NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday in front of a New York state judge to 34 charges of falsifying business records, as he became the first ex-president in history to be arrested for alleged crimes.

A grim-faced Mr. Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, turned himself in at a courthouse in lower Manhattan for booking and a reading of the charges involving hush-money payments to a porn star in 2016.

Accompanied by his legal team and Secret Service agents, Mr. Trump reiterated that he is the victim of a political prosecution to undermine his new campaign for the White House. He called his arrest “surreal.”

“Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!,” he wrote on social media.

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