NEW YORK - Even for a city accustomed to celebrity appearances, the two-day visit during which
Donald Trump
is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan is likely to be an amazing sight:
there will be
protests and celebrations,
a full-on police presence, and a deluge of media attention the moment the first American president is indicted for a crime.
Protesters plan a protest Tuesday in a park near the Manhattan courthouse.
Photo Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Trump is expected to arrive in New York on Monday from his Florida estate and head to his former home of Trump Tower, where he began his run for president in 2015 by descending a golden escalator.
The exact timing of the former president's arrival was unclear, although he was expected to spend the night there before heading
to a lower Manhattan courthouse on
Tuesday .
Law enforcement and outside experts have not warned of major threats from Trump supporters or opponents this week.
But authorities and New York police were preparing for protests near the courthouse and outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where barricades lined the streets for several blocks
around
the building on Sunday amid camera crews. and curious.
At the same time, Trump's legal team was speaking out against the indictment, which came as a result of a grand jury vote in Manhattan on Thursday.
In an interview Sunday on ABC's
"This Week with George Stephanopoulos
," Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina called the impending allegations "political persecution" and "a complete abuse of power" that the former president was ready to fight.
"He's
a tough guy
," Tacopina said, adding that he was looking forward "to this moving forward as quickly as possible to exonerate him."
Trump, 76, is expected to turn himself in at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office early Tuesday afternoon before arraignment at the imposing Manhattan Criminal Courts building.
The appearance will take place in a room on the 15th floor, and Judge Juan M. Merchan, a magistrate of the state Supreme Court, will be in charge of instructing the case.
The exact charges have not been disclosed, although they relate to a payment made during the 2016 election to buy the silence of a porn actress,
Stormy Daniels
, who says she had a brief sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.
Trump denies the affair.
Prosecutors are expected to charge Trump with falsifying business records to hide the nature of the refunds from his former fixer, who had paid Daniels the hush money.
A conviction would likely not impose a
minimum prison sentence
or bar Trump from running for president.
But the impeachment has convulsed the American political landscape.
Trump, who has led in most polls for the Republican nomination, has attacked the impeachment as a partisan stunt by Bragg, a Democrat, saying it was aimed at crippling his campaign.
His Republican rivals have largely echoed him.
Many Democrats have hailed the impeachment as
proof
that no one is above the law.
The case against Trump, which his lawyers say they plan to take to trial, is likely to be overseen by Merchan, an experienced judge who also tried the case of
Allen Weisselberg
, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to
tax fraud
charges last year and testified against the company, which was found guilty of doling out off-the-books perks to some of its top executives.
Trump, who will be fingerprinted and photographed, has been harshly critical of Bragg and Merchan and has announced that he will return to Florida for a prime-time speech from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm
Beach
, On tuesday night.
Jason Miller, one of Trump's top advisers, told Newsmax on Sunday that the speech would show "how fervent he is."
"President Trump is very emboldened; he is very strong; he feels the support of all the people behind him," Miller said.
As Tuesday's arraignment neared, the Police Department let officers know they might be called for crowd control, and court officials and Secret Service
agents planned
routes for Trump to enter and exit the building. from court on Center Street without incident.
It was expected that the area would be
practically closed
before the appearance, with traffic cuts, perimeter delimitation and patrols.
Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for the New York courts, said Sunday that court officials are working with local, state and federal law enforcement, including the Secret Service, "to ensure security in and around 100 St. Center and all city courts," adding that officials "have been on a heightened state of alert for the past two weeks."
All Supreme Court trials at 100 Center St. will be adjourned Tuesday afternoon to
reduce foot traffic,
Chalfen said.
Trump supporters have called demonstrations in a park across the street from the building as other events intensify, including a planned "come home" rally at Trump Tower on Monday morning.
On Tuesday, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, a second-term conservative Republican from Georgia and a staunch Trump supporter, is expected to speak at a rally sponsored by the Young Republican Club of New York, which says it expects several hundred people. to protest what he calls an "egregious attack" on Trump.
Gavin Wax, the club's president, said Sunday that the demonstration was intended to rebuke Bragg for "wasting taxpayer resources on what is effectively a
political witch hunt
for an accounting breach that is likely to be victimless."
"Never before have we arrested and charged a president, much less a president who is also the presumed candidate, in this country," he said.
"This is new and unexplored territory."
c.2023 The New York Times Company
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