Donald Trump has been arrested ,becoming the first former US President to be arrested on criminal charges.Trump is being arraigned at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on criminal charges said to be related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
He left his home at Trump Tower shortly after 13.00 local time (18.00BST). He waved to waiting cameras, making a fist, before getting into his car.
It took just minutes for the former president’s motorcade to make the 6.4km drive (4 mile) from his home at Trump Tower to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. During the drive, he posted on his social media website: “Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME”.
He appeared calm and serious as he walked into the courthouse, pausing to wave at the crowd.
Donald Trump pleads not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges during a court hearing in New York
The former US president was accused of falsifying records to conceal crimes in the almost hour-long hearing
The charges focus on a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election – she claims to have had an affair with Trump, which he denies
But the indictment also details other such pay-offs to suppress potentially damaging stories, one involving a doorman and another to a former Playboy model
Payments to doorman and ex-Playboy model among allegations
Take a breath, there’s a lot to digest in this indictment. The details that follow are laid out in the document:
Alleged co-conspirators
Firstly, prosecutors are identifying two key co-conspirators in the scheme:
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, identified in the document as Lawyer
Executives at American Media Inc (AMI), former owners of the Trump-friendly National Enquirer tabloid
‘Catch and kill’
Both parties are said to have now admitted to a “catch and kill scheme to suppress negative information” during the 2016 campaign
Prosecutors allege AMI CEO David Pecker agreed to “act as the ‘eyes and ears’ for the campaign by looking out for negative stories about [Trump] and alerting [Cohen] before the stories were published”
A doorman with a false story
Pecker is alleged to have paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman to suppress a story he planned to tell regarding a child Trump allegedly fathered out of wedlock; the story was ultimately judged to not be true, but Cohen is said to have “instructed” Pecker not to release the man from their agreement until after the election
Pay-off to a former Playboy model
A few months before the November 2016 election, AMI paid $150,000 to a person identified only as Woman 1 – believed to be former Playboy model Karen McDougal – in exchange for her silence over an alleged affair with Trump in the 2000s
Trump “was concerned about the effect it could have on his candidacy” and was involved in the discussions over who should pay off McDougal, the
Trump charges ‘stretched’ – Mitt Romney
We’re getting some reaction to the allegations against Trump now, from one-time Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Now a US senator, the frequent critic of Trump begins his statement noting he believes the former president is unfit for office.
But Romney says the charges against Trump are “stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda”.
In his statement he says: “The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system”.
He adds that voters will make their own judgement on Trump’s political future, but that it’s “incumbent on all elected leaders to discourage violence and anger in response to this situation”.
e judge requested everyone involved in the case to not use language that would incite violence – not just Trump.
Joe Tacopina, another one of Trump’s lawyers, said the unsealing of the indictment showed “that the rule of law died in this country”.
“While everyone is not above the law, no one is below it either. And if this man’s name was not Donald J Trump, there is no scenario we’d all be here today,” he added.
They declined to comment on whether Trump was fingerprinted or had a mugshot taken when being processed.