Former United States President, Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
The indictment against Trump alleges that the former President sought to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election.
Prosecutors alleged Trump was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 that was ordered by the defendant to suppress the negative information that would hurt his campaign.
The reason Trump committed the crime of falsifying business records was in part to “promote his candidacy,” the indictment alleges.
The former President’s voice was measured in the courtroom as he walked in slowly scanning the reporters in the courtroom and looking at the judge when he was speaking.
Wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, Trump, the first sitting or former U.S. President to face criminal charges, sat with his hands folded at the defense table as he entered his plea flanked by his lawyers.
“Not guilty,” the 78-year-old former President said when asked how he pleaded.
“We’re going to fight it. We’re going to fight it hard,” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters after the arraignment, adding that Trump was frustrated, upset, and angry about the charges.
“But I’ll tell you what – he’s motivated. And it’s not going to stop him. And it’s not going to slow him down. And it’s exactly what he expected,” Blanche added.
The judge set the next court hearing for December 4, 2023, and did not issue a gag order on any of the parties.
Some of the evidence against Trump was caught in an audio recording in September 2016 as he and his attorney discussed how to suppress stories about his affair, prosecutors said.
Court documents said Trump can be heard saying, “So what do we got to pay for this?”
Trump’s reimbursement checks to a lawyer for the suppression payments falsely stated that the money was for a “retainer agreement,” prosecutors said. The indictment accused Trump of falsifying his real estate company’s books with intent to defraud.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said nothing as he entered the courtroom or when he left roughly an hour later. Trump previously called the charges politically motivated.
He was due to return to Florida and deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort at 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday (0015 GMT on Wednesday), his office said.
Taken together, the charges carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison under New York law but an actual prison sentence, if he is convicted at a trial, would almost certainly be far less than that.
While falsifying business records in New York on its own is a misdemeanor punishable by no more than one year in prison, it is elevated to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison when done to advance or conceal another crime.
The Manhattan grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that indicted Trump heard evidence about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Daniels has said she was paid to keep silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006.
Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said he coordinated with Trump on payments to Daniels and McDougal. Trump has denied having had sexual relationships with either woman but has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen.
Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said after the indictment that if the defendant was anyone other than Trump, there would have been no charges.
Bragg, a Democrat, was due to give a news conference later on Tuesday.
Trump departed his New York residence at Trump Tower in a motorcade bound for the courthouse. He showed little emotion when he waved to a crowd assembled outside the courthouse.
Trump had arrived at the Manhattan district attorney’s office earlier Tuesday afternoon, where he was placed under arrest and in police custody before the arraignment.
The arraignment in the Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday represented a surreal and historic moment in US history.
