Donald Trump is set to make history today as he becomes the first former or current US president to ever be arrested and charged with a crime.
The former president is scheduled to be arraigned before New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan at 2.15pm on Tuesday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Ahead of his arraignment, he will be booked – with his fingerprints taken and details recorded.
However, he will not be handcuffed or put in a jail cell, and he is not expected to have his mugshot taken.
The charges are currently unconfirmed – and will be unsealed at his arraignment – but reports suggest he will face 34 felony charges over his part in the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Manhattan prosecutors have been investigating whether Mr Trump falsified the Trump Organization’s business records when his former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen made the payment of $130,0000 to Ms Daniels.
Prosecutors claim that the money was used to silence Ms Daniels about an alleged affair she had with Mr Trump. Mr Trump has long denied having an affair with the adult film star.
Cohen was convicted of tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations related to the payments to Ms Daniels. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
On Thursday 30 March, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Mr Trump on criminal charges over the hush money payments.
Since then, Mr Trump has railed against the indictment in statements and posts on his Truth Social platform.
Following his unprecedented court appearance on Tuesday, Mr Trump is expected to fly straight back to Mar-a-Lago in Florida to deliver a primetime address at 8.15pm ET.
However, this plan could be derailed if the judge places Mr Trump under a gag order.
Will the judge issue a gag order?
Questions are mounting as to whether or not Judge Merchan decides to issue a gag order in the case.
Mr Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina told ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday morning that there is “no indication that there will be a gag order” being issued and has suggested that – if there was – it would be a violation of Mr Trump’s First Amendment rights.
“It can’t happen in this case. Look, when you have a gag order you have to balance a couple of things: The First Amendment which is important to all Americans and the right to a fair trial on both sides,” he said.
“So it’s a balancing act. Here you have something uniquely different.
“The defendant is the leading Republican candidate for the office of the president of the US and he will be campaigning.
“It’s hard to put a gag order when he will be fielding questions on his current legal situation but there has been no indication that there wil be a gag order imposed.”
However some legal experts have suggested that a gag order could be necessary given Mr Trump’s violent rhetoric and constant posting about the case already.
In both the days and weeks leading up to and in the aftermath of the 30 March grand jury vote to indict him on criminal charges, Mr Trump has lashed out at almost everyone involved in the case.
In furious Truth Social rants, he has attacked the man investigating the payments – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – and the man now overseeing the criminal case – Judge Merchan.
One now-deleted post say the former president post an image of himself waving a baseball bat close to Mr Bragg’s head.
In another he called the DA an “animal” while in another he warned of “death and destruction” if he were to be charged.
Duncan Levin, prominent criminal defence attorney and former assistant district attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office, told Business Insider that he thinks it is “extremely likely” that the judge will opt to impose a gag order in the case.
“Gag orders are very common in criminal cases, particularly in cases where there is an enormous amount of pretrial publicity like this one,” he said.
“This is a criminal case now, so the rules have changed, and the rules are no longer in [Trump’s] purview to make.
“He is a criminal defendant and we see hundreds of thousands of criminal defendants across the country every day who have a lot of rights stripped away from them and he is now one of them. These proceedings are going to change his life.”
What would a gag order mean for Trump?
Gag orders are not uncommon in criminal cases, as they are put in place to ensure that the defendant has a fair trial and that the jury pool is not influenced prior to a trial.
A gag order would restrict Mr Trump, his attorneys and any other individuals under the order from speaking publicly about the case outside of court documents and proceedings.
This would limit Mr Trump’s ability to use his criminal indictment as a boost to his 2024 political campaign – and bar him from speaking about the case on his Truth Social platform or during campaign rallies.
If he violated such an order, he could be found in contempt of court – something which could lead to him being slapped with a $1,000 fine or even a 30-day prison sentence.
