NEW YORK (NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump arrived in New York City Monday ahead of his scheduled arraignment on Tuesday.
Trump left Florida around noon on Monday, flying to Manhattan ahead of his court appearance Tuesday.
The alleged hush-money probe against the former president involving adult film star Stormy Daniels has garnered widespread attention from the press ahead of his arraignment.
However, the specific charges against Trump remained unknown, sealed in the indictment.
A grand jury voted to indict Trump last Thursday in connection to his alleged role in the hush-money payment scheme. The indictment surprised Trump’s legal team, even though Trump himself called it a couple of weeks beforehand.
Mick Mulvaney, the former acting White House chief of staff for the Trump administration, said it didn’t surprise him that Trump’s legal team was caught off-guard when the former president’s indictment was announced. He explained that Trump’s legal team is new and there has been a lot of infighting among the lawyers at Mar-a-Lago.
The historic indictment also raises many questions about what legal procedures will be followed. One attorney representing Trump told CNN these are uncharted waters.
“Obviously this is different. Never had Secret Service involved in an arraignment at 100 Centre St. So, the answer is I honestly don’t know how this is going to go,” said Joe Tacopina, one of the lawyers representing Trump, on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
It’s expected that Trump will have his fingerprints taken Tuesday, but Reuters reported handcuffing him is off the table and Yahoo! adds he will not get a mugshot. Following that, the indictment will be unsealed and Trump will enter a plea.
“We will very loudly and proudly say not guilty,” Tacopina told CNN.
Trump is expected to enter a not-guilty plea, and Tacopina said they will fight any charges against the former president until the bitter end.
The arraignment hearing, which will likely last only a few minutes, will not be recorded in any way as electronic devices are not allowed in the courtroom.
Mulvaney added that hush-money payments by themselves are not illegal. Still, the misreporting of the business expenses tied to a campaign finance violation is, which might make the possible charges against him a felony.
However, Mulvaney said he was glad to see analysts “taking it slow” to see what the indictment actually says before making a presumption about Trump.
Six hours after his arraignment, Trump will return to his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, where he will deliver a public, primetime speech for the first time since the indictment.
The national address will be an attempt for the former president to try and take control of the situation, even though he really doesn’t have much control over any of it.
Mulvaney said it also didn’t surprise him that Trump said he would give a national address Tuesday night.
“What Trump is going to try and do now — after the original anger was over, their original reaction to the indictment — is try to figure out a way to make it good for him, try to figure out a way to make this a positive thing, especially from a marketing standpoint,” he said.
Mulvaney continued, “He’s the greatest showman in the country right now, probably the world.”
Trump and his team have been trying to rally supporters behind him and sending out fundraising emails since the hours after his indictment to garner financial support.
Last week, his team said that in the 24 hours since his indictment, they raised $4 million. The former president sent out another email over the weekend and shared a video in a social media post to try and boost donations.
“We are now officially a third-world country. No president in the history of our country has been subjected to such vicious and disgusting attacks. But they only attack me because I fight for you. It’s very simple. They can’t buy me and they can’t control me. And that scares them beyond belief,” Trump said in the video.