And now that? The next steps after the impeachment of Donald Trump

Former President Trump at West Palm Beach International Airport on March 25 before boarding a plane for a rally in Waco, Texas. Evan Vucci (AP)

The anticipation with which Donald Trump himself anticipated his own impeachment, the first of a former president in the history of the United States, has served these two weeks to establish what is coming now.

He will be arrested, yes.

They will take your fingerprints and take frontal and profile photos that are inseparable from both this country's judicial system and its pop culture.

You may be handcuffed.

And he will hear another classic: the Miranda warning, which will ring a bell from hundreds of movies: “He has the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

You have the right to speak to a lawyer and have a lawyer present during any questioning.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you."

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Trump is not a common defendant, but he will go through the procedures of any citizen prosecuted for a

in New York.

In his case, he is accused of having ordered his lawyer Michael Cohen in the weeks before the elections that brought him to the White House in 2016 a payment of $130,000 (about 120,000 euros) to buy the silence of the porn actress Stormy Daniels about an alleged extramarital affair from 10 years earlier.

According to the accusation by the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, which the grand jury accepts, Trump falsified his company's accounting entries to pass off that payment as something else.

This is an offense punishable by a sentence of up to one year in prison, which becomes a felony if it is proven that the operation was instrumental in the commission of another crime: for example, the irregular financing of an electoral campaign or the of conspiracy to influence or impede a vote.

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The former president, who denies everything, could take several days to appear in court.

To begin with, because he first has to receive the accusation document.

It is taken for granted that at this time the tug of war is already taking place in the negotiation of the terms of its delivery.

And nobody rules out that Trump is going to try to turn all this into a show that will inflame his bases and give wings to his presidential campaign for 2024. For now, his lawyers have said that he is willing to fly from Florida, where he is in these moments, at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, to New York to comply with his legal obligations.

If he did not, it could be the unlikely event that he would have to be extradited.

So, it would be Ron DeSantis, the governor of that state in the Southeast of the country, who would have to authorize it.

It so happens that DeSantis is right now the biggest enemy of the former president in his own party.

And very probably his most serious opponent for getting the presidential nomination.

The New York court in charge of his prosecution is now faced with a dilemma that is difficult to solve.

He has to show that Trump is just another citizen, that he is not above the law, and, at the same time, he cannot ignore the extraordinary nature of the process.

Without going any further, the defendant will have to be accompanied at all times, for example, when he goes before the judge to hear what he is accused of, by armed members of the Secret Service who have to escort him by law everywhere.

Not to mention the circus that the entrance to the courthouse is expected to become, an even bigger circus than the one that has already been organized in these two weeks at the mere idea of ​​a possible accusation.

Another of the doubts that now opens for Trump is whether they will require him to appear in handcuffs.

An exception could be made, given the nature of the processing.

Most of them have their hands handcuffed behind their backs, although the caveat is that, if it is a not-so-serious offence, they appear with their hands tied in front, at lap level.

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