Donald Trump, the first former US president to be indicted, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal counts in the Manhattan district attorney’s case against him, amid an intense national debate over the prosecution.

Trump, who is making a comeback bid for the White House, was arraigned on Tuesday afternoon following his 30 March indictment by a New York state grand jury. The city’s police department, the US Secret Service and other authorities remained on high alert given the political firestorm over the case.

Donald Trump walks towards the courtroom inside New York Criminal Court in New York City on 4 April 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Justin Lane)

The Manhattan district attorney’s office explained the alleged criminal acts in a legal filing known as a statement of facts accompanying the indictment.

“In order to execute the unlawful scheme, the participants violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York,” according to the filing. 

From misdemeanour to felony

The 34 counts are ordinarily misdemeanours under New York law, but are charged as felonies in the case because they were allegedly committed in the service of another crime — in this case, promoting Trump’s candidacy by unlawful means. They are all Class E felonies that carry maximum penalties under state law of as many as four years in prison.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg told reporters at a press conference after the arraignment that the case had a place in one of the core missions of his office: to prosecute white-collar crime.

“True and accurate business records are important everywhere, to be sure,” Bragg said. “They are all the more important in Manhattan, the financial centre of the world.”

The indictment stems from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s probe of hush money payments made just before the 2016 election to cover up an alleged decade-old affair. Trump’s then lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, now a fierce critic, has testified that his boss covertly reimbursed him for the payments.

Demonstrators protest against Donald Trump at Collect Pond Park near the courthouse ahead of his arraignment hearing on 4 April 2023 in New York City. (Photo: Michael M Santiago / Getty Images)

Demonstrators protest against former Donald Trump at Collect Pond Park near the courthouse ahead of his arraignment hearing on 4 April 2023 in New York City. (Photo: Michael M Santiago / Getty Images)

A protester holds a sign while gathering outside the courthouse where Donald Trump was to arrive later in the day for his arraignment on 4 April 2023 in New York City. (Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

Falsifying business records can be a misdemeanour under New York law. For prosecutors to prove Trump committed a felony, they would have to show it was part of an effort to commit or conceal a second crime.

Trump denies the affair and any illegal acts. His lawyer Joe Tacopina promised Sunday on CNN that his client would plead not guilty “very loudly and proudly”.

Trump’s perils

Trump (76) must now grapple with the criminal case even as he pursues the Republican nomination in the 2024 race. It comes as he faces a separate probe of his bid to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia, as well as a federal special counsel’s inquiry into those efforts and his handling of government documents. Either or both of those investigations could result in criminal charges on top of Bragg’s.

Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court on 4 April 2023 in New York. (Photo: Kena Betancur / Getty Images)

Trump also faces civil lawsuits by New York’s attorney-general, who accused him of manipulating property valuations, and a writer who alleges he raped her, which he denies.

He says the indictment and the pending probes and suits are baseless and part of a partisan effort to take him down. Bragg, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis and New York AG Letitia James are Democrats. Special Counsel Jack Smith is registered as a political independent.

The New York prosecution alone has sparked an intense national debate and a showdown between Republican and Democratic leaders, including one between Bragg and House Republicans seeking his testimony about the probe. 

As local authorities prepared for the arraignment, the New York Young Republican Club promoted what it called a peaceful rally for Trump across from the courthouse on Tuesday morning. It featured US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a champion of Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Donald Trump sits in the courtroom for his arraignment in New York Criminal Court in New York City on 4 April 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Curtis Means / Pool)

Familiar judge

The 45th president flew to New York from Florida on Monday and proceeded by motorcade to Trump Tower to prepare for his court appearance. Also on Monday, Trump’s lawyer Tacopina confirmed that his client had added former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche to his defence team. Bragg announced a press conference to follow the arraignment.

On Tuesday, Trump surrendered himself for booking and, at about 2.30pm, walked into the courtroom for his arraignment before New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. Merchan presided over the state’s case against Allen Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization chief financial officer who pleaded guilty to tax fraud in August. Weisselberg went on to testify against two Trump Organization units convicted of tax fraud in December, also under Merchan.

A Trump impersonator takes a ride past Trump Tower in New York City on 4 April 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Peter Foley)

Those cases, both brought by the Manhattan DA’s office, have some overlap with the current prosecution. If Weisselberg testified against his old boss, it would be a coup for Bragg.

Hush money’s history

Bragg inherited the case from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr. Last year, when two senior prosecutors urged him to support an indictment of Trump, Bragg paused the investigation, not convinced it was ready. That decision caused the two prosecutors to leave the office, one of whom became a vocal critic.

At his press conference Tuesday, Bragg explained his decision to proceed with the prosecution. He said it was partly because his office had uncovered “additional evidence” in the past year, though he didn’t say what it was.

The hush money was previously investigated by Manhattan federal prosecutors who gave Weisselberg limited immunity. He testified before a federal grand jury probing the payments in 2018. That case resulted in a guilty plea and a three-year prison sentence for Cohen, who testified twice before Bragg’s grand jury and is expected to be a key prosecution witness in the current case.

Federal prosecutors decided against charging Trump over the payments, in part because the Justice Department has a decades-old policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted.

A small photo of Donald Trump outside Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on 4 April 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Justin Lane)

In the closing days of the 2016 campaign, Trump spoke several times by phone with Cohen, who said Trump directed the payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and then reimbursed him for them. Documents later unsealed in the federal case show a flurry of calls and text messages that October involving Cohen, campaign press secretary Hope Hicks and top aide Kellyanne Conway, scrambling to prevent Daniels from going public with her claims.

Hicks and Conway are among a gaggle of prominent potential witnesses, including Trump Organization Controller Jeffrey McConney, who have flowed in and out of Bragg’s offices since the grand jury was convened in January.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal also figured in Bragg’s probe. Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, said on Sunday on CNN that his client and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker both provided the Manhattan grand jury with evidence about hush money payments made to McDougal before the 2016 election. Pecker testified twice before the grand jury and was spotted leaving the courthouse last week. DM

Reporting by Patricia Hurtado, Chris Dolmetsch, Greg Farrell and Erik Larson. With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron, Zoe Tillman, David Voreacos, Laura Litvan and Emily Birnbaum.