Ex-US President Trump set to speak after his arraignment

Surrounded by Army cadets, President Donald Trump watches the 121st Army-Navy Football Game in Michie Stadium at the United States Military Academy in December 2020, New York. Pic/AP

Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks Tuesday night in Florida after his scheduled arraignment in New York on charges related to hush money payments, his campaign announced Sunday. Trump will hold the event at his Mar-a-Lago club after returning from Manhattan, where he is expected to voluntarily turn himself in. He is expected to be joined in Florida by supporters as he tries to project an image of strength and defiance and turn the charges into a political asset to boost his 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, in the indictment handed up by a Manhattan grand jury last week, two people familiar with the matter have told The Associated Press. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has blasted the investigation as part of a yearslong "witch hunt" aimed at damaging his candidacy.

Trump aides and lawyers had been going back and forth over the wisdom of his appearing before reporters after the arraignment as they grasped the news of an indictment that caught many of them by surprise. Trump has been catapulted back into the headlines by the criminal charges and he relishes media attention, and while some of his lawyers would have preferred he stay silent, his campaign believes the development has energized his supporters. Already, Trump's campaign says it has raised more than $5 million and logged more than 16,000 volunteer signups since the indictment, which Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said were "key indicators that Americans from all backgrounds are sick and tired of the weaponization of the justice system against President Trump and his supporters."

Also read: Donald Trump raises USD 4 mn post indictment

Trump was indicted Thursday by a grand jury in the case involving hush money paid during the 2016 presidential campaign to a porn actor who alleges Trump had an extramarital sexual encounter with her years earlier. He is expected to report to the courthouse Tuesday morning, where he will be fingerprinted and have a mug shot taken, like anyone else facing charges. Investigators will complete arrest paperwork and check if he has outstanding criminal charges or warrants. Once booking is complete, Trump will appear before a judge for an afternoon arraignment. That will take place in the same Manhattan courtroom where his company was tried and convicted of tax fraud in December and where disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape trial took place. But Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said that most of what will happen Tuesday remains "up in the air," given Trump's unique status as a former president, "other than the fact that we will very loudly and proudly say, ‘Not guilty.'"

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