NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump on Monday bolstered his legal team with a white-collar criminal defense lawyer and traveled to Manhattan, where heavy security precautions were erected ahead of his court arraignment and booking as the first ex-president to be charged with crimes.
Mr. Trump hired former New York federal prosecutor Todd Blanche, who previously represented ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, for his unprecedented court appearance Tuesday in lower Manhattan.
A state judge is expected to unseal an indictment at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday charging Mr. Trump with multiple business fraud violations related to a $130,000 hush-money payment porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed a motion Monday asking the court to ban video and photo coverage of the arraignment. The former president is expected to be charged with roughly 30 criminal counts. Court administrators were bracing for an overflow media horde to cover his appearance before the judge.
As he flew Monday from his home in Florida where supporters waved campaign flags, Mr. Trump said Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has no case.” He reiterated that the prosecution is politically motivated to undermine his 2024 presidential bid.
“On Tuesday morning I will be going to, believe it or not, the Courthouse. America was not supposed to be this way!” Mr. Trump wrote on social media.
New York authorities beefed up security and warned potential protesters that the city was “not a playground for your misplaced anger.” Mayor Eric Adams singled out Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, an avid Trump supporter, with a warning to be on her “best behavior.”
“Although we have no specific threats, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is known to spread misinformation and hate speech, she stated she’s coming to town,” said Mr. Adams, a Democrat. “If one is caught participating in any act of violence they will be arrested no matter who you are. While there may be some rabble-rousers thinking about coming to our city [Tuesday], our message is clear and simple: control yourselves.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have asked the court for a change of venue from Manhattan to Staten Island, a more conservative city borough that he carried in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump said Monday that it’s “impossible” for him to get a fair trial in Manhattan, where he lost the election by 87% to 12%.
Legal analysts say the chances of success are unlikely.
“In my practice in state court, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of the granting a change of venue motion,” said Berth Merkin, who teaches criminal justice at the University of New Haven.
During the arraignment, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is widely expected to impose a gag order against Mr. Trump, which would limit how much the loquacious Mr. Trump could say about the case outside of a courtroom. But legal experts say the judge, whom Mr. Trump has said “hates me,” would have little power to enforce such an order.
The order could impose severe legal consequences if Mr. Trump continues to lash out at Mr. Bragg. Under New York law, violating a gag order is considered to be contempt of court, which carries a $1,000 fine and up to 30 days in jail.
Crafting the gag order could be a thorny issue for Justice Merchan because Mr. Trump has already declared his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The judge would have to balance imposing a gag order to ensure a fair trial without violating political speech protected by the First Amendment.
Legal experts say that Justice Marchan will likely issue a narrowly-tailored gag order barring Mr. Trump from speaking about evidence or using Mr.Bragg as a political foil. However, it is unlikely to go much further or bar Mr. Trump from speaking about the case.
“This will be as wide-scale gag order as you can possibly get,” said Robert Richards, founding director of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Penn State University. “I don’t see a blanket gag order that doesn’t allow him to give speeches, but would restrict a call to arms to his supporters or put restrictions on threatening behavior.”
Kevin O’Brien, a white-collar trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said Mr. Trump’s comments at his rally ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol will be at the forefront of the judge’s mind when considering the order.
“Trump does not have the luxury of a clean slate. Having said that, most judges would be extremely reluctant to impose a gag order on a criminal defendant, which would fly in the face of the First Amendment,” he said.
Enforcing the gag order will be another matter. Mr. Trump has frequently bucked the advice of his attorneys and court orders in his other legal dramas. There is no expectation that he would adhere to the gag order.
Justice Marchan has few remedies available if Mr. Trump does violate the gag order. Mr. O’Brien said the possibility of any criminal charges arising from skirting the gag order is “remote.”
Mr. Trump was spending Monday night at Trump Tower, his iconic residence and headquarters where he first announced his bid for the White House in 2015. A bank of television cameras stretched a full city block near the site, squeezing pedestrians into a tight and frustrating channel down Fifth Avenue.
