Trump In New York To Face Arrest Tuesday
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
NEW YORK (Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in New York City on Monday for his controversial arraignment on criminal charges that he paid hush money to an adult film star.
He flew in from Florida without his wife and former First Lady Melania but was accompanied by his son Eric and several aides, several sources said.
Trump, the first ex-US president to face a criminal case, was due to plead not guilty at Tuesday afternoon’s arraignment after a grand jury voted to indict him last week.
On Thursday, a Manhattan grand jury indicted him the after an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office into an alleged hush money payment of $130,000 through Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The money was allegedly for adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election about an affair she claims she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump, 76, has denied having an affair with Daniels and has maintained his innocence in the case, accusing prosecutors of engaging in a politically motivated “witch-hunt.”
Hush money agreements are not illegal, but prosecutors believe the payment violated campaign finance laws.
WITHOUT MELANIA
Melania reportedly accompanied her husband to dinner after the news of the indictment broke last Thursday. Despite her support, she has not posted on social media since the announcement.
Trump’s motorcade ride on Monday from his Mar-a-Lago club to his red, white, and blue Boeing 757, emblazoned with his name in gold letters, was carried live on cable television.
It took him past supporters waving banners and cheering, decrying the case against him — stemming from payments made during his 2016 campaign — as politically motivated.
Trump arrived at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport late Monday, and a video showed him getting off the plane alone the day before his arraignment.
He has responded to the indictment with a flurry of posts on his social media platform Truth Social attacking the district attorney’s office.
Trump said that “the USA is now a third-world nation,” while other Republicans opposing the charges claimed the U.S. legal system was being like “some third-world banana republic.”
One of Trump’s staunchest supporters, Republican Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, seen as a favorite to be named the former president’s running mate in 2024, condemned the indictment.
INDICTMENT “UNCONSTITUTIONAL”
Greene said she was heading to New York on Tuesday to exercise her constitutional right to protest the indictment she considers “unconstitutional.”
Even Former Attorney General Bill Barr, with who Trump later had a tense relationship, condemned the indictment of his former boss, calling it “an abomination.”
“Obviously, we don’t have the indictment, so there’s a little bit of speculation involved,” Barr said. “But based on the news reports, if they’re accurate, this is an abomination.”
He argues that “It’s the epitome of the abuse of prosecutorial power to bring a case that would not be brought against anyone else. They are going after the man, not a crime. And the legal theory, frankly, is pathetically weak.”
Trump “now joins the ranks of other former leaders charged following their tenure in office largely on corruption-related issues,” noted Fox News Channel’s website, which often provided favorable coverage of him.
It added that he joins “the notorious former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, along with other prominent leaders from democratic nations.”
Berlusconi was involved in nearly three dozen criminal cases, with one conviction for tax fraud in 2012; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted in 2020 on corruption charges; and former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian was convicted of bribery in 2009.
MORE LEADERS CHARGED
Dozens of democracies like France, South Korea, and Brazil have seen leaders prosecuted for crimes, with nearly 80 nations having seen former leaders jailed or charged over the last 20 years.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who returned to the high office in January after defeating Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced to 12 years by a federal court on corruption charges in 2018.
Lula served 580 days before the country’s supreme court ordered his freedom and dismissed his case.
Former French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to a year in prison in 2021 for violating campaign finance laws.
South Korea’s former President, Park Geun-hye was sentenced to 24 years over corruption charges before she was pardoned in 2021 by her successor. She served five years.
Yet in Trump’s case, the publicity surrounding the indictment was profitable financially. Trump’s 2024 White House campaign raised over $8 million since news of the charges against him broke last week, according to his team.
And he won’t go quietly to court: On Tuesday morning, dozens of police and court officers, as well as Secret Service agents, were to escort Trump through the streets of New York to the Lower Manhattan court complex.
At a news conference on Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned any potential “rabble-rousers” to “control yourselves.”
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