Trump faces criminal charges in court after historic indictment

Former President Donald Trump has arrived at the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, after pleading not guilty to 34 criminal charges in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon.

Trump’s personalized Boeing 757 landed at 6:40 p.m. ET.

The former president is expected to speak later tonight from Mar-a-Lago.

On a warm spring day in New York City, police barricades kept loud pro- and anti-Trump protesters apart in a small park near the courthouse where former President Donald Trump was arraigned, with NYPD officers standing in the middle as some demonstrators shouted insults and profanities at one another.

On the side filed with hundreds of supporters of the former president earlier this afternoon, a man strummed chords on a violin as he stood next to a protester holding a sign saying, "Trump didn’t start any wars!" 

"Lock him up!" said a sign carried by one protester on the other side. "Trump is the definition of depravity," read another sign. 

The Naked Cowboy, a singing guitar player who usually poses with tourists in Times Square wearing only his briefs, stopped by to show his support for the former president. He took pictures with backers of the former president. 

Denise Gumora, a 62-year-old fitness instructor from Manhattan, held up a small placard that had "45" written on it for the former president.

"Leave that man alone," said Gumora, a lifelong Democrat and former Bernie Sanders supporter who turned to Trump after Sanders’ failed presidential bid.

Another Trump backer, Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Republican who is running for Congress, said he traveled to New York for the protest, leaving his wife and their 16-day-old baby back in the Sunshine State. 

Sabatini, who had called for the defunding of the FBI after the agency’s search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home, said he thinks the indictment actually helps Trump’s presidential bid.

"I think what the DA has done is put more of a focus on Donald Trump and his message, more than ever before," he said. "They just amplified it probably tenfold."

On the anti-Trump side of the barricades, one protester wore a Trump mask and a prison jumpsuit. Some banged cowbells and drums as marijuana smoke wafted in the air. 

Community activist David Galarza Santa held up a roll of paper towels as a reminder of the day Trump visited Puerto Rico and hurled rolls of paper towels at survivors of Hurricane Maria.

"Now he can use it dry up his crocodile tears," Galarza Santa said of Trump. 

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating former president Donald Trump in connection with his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election.

The indictment by a New York grand jury was unsealed Tuesday, providing the public and Trump’s legal team with details about the charges against him for the first time. Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges.

Here’s what we know about Trump’s indictment so far:

What's in the indictment? The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office began when Trump was still in the White House and relates to a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels in late October 2016, days before the presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

Prosecutors on Tuesday alleged Trump was a part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. They allege he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment.

The reason he committed the crime of falsifying business records was in part to “promote his candidacy,” prosecutors alleged. Trump is not charged with criminal conspiracy.

Each criminal charge Trump is facing relates to a specific entry among the business records of the Trump Organization, according to the indictment. Prosecutors accuse Trump of repeatedly causing false entries in the business records.

Trump's response: Trump was caught off guard by the grand jury’s decision to indict him, according to a person who spoke directly with him. While the former president was bracing for an indictment, he began to believe news reports that a potential indictment was weeks – or more – away. The former president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the matter and continued his attacks on Bragg and other Democrats following news of the indictment.

Next appearance: The next in-person hearing date for Trump’s case in New York is set for December 4 as of now.

Read more here.

Courtroom sketch artist Christine Cornell illustrated former US President Donald Trump in the Manhattan court for his historic arraignment. Trump personally pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Meanwhile, sketch artist Elizabeth Williams documented the moment the court's clerk read the charges.

And sketch artist Jane Rosenberg sketched the former president sitting with his legal team.

Donald Trump posted his reaction to his Tuesday arraignment on Truth Social, promoting his expected 8:15 p.m. ET remarks.

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.

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. 

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." 

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.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of seeking to interfere in the elections and said Congress will hold him accountable.

There has been no response from the top two Senate Republican leaders, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.