Roger Stone and other Trump supporters urged protesters to keep it “peaceful” and “legal” at a Trump Tower flag-waving event. By lunchtime, pro-Trump demonstrators were waving large banners that read “Trump For President” and “Finish the Wall.”
Dion Cini, 54, of Brooklyn, said he is “out every day for Donald Trump” but he felt it was important to come to Trump Tower for the “conducted sh—show” unfolding in Midtown.
“All they want is two things: the mugshot and the gag order,” he said of the belief that the courts will try to keep Mr. Trump from talking about the case.
Mr. Cini echoed critics across the country who say it is a politically-motivated prosecution. He said Mr. Bragg is selective about who is charged in New York.
“I hope it brings over [to Trump’s side] a lot of New Yorkers who have been victims of crime,” he said.
Brett Thomas, 50, of New Orleans, was going to head home on Sunday but extended his vacation because of Mr. Trump’s return.
“To show up here and let him know that he has supporters,” Mr. Thomas said near Trump Tower.
Tourists who stumbled into the fray Monday wondered what all the fuss was about at the gilded building just blocks from Central Park.
Don Markley, 68, of Santa Clara, California, said his brother warned him it might be a circus in town
“And here I am right in the middle of it,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump deserves to have the book thrown at him for his election-fraud claims in 2020. “I can’t stand him.”
Mr. Bragg’s case hinges on whether Mr. Trump made unlawful reimbursements to then-attorney Michael Cohen, who paid Ms. Daniels on the cusp of the 2016 election for her to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump years earlier. Mr. Trump denies having an affair and says the charges are unfounded.
Mr. Blanche, the latest addition to Mr. Trump’s legal team, was a partner until recently at the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. He said in an email obtained by Politico that he was resigning from the firm because “I have been asked to represent Trump in the recently charged DA case, and after much thought/consideration, I have decided it is the best thing for me to do and an opportunity I should not pass up.”
Mr. Blanche did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Times. He spent nine years as a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, where he served as co-chief of the office’s Violent Crimes Unit. He also clerked for federal judges in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The New York Police Department and Secret Service are coordinating efforts to thwart any potential violence near Trump Tower or the courthouse.
Ms. Greene plans to hold a “peaceful” protest with the New York Young Republicans at a park directly across from the courthouse on Tuesday.
The prosecution is already having an impact on the 2024 presidential race, forcing Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals to take a stand on Mr. Bragg’s move.
GOP presidential hopeful and former Trump Cabinet member Nikki Haley came to Mr. Trump’s defense on Monday, saying Mr. Bragg is out for “political revenge” and that the drama is taking attention away from serious issues such as immigration.
“We should be talking about how now every state is now a border state,” Ms. Haley said while campaigning in Texas. “This is what we need to be talking about and this is where the focus needs to be because this is a national security threat to every American family.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet declared his candidacy for the GOP nomination, also sided with Mr. Trump last week, saying he wouldn’t aid New York authorities in a possible extradition of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump’s campaign team said he raised more than $5 million since the indictment was revealed on Thursday.
More than three out of four Americans believe “politics played a role” in the indictment of former President Donald Trump, according to a CNN poll released Monday.
The view held by 76% of respondents was shared widely among men and women, regardless of political affiliation. Overall, 60% of self-identified Democrats said politics was a factor, compared to 76% of independents and 93% of Republicans.
While a majority of Americans said politics was a determining factor for Mr. Trump’s indictment by the Manhattan grand jury, 60% of respondents also said they approved of the indictment of the former president.
The former president faces other legal predicaments. The Justice Department is investigating his handling of classified documents after leaving office, and special counsel Jack Smith is looking into the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
And in Georgia, a special grand jury has completed its work on possible criminal charges over Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election in the state in 2020. President Biden won the state by more than 11,000 votes.
• Jeff Mordock reported from Washington, where Seth McLaughlin and Haris Alic also contributed to this report.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.