This blog is now closed. You can read our full story on Trump’s arraignment – and the aftermath – here.
Summary
We’ll be closing this blog shortly. Here is a summary of today’s events so far:
Donald Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a historic case over allegations he orchestrated hush-money payments to two women before the 2016 US election to suppress publication of their alleged sexual encounters with him. Prosecutors in Manhattan accused Trump, the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges, of trying to conceal a violation of election laws during his successful 2016 campaign. The two women in the case are adult film actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges. The frontrunner in the race for the Republican nomination in 2024, Trump was subdued, responding briefly when the judge asked him if he understood his rights. At one point, the judge put his hand to his ear as if to prompt an answer. Trump made no comment when he left court just under an hour later.
Trump flew home to Florida where he addressed family, friends and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, delivering a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference.
Prosecutor Chris Conroy said: “The defendant Donald J Trump falsified New York business records in order to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and other violations of election laws.” While falsifying business records in New York on its own is a misdemeanour punishable by no more than one year in prison, it is elevated to a felony punishable by up to four years when done to advance or conceal another crime, such as election law violations.
Attorney general Alvin Bragg defended the charges in a press conference after the arraignment. “We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law. No amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring American principle,” Bragg said.
“We’re going to fight it hard,” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters after the arraignment. He said that while Trump was frustrated, upset and angry about the charges, “ … he’s motivated. And it’s not going to stop him. And it’s not going to slow him down. And it’s exactly what he expected.”
Justice Juan Merchan, the judge assigned to Trump’s case, did not impose a gag order but warned Trump to avoid making comments that were inflammatory or could cause civil unrest. Prosecutors said Trump made a series of social media posts, including one threatening “death and destruction” if he was charged. If convicted of any one of the 34 felony charges, Trump could face a maximum of four years in prison.
The judge set the next hearing for 4 December. Legal experts said a trial may not even get under way for a year. An indictment or conviction will not legally prevent Trump from running for president.
Trump’s mugshot was not taken, according to two law enforcement officials, though the Trump camp did create their own one to put on a T-shirt as part of a fundraising effort.
In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, argues that every indictment will make Trump stronger:
The indictment of Donald J Trump has not driven a wooden stake through his heart. He has risen, omnipresent and ominous again, overwhelming his rivals, their voices joined into his choir, like the singing January 6 prisoners, proclaiming the wickedness of his prosecution. As he enters the criminal courthouse to pose for his mugshot and to give his fingerprints, evangelicals venerate him as the adulterous King David or the martyred Christ.
Trump does not have to raise his hand to signal to the House Republicans to echo his cry of “WITCH-HUNT”. He owns the House like he owns a hotel.
…
From the report of every new indictment to its reality, Republican radicalization will accelerate. Every concrete count will confirm every conspiracy theory. Every prosecution and trial, staggered over months and into the election year, from New York to Georgia to Washington, will be a shock driving Republicans further to Trump. Every Republican candidate running for every office will be compelled to declare as a matter of faith that Trump is being unjustly persecuted or be themselves branded traitors.
Politico has painted a picture of the atmosphere at Mar-a-Lago, with a telling comment from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Allies, aides, club members and the press were packed into the gilded ballroom of Mar-a-Lago, waiting for former President Donald Trump to arrive… In the ballroom at the Florida estate, there was no sense of sobriety in the air. It felt, instead, like a Maga movie set.
The room was lit up with bright spotlights for the cameras. And as the assembled guests waited for the man of the hour to arrive, the setting took on the feel of a catwalk for Trump world’s upper crust. Family, staff and top surrogates walked in smiling and waving.
…
Tuesday, in a way, was like a campaign relaunch, still grievance-filled but with Trump world feeling that they are in a better position. The polling that just months ago was used as evidence of his failure to rally the base has dramatically shifted, now showing the former president with leads upward of 20 percentage points over DeSantis. It underscored the central paradox of Trump’s political career: His standing benefits from the crises he endures.
“We’re back to all Trump all the time,” said former House Speaker and past presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. “Nothing makes him happier.”
Updated
Here’s a video report on Trump’s speech in Florida earlier, during which he delivered a litany of grievances against investigators, prosecutors and rival politicians. He falsely described the New York prosecution as election interference:
I’m just cutting away from the indictment for a moment to the results in Wisconsin, where a Democratic-backed Milwaukee judge has won the high stakes supreme court Race, ensuring liberals will take over majority control of the court for the first time in 15 years with the fate of the state’s abortion ban pending.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated former Justice Dan Kelly, who previously worked for Republicans and had support from the state’s leading anti-abortion groups.
