Donald Trump is planning to deliver public remarks at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach at 8:15pm on Tuesday local time, after his arraignment earlier the same day.
Trump, 76, is being arraigned in New York on charges related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels for an alleged affair they had in 2006. He had been expecting the arrest for weeks.
Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, said more detail regarding the arraignment are expected to be resolved on Monday.
“All the Tuesday stuff is still very much up in the air, other than the fact that we will very loudly and proudly say, ‘Not guilty’,” Tacopino said to CNN.
“Hopefully this will be as painless and classy as possible for a situation like this.”
Tacopina portrayed the charges against Trump as a politically motivated attack to prevent him from seeking re-election in the US’ 2024 presidential election. Tacopina also said it was unlikely there would be a “perp walk” due to security concerns. Perp walks are when an individual is charged and then paraded to news media in high-profile cases.
The Trump campaign has not offered any details regarding what the former president will say at his public address on Tuesday night. A source familiar with the issue has told the press that they expect Trump will focus on what he believes is his political persecution regarding the arraignment, and “the political weaponization of the justice system to manipulate an election”.
Tacopina also said that Trump’s lawyers would scrutinise the indictment once it is made public and would look at “every potential issue” to challenge the charges.
“And of course I very much anticipate a motion to dismiss coming because there’s no law that fits this,” said Tacopina.
According to a New York court official the arraignment is set for Tuesday, 2:15pm local time, and the judge requested both sides to submit their positions on whether to allow cameras and video in the courtroom.
Reuters reported that a small group of Donald Trump supporters gathered on a bridge across from Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, including a 58-year-old woman who drove 23 hours from Detroit.
“I’m here because I want to support my president — it’s a simple concept,” Debbie Macchia told a reporter, noting that she had been sleeping in her car since Thursday.