First came the bombshell announcement. Now comes the negotiation between the high-profile defendant and those seeking his arrest.
A New York grand jury made history this week after voting to indict former US president Donald Trump on alleged financial crimes.
It's believed Mr Trump and his lawyers are now engaged in quiet talks with New York officials about exactly how they will take a former commander-in-chief into custody, fingerprint and book him, and charge him .
This negotiation is occurring within the walls of his beloved Florida home Mar-a-Lago, a sprawling and luxurious estate, complete with three bunkers, that he purchased in 1985.
It's somewhat fitting that a former president is using Mar-a-Lago as his base while the long, cold arm of the law tries to reach him from New York.
Mar-a-Lago was gifted to the United States government in 1973 to serve as a "Winter White House" by the heiress of a cereal fortune.
Marjorie Merriweather Post wanted it to be a place where presidents and foreign dignitaries could escape both the cold and stresses of Washington DC.
But US statesmen were so uninterested that it was put back on the market and eventually snapped up by Mr Trump.
Being a brash, big-talking New Yorker has always been a core part of Mr Trump’s personality — until he turned his back on the city back in 2019.
While still occupying the White House, he changed his residential address from 721 Fifth Avenue — aka Trump Tower — to Mar-a-Lago, blaming "political leaders of both the city and state" for treating him "very badly".
But it looks increasingly likely that he is once again about to call Trump Tower home as he returns to the city where he made his name to answer criminal charges.
How do you arrest a president?
The timeline is still unclear and potentially undecided.
Mr Trump needs to be in court by mid-afternoon on Tuesday local time.
He will make the journey to New York the day before — perhaps to give himself some wiggle room in case the weather turns bad.
It’s extremely unlikely he will fly commercial.
Instead, he is expected to make the 10-minute drive from Mar-a-Lago to West Palm Beach where his prized $US100 million Boeing 757 is currently parked.
The question is who will be there to meet him.
On March 18, Mr Trump told his supporters on Truth Social that he would be 'ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK' and implored them to "PROTEST, TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK!".
There was some chatter online that Trump supporters should form a so-called "Patriot Moat" around Mar-a-Lago to keep him safe.
That date came and went without an arrest, rendering the moat unnecessary.
But this week, after the indictment by the grand jury was confirmed, the moat was made up of a handful of supporters.
In such small numbers, they hardly posed an obstacle that could stop law enforcement from getting to Mr Trump, if they so choose.
One of his most ardent supporters calls herself MAGA Mary and she was on the bridge outside Mar-a-Lago to show her support.
"I'm broken-hearted that my president, a wonderful man, has to go through this," she said.
"And our country. What are they doing? It's not right."
She promised that the crowd would swell on the day Mr Trump is arraigned in New York.
"It'll be a madhouse here," she said.
It’s possible the ranks of supporters will increase both in Florida and in New York.
But given the huge police presence that New York has instituted, it's unlikely to interrupt the mechanics of arrest.
Mr Trump will be forced to go through some of the indignities of being criminally charged, like being fingerprinted and having his photo taken.
But his lawyers say he won't be "perp walked" in front of cameras.
Could Trump run for president from jail?
All of this is occurring while the Republican primary is underway to choose the candidate to challenge Joe Biden for the presidency in 2024.
Whether Donald Trump's indictment hurts or helps him in the polls remains to be seen, but his indictment does not end his candidacy.
Kevin Wagner, a professor of political science from Florida Atlantic University, said that nothing in the US constitution prevents Mr Trump from running for the office of president — even from jail.
And he wouldn't even be the first.
"We have actually had cases of candidates running while convicted," he said.
"In the 1920s, we had Eugene Dobbs, who was [a] candidate for the Socialist Party, run from prison for president, [and he] actually got nearly 1 million votes ... in the 1920s, that's not an insignificant number," he said.
But while Mr Trump is not constitutionally barred from campaigning, the practicalities of being involved in a legal case might be problematic for a man trying to be president.
It's important to note that it is by no means certain Mr Trump will stand trial on whatever charges on which he had been indicted.
His lawyers can now challenge the indictment to get it thrown out.
But if it does get to trial, Mr Trump will find that even former presidents must follow the instructions of whatever judge is assigned the case.
Dr Wagner said judges set the rules for their trial.
If they believe the defendant before them is stepping out of line, they have many options at their disposal to get him back into place.
The former president has recently warned of "death and destruction" to his enemies and has posted images of himself holding a baseball bat next to photos of New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Dr Wagner said a judge could slap a gag order on Mr Trump for similar behaviour during a trial if they believe that he's inciting violence.
He could even face contempt of court charges.
If he was convicted, Dr Wagner said Mr Trump may not be able to vote for himself in his home state if he is the Republican nominee.
"In Florida, we expressly ... bar felons from voting until they've served their term and paid all their fines and fees," he said.
The many jurisdictions potentially competing for Trump's time
This is the first time that a sitting or former US president has been indicted.
But Mr Trump is facing multiple sets of potential charges across multiple jurisdictions.
Among them are a Department of Justice investigation into the removal of government documents from the White House, a probe into the riot on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, and a case in Georgia that looks at his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election result there.
The tangle of legal cases in federal and state jurisdictions makes everything complicated.
Usually, jurisdictions would negotiate the order in which cases are brought to trial.
But a complicating factor here is that there is a clear timeline in play: the 2024 presidential election.
It's possible that federal prosecutors may wish to expedite their potential cases against Mr Trump ahead of the New York case, believing theirs to be more important and with a higher potential penalty.
Could this help Trump with voters?
For most politicians, particularly conservative ones, being indicted for allegedly ordering hush money be paid to an adult performer would usually be a campaign disaster.
But the traditional laws of politics have never applied to Mr Trump.
Rumours of an indictment and then confirmation of an imminent arrest had have once again ensured blanket media coverage for the candidate.
Mr Trump has managed to use the indictment as a rallying cry for fundraising among his base.
It's also worked as a wedge for many of the competitors running against him in the Republican primary.
Dr Wagner said it poses a difficult equation for declared candidates like former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and undeclared but high polling candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
"They don't want to alienate those voters by going after the former president," he said.
Outside Mar-a-Lago, MAGA Mary said she had already turned on Mr DeSantis because of what she perceived as his disloyalty to Mr Trump.
"I supported him. I voted for him [for governor]. First time and second time. And then he betrayed our president, [so] that's it," she said.
Standing next to MAGA Mary, Christopher Xenos said talking about other potential candidates for the Republican nomination among Trump supporters is a "real touchy situation".
"You bet it all on him against these people. And they steal from him again. We're done," he said.
For now at least, all eyes are on the golf club in Florida.
One thing we know for sure is that Mr Trump will soon leave his luxury surroundings for a drab Manhattan courthouse, where he will stand before a judge.
Whether that helps or hinders his efforts to move back into the White House is anyone's guess.