The new court controlled 4-3 by liberals is expected to decide a pending lawsuit challenging the state’s 1849 law banning abortion. Protasiewicz made the issue a focus of her campaign and won the support of Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups.
Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. Trump turned to the courts in 2020 in his unsuccessful push to overturn his roughly 21,000-vote loss in the state.
Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, largely focused her campaign around abortion, saying she supports abortion rights but stopping short of saying how she would rule on a pending lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s 174-year-old ban that was enacted a year after statehood.
With that, let’s take a look at the day’s newspaper front pages with my colleague Jonathan Yerushalmy.
The Guardian says, “Trump pleads not guilty to 34 charges in hush-money case”, with the paper highlighting the judge’s order that the former president refrain from rhetoric that could cause civil unrest.
Guardian front page, Wednesday 5 April 2023: Trump pleads not guilty to 34 charges in hush-money case pic.twitter.com/FB8GRnC5Fn
— The Guardian (@guardian) April 4, 2023
Time magazine gained a reputation for producing iconic covers throughout the Trump presidency, and they hit the mark again on Wednesday, with the simple headline: “Unprecedented”.
TIME's new cover: Unprecedented https://t.co/s4uRgTntCp pic.twitter.com/x5wybdYFjH
— TIME (@TIME) April 4, 2023
The Times splashes with, “Trump in the dock”. The paper’s US correspondents describe how a “stony-faced Trump was released from custody after an hour-long arraignment hearing ahead of a trial likely to take place next year”.
Wednesday's Times: Trump in the dock #TomorrowsPapersToday #TheTimes #Times pic.twitter.com/LQhwo2SLEP
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) April 4, 2023
“Trump in the eye of the Stormy”, is the Mirror’s headline. The paper goes on to say that, “Finally… ex-President charged over ‘hush-money’ payments to porn star”.
Wednesday's Mirror: Trump In The Eye Of The Stormy #TomorrowsPapersToday #DailyMirror #Mirror pic.twitter.com/uieMhukdA6
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) April 4, 2023
You can read the full roundup here:
So, how was Trump’s arraignment covered in the US media – and have any lessons been learned since 2016? The AP’s David Bauder has taken a look:
“It’s hard to over-dramatize what this means for Donald Trump,” MSNBC’s Chris Jansing said today.
Oh, but many tried.
Hour after hour today, the story occupied the full attention of broadcast and cable news networks. They waited for glimpses of Trump’s face to interpret his expression, followed his motorcade’s movements from the air, speculated on how it must feel to be arrested.
On Monday, Trump’s travels from Florida to New York led cable news networks to revisit the worst of earlier excesses. Throughout the day, aerial camera shots followed Trump’s plane as it took off from Florida and landed in New York, and as his motorcade traveled to Trump Tower in Manhattan – the backdrop to hours of speculation about the case.
At one point, Trump’s son Eric posted on social media a picture of a television set inside the plane showing a Fox News Channel picture of the plane waiting on a Florida tarmac. “Watching the plane … from the plane,” he said.
New York state supreme court Judge Juan Merchan declined media requests for video coverage of the hearing where Trump heard the charges against him and pleaded not guilty. That led to constant, mostly empty talk about what might happen.
Will Trump’s motorcade to the court take Fifth Avenue or the FDR Drive? (The latter.) Will a mug shot of Trump be taken and released? (No.) Would the former president speak to the media before he goes into the court? (No.) After the hearing is done? (Also no.)
His walk out the door was judged “five seconds of history” by ABC’s David Muir. Those views of Trump, along with still pictures of him during the arraignment, turned political and legal commentators into facial-expression and body-language experts.
Romney: 'prosecutor has stretched...to fit a political agenda'
Mitt Romney, the former presidential nominee, who as a Utah senator was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in both his impeachment trials, has criticised the Manhattan district attorney’s office for its handling of the hush money case in which the former president pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said in a statement, as Trump was arraigned.
“Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
“No one is above the law, not even former presidents, but everyone is entitled to equal treatment under the law. The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”
There are thorny legal issues raised by Trump’s indictment.
“The bottom line is that it’s murky,” Richard Hasen, an expert in election law and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles law school told the Associated Press. “And the district attorney did not offer a detailed legal analysis as to how they can do this, how they can get around these potential hurdles. And it could potentially tie up the case for a long time.”
“There are an awful lot of dots here which it takes a bit of imagination to connect,” said Richard Klein, a Touro Law Center criminal law professor. Bragg said the indictment doesn’t specify the potential underlying crimes because the law doesn’t require it. But given the likelihood of Trump’s lawyers challenging it, “you’d think they’d want to be on much firmer ground than some of this stuff,” said Klein, a former New York City public defender.
