Trump arraignment live updates: Indicted and arrested ex-president in courtroom facing charges

Trump is seen in this photo appearing in Manhattan Supreme Court before the start of his arraignment on a grand jury indictment.

Trump is expected to plead not guilty.

Cameras were barred from taking photos or video during the arraignment after it got underway.

— Dan Mangan

Trump’s arraignment began around 2:30 p.m. ET, in the first time in history a former American president has appeared in court to face a criminal charge.

Trump is expected to plead not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court. He also is expected to be released without bail.

— Dan Mangan

A grim-faced Trump walked into the courtroom without speaking to reporters on his way in.

His arraignment was set to begin just before 2:30 p.m. ET.

Trump’s legal team walked into court before he did.

— Dan Mangan

Trump’s arraignment was delayed for 15 minutes, NBC News reported.

Trump was due to appear in a Manhattan Supreme Court courtroom at 2:15 p.m. ET.

That time came and passed, even as District Attorney Alvin Bragg was seen on cameras set up in a hallway outside the court.

— Dan Mangan

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement before Trump’s arraignment that “there’s no place in our justice system for any outside influence or intimidation in the legal process.”

“I believe that Mr. Trump will have a fair trial that follows the facts and the law,” Schumer said. “As the trial proceeds, protest is an American right but all protests must be peaceful.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump lost an appeal to block multiple former White House aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, from testifying to a federal grand jury investigating his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, NBC News reported.

In late March, a federal district court judge ruled that the aides would have to testify. In addition to Meadows, they included former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, former national security advisor Robert O’Brien, former senior aide Stephen Miller, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, former deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, former assistant Nick Luna and former White House Presidential Personnel Office director John McEntee.

A three-judge panel on the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected an emergency motion seeking to stay the lower court’s ruling, a court docket entry reveals.

— Dan Mangan

Trump arrived at a courthouse in lower Manhattan to be arrested and arraigned on criminal charges.

Watch the video of his arrival below:

Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina told NBC News that if prosecutors give defense lawyers a copy of the indictment against the former president during the arraignment, they may ask Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan for a brief recess.

Tacopina’s potential timeout would give the defense team time to review that charging document, which remains sealed for now.

— Dan Mangan

Trump did not make an audible statement as he entered Manhattan criminal court to surrender to authorities.

Video of the heavily guarded area shows Trump walking straight from a motorcade into the building.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump called the moment he was heading to the courthouse for his arraignment “surreal.”

Trump, as he arrived to the courthouse to turn himself in, wrote on Truth Social: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!”

The comments were the first Trump made during his trip to the courthouse for an arraignment, following an indictment by a New York grand jury.

— Brian Schwartz

Trump arrived at Manhattan Supreme Court to surrender to authorities on the grand jury indictment.

Trump was taken to the court in a motorcade from Trump Tower in Midtown.

— Dan Mangan

Trump has departed his midtown Manhattan skyscraper and is headed south to the courthouse where he will become the first former president in U.S. history to be arraigned on criminal charges.

Trump emerged from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue around 1:08 p.m. ET. Clad in a dark suit, white shirt and signature bright red tie, he briefly waved and raised a fist to onlookers watching from beyond a barricade before he left.

— Kevin Breuninger

Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., defended his decision to quickly depart from the area around the Manhattan courthouse prior to the pro-Trump protest he was reportedly planning to attend.

“Say what you want, I showed up what about you?” Santos tweeted early Tuesday afternoon, adding the hashtag “#TrumpArraignment.”

Santos left the area around 10 a.m. ET, telling NBC News at the time that he won’t be returning because of “media chaos.”

— Kevin Breuninger

Melania Trump will not be in court when her husband is arraigned on criminal charges related to a hush money payment to a porn star who says she had sex with him.

Donald Trump has denied having sex with Stormy Daniels in 2006, months after Melania gave birth to their son Barron.

But he reimbursed his then-personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 Cohen gave Daniels to keep her quiet shortly before the 2016 presidential election.

— Dan Mangan

The upper floors of the Manhattan courthouse where Trump will soon be arraigned are being cleared of all operations in advance of a security sweep, NBC News reported, citing senior security officials.

Once the sweep is complete, members of the press and other people who have obtained the tickets required to attend the court proceedings will be let into the building, according to NBC.

— Kevin Breuninger

New York police officials estimate that there are about 300 pro-Trump protestors near Manhattan Supreme Court, compared to about 150 people demonstrating their displeasure with the former president, NBC reported.

Several hundred members of the media.

— Dan Mangan

While running for Manhattan district attorney in 2020, Alvin Bragg said that while there were a “staggering” number of cases around then-President Trump, he was struck by one involving a hush money payment made to a porn star by Trump’s former personal lawyer.

“You know, we haven’t talked about Michael Cohen yet and the campaign finance part,” Bragg told BS News in an interview, referring to Trump’s one-time fixer.

Bragg said at the time he had followed press reports about Cohen’s federal criminal case. The former Trump lawyer pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation related to paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels at Trump’s direction.

As DA, Bragg resurrected the criminal probe into Trump in connection with that payment, which resulted in a grand jury indicting the former president on Thursday.

— Dan Mangan

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said in an interview that she plans to go Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s private Florida club, after he gets arraigned.

Trump is scheduled to address the nation from Mar-a-Lago this evening after his arraignment in New York on an indictment by a Manhattan grand jury.

Greene, in that same interview with Right Side Broadcasting after she abruptly left a pro-Trump rally outside the courthouse where Trump will appear, seemed to compare Trump to Jesus.

“President Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested; served time in prison. Jesus. Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government,” Greene said.

— Brian Schwartz

Trump’s Republican presidential rivals, both those who have declared candidacies and those who are expected to join the race, have largely opted to respond to Trump’s indictment by attacking the Manhattan DA’s probe.

But the former president’s primary opponents may sharpen their tone against the current GOP frontrunner as the contest heats up, Republican operatives predicted to NBC News.

That move could be a fraught one for any Republican presidential contender, as attacking Trump could risk alienating swaths of the GOP electorate. Some GOP sources told NBC that a shift in tone could be months away, possibly during a primary debate.

Trump has appeared to gain ground in recent polls of the possible primary field. A Republican strategist told CNBC in a recent interview that the charges could unify GOP voters against DA Alvin Bragg. One operative told NBC, however, that the former president’s legal troubles could drag Trump down in a general election.

— Kevin Breuninger