Donald Trump is planning to deliver remarks from Mar-a-Lago during prime time on Tuesday night, just hours after he is arraigned in Manhattan following his criminal indictment.
The former president will speak at 2015 local time [0115 GMT] from his Palm Beach estate in Florida after returning from New York, where he is scheduled to appear in front of a judge at 1415 to answer to the criminal charges brought against him.
A grand jury of 23 New Yorkers voted to indict Mr Trump on Thursday, shortly before the end of the court wrapped up business for the day, taking many – including Mr Trump and his team – by surprise.
Mr Trump is reportedly facing more than 30 counts related to business fraud, sources told CNN after news of the indictment became public.
Full details will probably only become public at the arraignment unless the charges are revealed earlier by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.
The former president is understood to be planning to fly to New York on Monday and will stay at his penthouse at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
He will then present himself at the New York County Criminal Court in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning for processing — including fingerprinting and potentially a mug shot.
After lunch, he will appear before Judge Juan Merchan and will plead not guilty according to his lawyer Joe Tacopina.
As soon as court proceedings have concluded, Mr Trump will head back to LaGuardia Airport in Queens and return to Florida.
Security will be extremely tight around New York’s courts that day, which are based around Centre Street, a short distance from City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. A heavy police presence is planned and some roads will be blocked off.
Mr Trump has spent much of the time since the indictment, sequestered away at Mar-a-Lago angrily posting tirade after tirade against the indictment, Mr Bragg and Judge Merchan, as well as the “radical left” while complaining he cannot get a fair trial in New York.
Asked by MSNBC’s Jen Psaki if what the former president was posting might constitute a crime, former Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance said: “I think the president’s comments, tweets, writings and pictures are not just inappropriate. They’re wrong ... If I were Mr Trump’s lawyer, I would tell him to knock it off.”
He added that from a legal perspective, there is a misdemeanour crime under New York law that Mr Trump may be falling foul of, and it certainly wouldn’t help his case with the judge and a jury.
Nevertheless, the former president’s remarks on Tuesday are still expected to reflect his social media posts.
However, those same inflammatory posts could lead to a gag order being imposed by the judge (or at the request of Mr Bragg). This would not prohibit Mr Trump from speaking publicly, but it would prevent him from talking about the case.
In that case, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman noted on Sunday’s Face the Nation that the former president might want to make those remarks before heading to court – perhaps from Trump Tower – before any conditions are imposed on him.
Also on Sunday morning, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Mr Tacopina told George Stephanopoulos that the charges against the former president are politically motivated, and a direct result of his 2024 White House ambitions.
He argued that someone without public prominence would not be facing the same criminal charges and that all Americans should be outraged by the indictment.
The Trump legal team is reportedly going to request the trial be moved out of deep blue Democrat Manhattan to more conservative Staten Island across New York Harbour which Mr Trump won in 2020 with 57 per cent of the vote.
