By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Mike Hayes, Tori B. Powell, Kaanita Iyer, Amir Vera and Maureen Chowdhury, CNN
From CNN's Kristen Holmes
Donald Trump posted his reaction to his Tuesday arraignment on Truth Social, promoting his expected 8:15 p.m. ET remarks.
“The hearing was shocking to many in that they had no ‘surprises,’ and therefore, no case. Virtually every legal pundit has said that there is no case here. There was nothing done illegally!” Trump's post read.
From CNN's Amir Vera
Cyrus Vance Jr., former Manhattan district attorney, told CNN's Erin Burnett he thought the 34-count indictment against former President Donald Trump was "actually quite detailed."
"It has quite a bit of detail about the history and laid out the facts underlying, then the various counts that are listed. So I thought that the indictment provided more detail than perhaps other expected,” Vance said.
The counts in an indictment are always fairly bare bones, Vance said, but the preparatory language before the counts that outlines the schemes is used to educate the public on the background of the facts.
Vance initially opened up the investigation against Trump around 2017, but did not bring charges. He told Burnett he was asked by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to stand down because the two offices had simultaneous investigations on Trump.
From CNN's Ray Sanchez
Newlyweds Carlos Giraldo and his bride Galina Rusnak stepped out from the New York City Marriage Bureau onto Worth Street in Manhattan, scaffolding shielding them from the sun Tuesday afternoon.
Just a few dozen feet from them, crowds of people holding up cell phone cameras and members of the media stood behind police barricades for the departure of the motorcade taking America’s 45th president away from his historic criminal arraignment.
"We thought everyone was here for us," joked Giraldo, 41, the president of a real estate firm in Philadelphia.
As supporters of former President Donald Trump exchanged insults with anti-Trump demonstrators – separated by police — Giraldo noted there was none of that rancor inside the municipal marriage bureau.
"Love was in the air. It did not feel like that inside," he said.
Giraldo and his 36-year-old bride posed for a few pictures moments before Trump left the courthouse around the corner after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The former president heard the charges against him stemming from a hush money payment to an adult film actress in 2016.
"It’s our special day," said Giraldo, who is registered as an independent voter. "And it’s important that the system that we live under works."
From CNN's Manu Raju and Morgan Rimmer
Several lawmakers, both allies and critics of Donald Trump, have issued statements following the former president's arraignment Tuesday.
Trump personally pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree after hearing charges against him stemming from a hush money payment to an adult film actress in 2016.
Here's how lawmakers are reacting:
GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, a sharp Trump critic, criticized what he called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s overreach, and said it sets a "dangerous precedent."
"I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office," Romney said in a statement. "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."
House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik, a key Trump ally, called Trump's arrest “shameful,” adding that it would help him in his bid for the White House.
“President Trump continues to skyrocket in the polls, and just like with the Russia hoax and both sham impeachments, President Trump will defeat the latest witch-hunt, defeat Joe Biden, and will be sworn in as President of the United States in January 2025,” she said in a statement.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan tweeted, “equal justice under the law, unless you’re a Republican running for president,” after Trump was arraigned.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise retweeted Jordan’s post.
Trump ally Sen. Marsha Blackburn accused Bragg of being politically motivated in his investigation in a number of tweets today. In one tweet, Blackburn called Bragg a “radical left-wing activist abusing his power in an attempt to help Biden remain in office.”
GOP Sen. JD Vance tweeted that “Bragg’s entire career is about normalizing violent crime. Just crazy that he’s bringing this weak case in the middle of a presidential election.” The Ohio senator, who was once a Trump critic, has embraced Trump and already endorsed him in the 2024 presidential race.
GOP Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is weighing a 2024 presidential run, slammed Bragg ahead of the indictment, saying that he “doesn’t prosecute criminals, yet weaponizes the law against his political enemies.”
From CNN's Manu Raju
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of seeking to interfere in the elections and said Congress will hold him accountable.
“Alvin Bragg is attempting to interfere in our democratic process by invoking federal law to bring politicized charges against President Trump, admittedly using federal funds, while at the same time arguing that the peoples’ representatives in Congress lack jurisdiction to investigate this farce. Not so. Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress,” McCarthy tweeted.
There has been no response from the top two Senate Republican leaders, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
From CNN's Lauren del Valle
Prosecutors said they unsealed the indictment against former President Donald Trump and gave a copy of it, along with the statement of facts, to Trump's counsel around 1:30 p.m. ET when the former president arrived at the beginning of the arraignment.
Prosecutors said Trump was also fingerprinted at that time. The defense was given a copy of Trump's fingerprint sheet during the proceeding.
From CNN's Celina Tebor
Former president Donald Trump personally signed checks to his former fixer Michael Cohen for nine months, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Tuesday.
“For nine straight months, the defendant held documents in his hand containing this key lie – that he was paying Michael Cohen for legal services performed in 2017," Bragg said Tuesday.
The grand jury found 34 documents that had this “critical false statement,” according to Bragg.
He said “the evidence will show” Trump made these false statements "to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.”
Analysis from CNN's Elie Honig
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg touched on why his office moved forward with the indictment of former President Donald Trump for falsifying business records during a news conference Tuesday.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig notes that the DA's office will need to prove that Trump and his team falsified records with the intent of committing another crime in order for the charge to bump up from a misdemeanor to a felony.
"The core conduct that is charged in this indictment is the payment of hush money. Now, payment of hush money is not a crime. It's not a federal crime. It's not a state crime," Honig explained.
The DA's office is "relying on a state law that makes it, in the first instance, a misdemeanor to falsify business records. These are the repayments to Michael Cohen that were falsely logged within the Trump Organization as legal fees — when they were not legal fees. One of the complicated legal questions here is; in order to bump that up from a misdemeanor to a felony, you have to show that those records were falsified to commit some other crime. Some second crime," Honig told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
The DA's office did mention federal and state campaign laws during his remarks, which Honig said, could be where more legal questions come up.
Honig also highlighted how the DA's office did not say what that alleged second crime is, an issue the defense lawyers "rightly" complained about because the purpose of an indictment is to serve notice to the defendant on what they're being charged with.
From CNN's Celina Tebor
The indictment does not specify what laws Trump broke because “the law does not so require,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said when asked by reporters why there were no specifics in the indictment.
Bragg then highlighted one law that Trump allegedly broke in the news conference Tuesday.
“The first is New York state election law – what makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means,” Bragg said.
These include false statements, including statements that were planned to be made to tax authorities, according to Bragg.
Bragg also mentioned a violation of a federal election law cap on contribution limits.
