The News
Donald Trump will be arraigned on Tuesday in Manhattan on the first charges to emerge out of the many investigations into his business, campaign, and personal behavior over the years.
The spectacle is already the news event of the year, with the cable networks tracking his plane and motorcade by helicopter on Monday on his way to Trump Tower. Here’s a timeline for what to expect today, which will feature protests, speeches, press conferences, and of course, Trump’s courthouse appearance.
8:00 AM: The New York Young Republican Club, which is organizing a protest, begins setting up. The NYPD has already sectioned off two sections of Collect Pond Park, directly across the street from the courthouse at 100 Centre Street. Trump supporters are expected to arrive on the south side of the park, counter-protestors on the north. Things were quiet in the area on Monday, except for a crush of media. Reporters — or the placeholders their companies hired — began lining up well before 4pm in the hopes of getting a first-come, first-serve ticket into the courtroom the next morning (or one of the overflow rooms within the building).
10:30 AM: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. is expected to arrive at the rally. NYYRC president Gavin Wax told Semafor she’ll be the de facto leader of the event, which will feature speeches and chanting. “She’s really been pushing it and she’ll probably be the biggest named elected official there,” he said. Other politicians may also make appearances, however.
With memories of January 6th still fresh, New York authorities are preemptively deploying police through the city. Mayor Eric Adams, a former officer himself, called on protestors to behave themselves, and specifically Greene, who he said was “known to spread misinformation and hate speech.”
Greene told Semafor that she doesn’t expect any fireworks. “Every single officer has been called up,” she said. She plans to shake hands with cops and thank them for safeguarding the event and said she “will be pointing at people to be arrested if they’re being violent.”
Trump is expected to present himself at the courthouse, accompanied by Secret Service, at some time in the late morning.
2:15 PM: Trump will face the charges against him in the courtroom and plead not guilty. The judge presiding over the case is Juan Merchan, who Trump criticized late last week by suggesting he was biased. Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina said over the weekend that he had no reason to take issue with Merchan, however, who presided over the tax fraud case against the Trump Organization and former Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg. Merchan denied a motion to allow live cameras inside the courtroom late Monday, siding with Trump’s legal team, but a small number of photojournalists will be briefly allowed inside and members of the press will be present as well.
There’s been plenty of reporting and speculation around what Trump would do for his mug shot. Smile brightly, like former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay? Or look serious like former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who Trump later pardoned? Unfortunately for America’s political merchandisers, Yahoo News’s Michael Isikoff reported Monday that Trump will “not be put in handcuffs, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mug shot,” because prosecutors determined it wasn’t necessary for an ex-president.
3:30 PM: Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is set to hold a press conference. Bragg has faced months of intense scrutiny from his left and right and plenty of criticism, including from legal experts outside Trump’s orbit. This will be his first chance to lay out the details of the case on his own terms.
8:15 PM: The former president will end his day with a quick return back to his Mar-a-Lago home. He plans to give remarks to the nation at 8:15pm, despite his team reportedly being concerned about a potential gag order from the judge that would prevent him from discussing the case. A Trump campaign source told Semafor that they’re “preparing for every single scenario.
