Former US President Donald Trump will speak in Florida on Tuesday afternoon after being arraigned in New York City on charges related to bribing a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, his office said.
Trump is expected to be fingerprinted and photographed before being arraigned before a judge in a New York courthouse and released on parole.
His attorney, Joe Tacopina, told ‘s “State of the Union” on Sunday that his defense team will seek to have the charges thrown out, after reviewing them.
The indictment stems from an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, and has not been released. Susan Necheles, also a lawyer for Trump, said Friday that the former president will plead not guilty.
Trump, who has launched a campaign to regain the presidency in 2024, plans to fly to New York on Monday from his Mar-a-Lago, Florida residence and spend the night at his Trump Tower building before appearing in court. on Tuesday, a person familiar with the process told Reuters last week.
His office announced in a statement Sunday that he will then return to Mar-a-Lago and speak at 8:15 p.m.
The Trump campaign declined to comment on what he might say Tuesday night.
A source familiar said he is likely to say the charges are part of a political persecution against him and “the use of the justice system as a political weapon to rig an election.”
The judge who will preside over Tuesday’s arraignment, Juan Merchan, also presided over the criminal trial last year in which Trump’s real estate company was found guilty of tax evasion, although there were no personal charges against Trump.
Trump has criticized Bragg and Merchan.
“We won’t do anything during the arraignment because all of that will be show and nothing more, and because we haven’t seen the charges,” Tacopina said. “We’ll read the charges … and we’ll look at every potential point that we can challenge, and we’ll challenge them.”
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