Donald Trump arrived Monday in New York where he will surrender to unprecedented criminal charges, taking America into uncharted and potentially volatile territory as he seeks to regain the presidency, APA reports citing NDTV.
The 76-year-old Republican, the first US president ever to be criminally indicted, will be formally charged Tuesday over hush money paid to a porn star during the 2016 election campaign.
Trump touched down at LaGuardia Airport after a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Florida, on board a private Boeing 757 emblazoned with his name on the fuselage -- a historic journey given wall-to-wall live coverage on US television.
Trump was due to head to Trump Tower, where he was to spend the night before heading Tuesday afternoon to the Manhattan courthouse where he will try to use his appearance before a judge to rouse support for his 2024 White House bid.
"THEY'RE NOT COMING AFTER ME, THEY'RE COMING AFTER YOU -- I'M JUST STANDING IN THEIR WAY!" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, one of a dozen posts he made en route from his Florida mansion to New York.
Police in the city were on high alert with security cordons and Secret Service agents outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and the court in Lower Manhattan.
Mayor Eric Adams warned that anyone protesting violently during Trump's historic arraignment will be "arrested and held accountable, no matter who you are."
"While there may be some rabble-rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow our message is clear, is simple: 'control yourselves'," the mayor told a press conference, adding that there were no specific, credible threats.
As part of his arraignment, Trump will undergo the standard booking procedure of being fingerprinted and photographed, likely to result in one of the most famous mugshots of the modern era.
***03.04.2023
21.45
A plane carrying former US President Donald Trump took off from a Florida airport bound for New York City on Monday as he prepared to face charges stemming from an investigation into hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election, APA reports citing Reuters.
With New York taking security precautions and the mayor insisting any would-be rabble-rousers behave, Trump was due to surrender at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office on Tuesday and will likely be fingerprinted prior to appearing before a judge for an arraignment where he will plead not guilty.
Trump, a Republican seeking to regain the presidency in 2024, is the first former US president to face criminal charges. Trump has hired Todd Blanche, a prominent white-collar criminal defence lawyer and a former federal prosecutor, to lead his defence, said two sources familiar with the matter.
The specific charges in the grand jury indictment have yet to be disclosed.Trump has said he is innocent, and he and his allies have portrayed the charges as politically motivated.
A motorcade of several vehicles transported Trump from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach to the airport in nearby West Palm Beach. Trump and members of his entourage climbed a set of stairs and entered his plane, painted in red, white and blue with TRUMP in big letters on the side and an image of the American flag on the tail.
Earlier Trump said on social media he would go to Trump Tower in Manhattan after arriving in New York, then would head to the courthouse on Tuesday morning.
Before his plane departed, small groups of Trump fans waited to show their support at the airport and on his route to get there.
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