With Cnn
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.
“This should not be happening to any president,” she said. “Not Obama. Not Clinton. Not Trump. This is outrageous. He does not belong in that building.”
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.
Following former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, prosecutors said they expect to produce the bulk of the discovery in the next 65 days.
Trump’s team has until August 8 to file any motions and the prosecution will respond by September 19. Judge Juan Merchan said he will rule on the motions at the next in-person hearing, scheduled for December 4.
Trump attorney Jim Trusty said Tuesday he expects “robust” motions to challenge the case and hopes they can succeed in stopping the case. If not, Trusty said he expects Trump’s attorneys will “figure out if there’s a way to try to push this earlier” than the December 4 hearing.
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.
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.
