Donald Trump will appear in court on Tuesday

Donald Trump will appear in court on Tuesday

ALL IN ONE

Mon, April 03, 2023

Donald Trump is due to appear in court next week and be fingerprinted, becoming the first former US president to face criminal charges related to a 2016 hush-hush payment to actress Stormi Daniels.

Trump will appear before a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday. A hearing in the case could fuel further divisions in the United States as he seeks to regain the presidency from the Republican Party.

A New York judge on Friday authorized the indictment of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, but it was unclear when specific legal charges would be made public.

Trump plans to fly to New York from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday and spend the night at Trump Tower before appearing in court on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. He also said he plans to return to Florida later.

"He will plead not guilty," Trump lawyer Susan Necheles told Reuters. He said he did not expect the charges to be made public until Tuesday.

"I'm not afraid of what's coming," Trump wrote in a fundraising email Friday.

Trump has spent nearly two weeks campaigning and raising funds for the various legal problems he faces as he seeks the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in a rematch in next year's election. Trump raised more than $4 million in the 24 hours after news of his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, his campaign said.

Trump is also the first American president who, refusing to accept election defeat, instigated a group of people to occupy the US Congress building in 2021. Despite the lawsuit, he has signaled that he will continue to run as a Republican.

On Friday, President Joe Biden told reporters about the indictment of his political rival: "I'm not going to say anything about Trump being indicted."

After news of the indictment broke Thursday, Trump called himself "absolutely innocent" and a victim of political oppression.

Another of Trump's lawyers, Joseph Tacopina, said Trump would not need to be in handcuffs in court and would likely be released without bail.

It is unclear how many separate charges are included in the indictment, but CNN reports that Trump faces more than 30 counts related to economic fraud and at least one felony, according to the Associated Press.

Any hearing is likely to take at least a year, legal experts said. This means that the court hearing could take place during or after the presidential election.