Hasen said it’s not clear whether candidates for federal office can be prosecuted in cases involving state election laws. The defense may also argue the case can’t be brought in state court if it involves a federal election law.
While the prosecution’s theory is certainly unusual, it’s not unwinnable, some experts said.
Bragg is “going to bring in witnesses, he’s going to show a lot of documentary evidence to attempt to demonstrate that all these payments were in furtherance of the presidential campaign,” said Jerry H. Goldfeder, a veteran election lawyer in New York and the director of Fordham Law School’s Voting Rights and Democracy Project.
“It remains to be seen if he can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” Goldfeder said. But, he added, “Do not underestimate District Attorney Alvin Bragg and do not overestimate Mr. Trump.”
Updated
On Fox, Laura Ingraham is running a segment on the decision by MSNBC to not broadcast Trump’s remarks in Florida.
They’re embarrassed by the “flimsy” indictment and knew Trump would “use his comments to tell the truth,” she says.
Hi, my name is Helen Sullivan and I’m taking over our live coverage of this historic day from my formidable colleague Maanvi Singh.
If you have questions, comments, or would like to get in touch you can find me on Twitter.
Updated
Today so far
After Donald Trump surrendered to authorities and New York and pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying business records, he delivered a brief, grievance-laden speech from his his Florida residence.
Trump became the first American president to face criminal charges. Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said the ex-president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying documents “with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime” adding that “these are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are”.
Trump’s court appearance, during which he was finger-printed, but not cuffed, came five days after a New York grand jury voted to indict him, based on a years-long investigation.
The charges are focused on payments Trump made to hide an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, as well as hush money deals with Playboy model Karen McDougal and a former Trump Tower doorman. The district attorney’s office has accused Trump of having “orchestrated a scheme” with the intent “to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects”.
Separately, Trump faces a criminal investigation into his role during the January 6 insurrection and his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office. He is also facing an investigation into efforts to overturn the elections in Georgia. The New York state attorney general has sued Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization over financial wrong doing. He is also facing a defamation suit arising from allegations of rape.
In a rambling speech, Trump collapsed long-held grievances with complaints about the several investigations he is facing, focused especially on the classified documents case. He repeated falsehoods about the nature of the accusations he is facing, and personally attacked the prosecutors and investigators leading the cases.
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The president only spoke for about 25 minutes – which was much shorter than his standard. But otherwise, the remarks had many elements of his standard rally stump speech.
I’m signing off, but my colleagues in Australia will continue to bring you updates and analysis.
– Maanvi Singh
Updated
Fact check: Judge in hush money case
Trump called justice Juan Merchan a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife whose daughter worked for Kamala Harris”.
Merchan’s daughter is president of Authentic, an agency that has worked with the campaigns of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris , Cory Booker and other Democrats. But that is not a conflict of interest for the justice, or grounds for a recusal by judicial ethics standards.
Updated
Fact check: Classified documents
During the speech, Trump also claimed that the Presidential Records Act involves a negotiation with the National Archives and Records Administration over documents, which is false. In fact, Nara gets custody of presidential documents the moment he leaves office.
Trump was joined tonight by his children Don Jr, Eric and Tiffany, as well as supporters including Roger Stone, Mike Lindell, far-right representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
Missing tonight were Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, who has distanced herself from her father after working for his administration, and Melania Trump.
Media outlets cut away from Trump's speech or avoid altogether
CNN cut away from its live coverage of Trump’s speech as the former president continued to rail against the charges against him.
Meanwhile, MSNBC opted not to broadcast Trump’s remarks at all. Instead, host Rachel Maddow said the outlet would monitor his remarks for any news rather than cover them in full.
“This is basically a campaign speech in which he is repeating his same lies and allegations against his perceived enemies,” Maddow said. “He’s just giving his normal list of grievances. We don’t consider that necessarily newsworthy and there is a cost to us as a news organization of knowingly broadcasting untrue things.”
"We're not takin' it." Here's Rachel Maddow explaining how MSNBC is not broadcasting Donald Trump live but monitoring his speech for newsworthiness, should there be any. pic.twitter.com/tFrtHhXdbD
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) April 5, 2023
NPR also did not air Trump’s speech live.
On a day of wall-to-wall Trump coverage, @NPR is taking a different approach. Yes, we'll cover the news. Yes, we have reporters at the courthouse & Trump Tower. But we're covering lots of other news too, and we will not air Trump's speech live. Here's why: https://t.co/HengUR6kCg https://t.co/WgPLcupxVA
— Mary Louise Kelly (@NPRKelly) April 4, 2023
Updated
Fact-check: classified documents
Donald Trump has repeatedly misconstrued the investigation into his possession of classified documents, comparing what he did to what his predecessors did.
