Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal prosecution.
The charges were handed down in an indictment by a grand jury that was convened by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who said in a statement that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
Trump entered his not-guilty plea at an arraignment hearing that capped a day of spectacle surrounding his surrender at Manhattan Criminal Court. His Secret Service motorcade left Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan for the courthouse shortly after 1 p.m., cutting through New York traffic with a police escort as spectators looked on. When his motorcade arrived, Trump waved to cameras and the gathered crowd before entering the courthouse to turn himself in.
More than an hour after arriving, Trump entered the courtroom where a judge was overseeing his arraignment hearing. No video recording was allowed in the courtroom, but a handful of photographers were briefly permitted to take pictures. One photo showed Trump seated at the defense table, flanked by his attorneys. He was in the courtroom for another hour before he was released and swiftly departed in his motorcade.
Seth Wenig / Getty Images
The case could have serious ramifications for Trump’s ongoing bid for the White House as it unfolds over the coming months. He has maintained his innocence and denounced the Manhattan district attorney’s probe as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The former president is expected to then be released and return home to Florida, where he is set to deliver remarks to supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday evening.
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