Donald Trump has been charged and is expected to be arrested within the coming days in a historic moment as the first-ever former US President to have been indicted - but what happens next?
He will be taken through the typical practice of being mugshot and fingerprinted, however, the constitution doesn't bar him from running for US President in 2024, even if he is convicted.
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on Thursday, but the exact charges have not been released as of yet. Sources have claimed that he faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
It comes after an investigation into payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with porn stars, including Stormy Daniels.
Trump also faces the possibility of additional charges soon in Atlanta and Washington, as part of numerous other ongoing investigations.
He is expected to appear before the court on Tuesday next week, after being indicted with more than 30 counts related to business fraud by a Manhattan grand jury, CNN reported, quoting two sources familiar with the case.
His attorney Joseph Tacopina told Fox: “We now heard 34 counts, and I guarantee you it’s going to be 34 counts when we find out next week.”
But the actual arrest could be delayed or obstructed, as Florida governor Ron DeSantis has said that, "Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda."
In a statement confirming the charges, Trump's defence lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said he “did not commit any crime" and vowed to "vigorously fight this political prosecution in court".
Mr Tacopina said Trump is “likely” to turn himself in on Tuesday next week and said that he will not be handcuffed. “We’re working out those logistics right now,” he told NBC, adding “he's not gonna hole up in Mar-a-Lago.”
Tacopina insisted that Trump would not take a plea deal: “There's no crime.”
This is the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges, but it is not expected to stop Trump from carrying on his presidential campaign.
If anything, it could boost his performance at next year's elections, as he will use the prosecution in his communication strategy, experts have claimed.
"It’s simultaneously embarrassing, but also makes him something of a martyr," Saikrishna Prakash, a distinguished constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia Law School told TIME.
A mugshot of Trump could even become his campaign poster, Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, said on Newsmax, confirming: "He will be mugshot and fingerprinted. There’s really no way around that."
Under the US constitution, all natural-born citizens who are at least 35 years old and have been a resident of the US for 14 years can run for president.
There is no legal impediment to Trump continuing his presidential campaign while facing criminal charges—even if he were jailed, legal experts say.
Richard Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA Law School explained: "There is no constitutional bar on a felon running for office."
He added: "And given that the US Constitution sets presidential qualifications, it is not clear that states could add to them, such as by barring felons from running for office."
However, any New York defendant, poor or powerful, answering criminal charges means being fingerprinted and photographed, fielding basic questions such as name and birthdate, and getting arraigned.
Defendants are typically detained for at least several hours, even though the historic indictment of Trump thrust the legal system into uncharted territory.
While the indictment might galvanize his supporters, the turmoil could threaten the Republicans' standing in the very swing-state suburbs that have abandoned the party in three successive elections, eroding the party's grip on the White House, Congress and key governorships.
Trump has spent four decades managing to skirt this type of legal jeopardy and expressed confidence again late Thursday, blaming the charges on “Thugs and Radical Left Monsters.”
“THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
Trump's campaign and his allies have long hoped an indictment would serve as a rallying cry for his supporters, angering his “Make America Great Again” base, drawing small-dollar donations and forcing Trump's potential rivals into the awkward position of having to defend him — or risk their wrath.
Indeed, Trump’s campaign began fundraising off the news almost immediately after it broke, firing an email to supporters with the all-caps subject line “BREAKING: PRESIDENT TRUMP INDICTED.”
Trump, meanwhile, has tried to turn the public against the case.
Early on March 18, amid reports that police in New York were preparing for a possible indictment, he fired off a message on his social media site in which he declared that he expected to be arrested within days.
While that never came to pass (and his aides made clear it had not been based on any inside information), Trump used the time to highlight the case's widely-discussed weaknesses and to attack Bragg with a barrage of deeply personal, and at times racist, attacks.
Last weekend, Trump held a rally in Waco, Texas, where he railed against the case in front of thousands of supporters.
Beyond the Manhattan case, Trump is facing several other investigations, including a Georgia inquiry into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and a federal probe into his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
It remains unclear how the public might respond if Trump ends up facing charges in additional cases, particularly if some lead to convictions and others are dismissed.
