Trump was accused by Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday April 4 of orchestrating a hush-money scheme to to silence a porn star, a mistress and a Trump doorman in order mislead the voters two weeks before the election and then covering it up from the Oval Office of the White House.
Trump was fingerprinted but not placed in handcuffs and no mug shot was taken, although the Trump campaign was selling mug shot tee shirts on line during the arraignment.
Trump pleaded not guilty in the case that opens a perilous chapter in the long public life of the real estate mogul/game show host and now faces the embarrassing prospect of a criminal trial.
Trump was indicted on 34 felony charges and stands accused of covering up a potential sex scandal with a porn star during the last days of the 2016 presidential election campaign. Trump made an extraordinary appearance at the Criminal Courts Building in lower Manhattan , his home town, to face charges. Relatively few Trump supporters (estimated at 350) and anti-Trump protestors (estimated at 150) raged outside as the former president sat quietly while prosectors laid out the case against him.
As a common ordinary person, Trump replied “not guilty” in the pin-drop silent courtroom.
“Everyone stands equal under the law”, Alan Bragg, the Manhattan DA said at a news conference after the arraignment.
The prosecutors addressed the threatening posts made by Trump against the DA, his wife and his daughter, against the Judge and his wife and including” death and destruction” would follow if he was charged.
The judge, Juan Merchan, addressed Trump’s lawyers telling them ” please speak to your client and anybody else you need to, and remind them to please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest.”
Trump held a rally at Mar-a-Lago and immediately ignored the judges instruction.
Next hearing is scheduled for December 4.