Trump took classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, whereas former president Barack Obama turned over documents, according to the National Archives and Records Administration itself. In the cases of other former presidents, the Nara moved documents out of DC to other facilities.
Updated
The ex-president finished up abruptly, after speaking for about 25 minutes
After listing off a number of grievances, attacking those involved in the multiple investigations and criminal cases against him, and rambling a number of of-repeated falsehoods about the 2020 elections, he walked off stage.
The speech was in many ways a standard performance, but shorter.
Updated
Fact-check: Hunter Biden’s ‘laptop from hell’
Donald Trump began his remarks at Mar-a-Lago by quickly bringing up “Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell, which the former president falsely claimed exposes the Biden family as “criminals”.
Conservatives have latched on to the story about the laptop since it was reportedly left by Hunter in a computer repair shop in 2020, and argue it contains data somehow proving corruption on the part of Joe Biden and his relatives. Data on the laptop, which analysts and news media examined extensively, showed that Hunter tried to use his family name to his advantage, but did not show corruption on the part of Joe Biden.
Updated
Trump finally addressed the indictment … briefly
He attacked Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, and his family, bringing up Bragg’s wife’s tweets. He also attacked the judge assigned to the case, calling him a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family”.
Trump did not, however, deny paying Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal hush money to cover up an extramarital affair.
Updated
So far, this has been a version of the classic Trump stump speech – rambling, repetitive, and bereft of fact.
The ex-president has started off by listing a number of unrelated political grievances, referring back to his first impeachment and issues with social media companies, and lobbed accusations against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
He reiterated antisemitic rhetoric to discredit the Manhattan district attorney, denied the charges, then launched into a rambling, heavily embellished rant on the unrelated investigation into the top-secret documents found at Mar-a-Lago, then started on the civil fraud suit brought by the New York state attorney general.
The speech blurs distinctions between the investigations and court battles he is facing ahead, lumping them all into a singular enemy.
Updated
Donald Trump takes stage
Trump walked on as Proud to be an American played. The former president will be making his first public remarks since getting charged with crimes.
The atmosphere in the room is that of a classic Trump political rally.
Updated
New role for Trump as TV host turned president reboots as The Defendant
He hosted The Apprentice. He played The President. Now, at the age of 76, came the role that Donald Trump had spent his life avoiding: The Defendant.
On Tuesday, a single photograph showed Trump sitting in a prosaic New York courtroom with two lawyers to his left and two more to his right. Behind him were two uniformed police officers wearing handcuffs on their belts. One had a police radio on his shoulder, the other a Covid-protective mask over her face.
Two grey, ordinary notice boards adorned the plain wood wall. A small Stars and Stripes was pinned to one at an oblique angle. But perhaps most striking about the image was that, while everyone else was engaged in the moment, Trump stared back at the camera with an ambiguous expression.
For his millions of critics in blue America, this was the face of a criminal defendant at his moment of reckoning. It was the final fall for a man who used to walk with kings, command the world’s most powerful military and casually threaten political opponents such as Hillary Clinton with jail.
But his millions of fans in red America will have seen something else. America’s faith in law enforcement is matched only by its romance with glamorous criminals such as Bonnie and Clyde or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This was the day of The Outlaw Donald Trump.
Its neat symbol came in the form of a characteristically fake image. About half an hour before Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over a hush money payments to two women, his campaign sent out a fundraising email selling T-shirts with a mocked-up mugshot of Trump and the legend: “Not guilty.” (In reality, no mugshot was taken.)
It was a typically audacious move that said everything about how, while this was a hideous day for Trump legally, it was seen by many as a victorious day for him politically and financially.
Read more:
Trump has landed in Florida.
He was greeted by supporters including Mike Lindell, the MyPillow owner and prominent disseminator of election misinformation.
Many of the ex-president’s greeters were dressed in American flag colors and some were holding Trump 2024 signs.
At Mar-A-Lago, where Trump is expected to speak soon, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake was among the well-known followers awaiting him.
Updated
The charges, explained
Hugo Lowell in New York and Lauren Gambino in Washington report:
In a 13-page statement of facts, the Manhattan district attorney’s office accused Trump of having “orchestrated a scheme” with the intent “to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects”.
The charges, according to the felony indictment unsealed on Tuesday, stem from payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, as well as hush money deals made with Playboy model Karen McDougal, who wanted to sell her story of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, and a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock.
Trump has denied the sexual encounters and any wrongdoing, casting himself as the victim of a political “witch-hunt”.
