WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – Former President Donald Trump was due to leave Florida for New York on Monday but faces arraignment the next day over hush money payments during the 2016 election. and faced more criminal prosecution than anyone who saw his country. .
Trump, who is in the midst of his third presidential campaign to regain the White House he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020, said he would leave the Maralago Club around noon and board a private plane. He will return to Manhattan and spend the night at Trump Tower before surrendering to authorities on Tuesday.
Trump Tower was open, but officials were planning to close nearby streets to accommodate Trump’s comings and goings, and additional security measures were in the works. They took steps to close and secure the courthouse where the former president is due to be indicted Tuesday afternoon. Trump supporters, including one of his most staunch defenders in Congress, Georgia Republican Rep. was planning a rally in New York late Tuesday morning.
Trump and his aides enthusiastically welcomed the anticipated media circus. This may have even included a television helicopter following his route from Mar-a-Lago to the airport for the flight to New York. After being initially taken by surprise when news of the indictments broke Thursday night, Trump and his team are now focused on using what they call a weak lawsuit against Trump to his advantage.
Trump faces multiple business record falsification charges, including at least one felony count, on an indictment returned by a Manhattan grand jury last week. The study looks at six-figure payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Both say they had sexual relations with the married Trump years before he entered politics. Trump has denied having sexual relations with both women, denied any wrongdoing related to payments, and claimed the lawsuit against him was politically motivated.
No ex-president has ever been indicted, and Trump’s presidential campaign remains active, with legal and political ramifications colliding in unprecedented ways. Trump spent the weekend playing golf and meeting with advisers, but his campaign says it has raised more than $5 million since the charges were broken. Top Republicans, including some of Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s Republican presidential primary, have condemned the lawsuit against him.Biden and the leading Democrats have said little about it.
Sorensten said Trump was wrong to be charged with dating a porn star long before he took office. He said investigators should instead look to Biden’s son Hunter and his dealings.
“To me, these acts are treason,” Sorensten said of Biden. “But it’s a walk.”
