Trump pleads not guilty at arraignment in hush money case
April 04, 2023
Former President Donald Trump entered a not-guilty plea Tuesday at his arraignment on charges involving a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He's accused of buying her silence about an alleged affair the pair had ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
It marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president has been criminally charged.
Trump flew to New York City on Monday from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. He spent the night at Trump Tower before arriving at the criminal courthouse in downtown Manhattan at 1:24 p.m. to be arrested and processed. He traveled in a convoy of black SUVs before walking into the building, flanked by Secret Service officers and waving briefly to crowds of supporters and opponents.
He was fingerprinted, but not handcuffed, and then appeared in a courtroom before Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.
The former president was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, NBC News and CNN reported. He is accused of listing the expense as "legal services."
Trump is expected to fly back to Florida Tuesday afternoon, where he's scheduled to give another address at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday evening.
Trump has repeatedly slammed the indictment as illegitimate, calling it political persecution and attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is Black, as a "Soros-backed animal" who is targeting him for being white. He has not provided any evidence to support the claim.
Trump also faces a number of separate criminal investigations, including a Georgia probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state, and federal probes into the January 6 plot and a stash of classified documents hidden at Mar-a-Lago.
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