Donald Trump will turn himself in to New York prosecutors on Tuesday rather than be “put in handcuffs”, as the former president readies himself for criminal charges that have shaken US politics ahead of the 2024 election.

Joe Tacopina, Trump’s defence attorney, on Friday said he expects the charges — the first criminal indictment in history of an ex-US president — to relate to payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels.

He added Trump would travel to the court from his Florida estate for Tuesday’s expected arraignment.

“He is not going to hole up in Mar-a-Lago,” Tacopina told US television networks. “The president will not be put in handcuffs.”

Trump’s prospective court appearance is set to shape the 2024 campaign, as could his reaction to the charges and other possible prosecutions. A federal probe is examining his handling of classified documents and possible liability for the January 6 2021 attack on Capitol Hill, while another investigation is taking place in Georgia.

The former president has vowed his push for a second term will not be halted by any criminal proceedings. The pending charges do not technically prevent him from seeking higher office.

Posting on his own Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump railed against the “Witch Hunt Case” in New York, adding that the judge reportedly assigned to it, Juan Manuel Merchan, “HATES ME”.

In an apparent reference to the novelty of the legal arguments he is expecting to be confronted with in Manhattan, he said such a case had “NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE”.

Manhattan prosecutors late on Thursday said they were co-ordinating Trump’s “surrender” with his legal team, after a grand jury voted behind closed doors to indict him.

Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Donald Trump who testified in front of the grand jury in recent weeks, has claimed he was ordered to pay $130,000 to Daniels to cover up an alleged affair.

Tacopina contended that the payments, made in the run-up to the 2016 election, were “completely legal”.

The payments have been the subject of a years-long probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which has been investigating whether the transactions were falsely recorded as legal fees by the Trump campaign, and whether this was a violation of campaign finance laws.

Speaking on NBC News, Tacopina said the records in question were purely internal. “No one else relied on them, no one else had to rely on them . . . there is no crime, there is not even a bad act,” he said. “I feel very concerned about the rule of law in this country.”

US president Joe Biden on Friday morning repeatedly refused to answer questions about his predecessor, telling reporters: “I’m not going to talk about the Trump indictment.”

Biden has not yet formally declared he will seek re-election. But the Democratic president is widely expected to pursue a second term, setting the stage for a possible rematch with Trump.

The former president’s critics and allies concur the charges may fuel his primary campaign and energise his most loyal supporters. But his legal woes could dent his chances in a general election. A Quinnipiac poll on Wednesday found 57 per cent of Americans said criminal charges should disqualify him from running for president.

Trump was the first national Republican to enter the 2024 race and opinion polls consistently show he remains the favourite contender among the Republican grassroots who will select the party’s nominee.

His potential Republican rivals were quick to jump to his defence after the indictment. Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, attacked Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he was “stretching the law to target a political opponent”.

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, who fell out with him over the 2021 attack on the Capitol, called the indictment an “outrage”, telling CNN: “It appears, for millions of Americans, to be nothing more than a political prosecution.”