“We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law,” Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said at his press conference after Trump’s arraignment. “No amount of money, no amount of power changes that enduring American principle.”
Facing scrutiny over his decision to pursue the case, Bragg forcefully defended the case. He argued that falsifying business records was the “bread and butter” of his office’s white-collar investigations and that “true and accurate business records” were all the more important in Manhattan, which he called the “financial capital of the world”.
According to prosecutors, Daniels was paid $130,000 by Trump’s then lawyer Michael Cohen to buy her silence in the final days of the presidential campaign. Cohen said the payments were made at the direction of Trump, who reimbursed him while serving as president. Those payments, distributed to Cohen through Trump’s company, were falsely classified as legal expenses, prosecutors say.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to federal crimes involving the hush money payment and was sentenced to three years in prison, which Trump’s legal team has used to undermine his credibility.
Separately, prosecutors say, the parent company of the National Enquirer, American Media Inc, arranged two “catch and kill” deals to squash stories that could potentially damage Trump’s electoral prospects. One involved a $30,000 payoff to the former Trump Tower doorman. The tabloid reached a $150,000 agreement with McDougal, purchasing the rights to her story in an effort to keep it from going public.
The prosecutors doubled down on the timing of Trump’s actions, which they said could have undermined his campaign during the 2016 election. And they asked for protective orders for discovery materials, including Trump’s escalatory posts on his platform Truth Social, such as when he vowed “death and destruction” in the event he was indicted.
Read more:
Updated
In New York, Trump got an underwhelming show of support.
Hundreds of pro- and anti-Trump protesters had gathered outside the Manhattan criminal court, and the crowds were expected to go wild as the former president arrived and was taken into the custody.
But in the event, few knew Donald Trump had arrived until he was already in the building and under arrest.
It made for a slightly underwhelming scene as the two opposing crowds – separated by metal barriers – were filled with whispers, rather than chants.
Snippets of information were passed from person to person at about 1.30pm. A Trump-supporting woman reported that her boss’s friend, who manages a restaurant in New Jersey, believed the ex-president had arrived and was in court.
But another woman had a CNN live stream on her phone which showed Trump’s car was still en route to the court. It turned out the screen had frozen, however, and eventually a general consensus emerged: Trump was in court, and had been arraigned on more than 30 charges relating to hush money payments to an adult film star.
The anti-Trump protesters, many of whom had had been dancing, singing and chanting since about 9.30am that morning, let out a loud cheer. Someone had been giving out whistles, and they were blown in jubilation.
“Lock him up!” – a play on the chant that Trump supporters aimed at Hillary Clinton through the 2016 election and beyond – could be heard around Collect Pond Park, a former open sewer where the public had been contained by police.
On the Trump side of the barricade, the mood was quiet. No one wailed, no one fell to their knees, there was just a low murmur as mumbles and expletives were uttered from underneath a sea of red Maga hats.
They had been more animated in the morning, although the centerpiece of the protest – an appearance by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon-dabbling, hard-right Republican conspiracy theorist – had descended into farce almost immediately.
Some anti-Trumpers had infiltrated the Trump side, and launched a highly successful attempt to silence the Georgia congresswoman. Greene, escorted by security, was armed with a megaphone, but she could be barely be heard above the sound of whistling and shouting. From about 10 yards away it was possible to make out the words “Alvin Bragg”, the name of the Manhattan district attorney who has brought the case against Trump, but the rest was just noise.
Read more:
Trump to make first public comments after arraignment
Donald Trump is expected to make his first public remarks after his arraignment earlier today in New York this evening from his home in Florida.
This is the first time in US history that a former president has been charged with a crime. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records and conspiracy.
After entering his plea, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that there was “no case” against him, and “there was nothing done illegally”. He is expected to reiterate that message in his speech tonight.
Already, Trump has used his arraignment as an opportunity to rile up supporters and raise funds, calling on followers to “PROTEST” his arrest and launching threatening, racist attacks against Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who is overseeing the case.
Bragg has charged Trump with crimes primarily connected to a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. But Bragg’s prosecutors have also accused Trump of undermining the integrity of the 2016 elections by orchestrating a scheme to purchase and suppress negative stories.
The former president’s journey to and from New York to face the charges and enter his plea has been closely tracked by a media circus, which the president has played into.
Although Trump was fingerprinted while in custody, like any other defendant, he was not handcuffed, nor did he have his mugshot taken. Still, his campaign team is selling $36 T-shirts with a fake booking photo (one that embellishes his height by two inches and his face with a soft-focus halo).
The Guardian will be monitoring and fact-checking Trump’s speech here on the liveblog.
