usually required of all defendants when they are arraigned in New York state court, would be merely “theatrics”.
Habba told host Don Lemon:
Mugshots are for people so that you recognize who they are. He’s the most recognized face in the world, let alone the country, right now, so there’s no need for that.
There was, CNN reported Monday, still uncertainty about whether Trump would be photographed. The network said there were fears that such an image would be leaked.
Habba accused Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, without evidence, of leaking details of the indictment to the media, calling it “30 to 34 counts of garbage”.
Bragg, she said, was “a woke DA who’s now bringing a misdemeanor, stacking it, and trying to make it a felony.”.
Things turned more hostile when Lemon challenged Habba’s assertion that she was only looking for tax documents when she allegedly rifled through classified papers allegedly stashed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida:
I’m not in a deposition right now and I’m not going to continue this conversation.
Updated
Poll: Majority of Americans approve of Trump indictment
Six of 10 Americans say they approve of the indictment of Donald Trump for covering up a pay-off to a porn star, according to a CNN poll published Monday.
Contrasting the former president’s assertion of widespread anger and outrage, 60% say they agree with the decision by a Manhattan grand jury to bring charges.
Six in 10 approve of the indictment of Trump, a CNN poll finds, but most Americans say politics played at least some role in it, a CNN poll findshttps://t.co/QktM07rxJD
— CNN (@CNN) April 3, 2023
Democrats, unsurprisingly, are the biggest supporters, 94% approving, including 71% who say they “strongly approve”. Republicans have a 79% disapproval rate, with 54% “strongly disapproving”. Independents were 62% in favor.
Still, three-quarters of Americans say politics played at least some role in the decision to indict Trump, including 52% who said it played a major role, CNN found.
You can read the full poll here.
Source: lunchtime departure for Trump flight
Donald Trump is expected to fly to New York around noon today, according to sources in Florida, ahead of his historic arraignment tomorrow on charges of covering up a hush money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
As the former president packs his overnight case this morning at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, there’s a lot swirling both inside and outside the Manhattan courtroom.
New York state supreme court judge Juan Merchan is expected to rule imminently on a motion filed by several media outlets, including CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post, for permission to broadcast Tuesday afternoon’s hearing.
They also want Merchan to unseal the indictment against Trump, details of which are as yet unclear, other than it contains more than 30 charges and reportedly at least one felony for falsifying documents relating to the pay-off.
In support of the motion, lawyers for the media outlets insist:
The right of access is at its zenith when applied to the first ever indictment of a former US president.
Lawyers for the former president, meanwhile, say they are expecting Merchan to issue a gag order Monday, or at his arraignment, on all parties in the case, after Trump maintained a furious tirade against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg over the weekend.
Such an order could substantially impact what Trump will have to say in comments he is scheduled to make from Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday evening, immediately after returning from New York.
As for today, Trump’s flight is expected to leave Palm Beach international airport at midday, and arrive at LaGuardia airport in New York about 3pm, reports said. He will spend the night at his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan.
While we await further developments, take a read of my colleague Hugo Lowell’s account here of the ex-president’s plans to stay on offense:
Updated
Good morning and happy Monday to all our politics blog readers. Reporters are on the ground at Palm Beach international airport, Florida, from where Donald Trump is expected to fly to New York later today for Tuesday’s state court arraignment for covering up a hush money payment to an adult movie star.
It’s a historic occasion any way you shake it. No sitting or past president has ever been indicted on any criminal charges, and this case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg is only one of four investigations under way into the twice-impeached former commander-in-chief.
Good morning from Palm Beach International Airport.
— Greg Angel (@NewsGuyGreg) April 3, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is expected to depart PBI around lunch time ahead of a Tuesday court hearing.
Live Updates: https://t.co/QadIN5MvwS pic.twitter.com/6N25BgpeJg
Trump had, according to contrasting reports, either a “calm weekend” playing golf at his Trump International golf course in Florida, or a couple of days furiously bashing out rage-filled invective on social media while promising in expletive-laden rants to escalate his attacks on Bragg.
Much more of that to come today, please stick with us.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
Joe Biden continues his Invest in America tour in Minnesota’s Hennepin county, where he will deliver remarks this afternoon praising his economic agenda for strong jobs growth, a surge in manufacturing and clean energy.
There’s no formal White House media briefing, but principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton will “gaggle” with reporters at lunchtime aboard Air Force One en route to Minnesota.
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson has thrown his hat into the ring for the Republican party’s 2024 election, hoping to cash in on Trump’s legal troubles and offering himself to moderate voters as a more palatable alternative.
It’s quieter in Washington DC, where Congress has begun its two-week Easter recess.
Updated
