Trump indictment latest news today: Donald Trump to surrender for arraignment at Manhattan court

Oh dear. It’s already going badly for the scandal-plagued New York representative on the streets of that fair city, where he is being teased and taunted about accusations that he repeatedly lied about aspects of his past.

Gustaf Kilander has more.

The defendant may come to represent a major problem for the Republican Party going forward, in thrall as it is to his not necessarily very helpful influence (as demonstrated by last November’s lacklustre midterm results).

However, the populist wing of the GOP is continuing to support him over the indictment, with MTG and George Santos (or so he says) stepping out in the Big Apple to protest “the weaponisation of the justice system” against him.

Meanwhile, spare a thought for this poor couple on their big day.

Here’s Rachel Sharp with more on Marge on the march.

Since leaving the White House, Donald Trump has continued to face a cloud of lawsuits and investigations, which could frustrate his hopes to win back the presidency in 2024.

On 30 March, one of those investigations took a major step forward when a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Mr Trump on criminal charges over the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the days before the 2016 presidential election.

It is currently unclear what the charges are but multiple reports say he is facing a staggering 30 counts – making Mr Trump the first current or former US president to ever face criminal charges.

Of course, this is nothing new for the real estate billionaire.

Here’s what you need to know about all the major investigations and lawsuits against Donald Trump.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s estranged former “fixer”, scoffed at his old boss’s “waning” public support last night, comparing the turnout of his supporters in the Big Apple with a “bake sale” after the former president landed in New York ahead of a historic arraignment hearing.

The twice-impeached populist will reportedly face 34 felony charges for falsification of business records in connection to hush money payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

A Manhattan grand jury on 30 March voted to indict Mr Trump on criminal charges over hush money payments just before the 2016 presidential election.

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar has more.

Stormy Daniels was dancing her way through a “Make America Horny Again” tour when news emerged that she had received hush money payments from Donald Trump.

As those payments sit at the centre of an indictment against Trump, Io Dodds explains how Daniels landed in the middle of a political firestorm.

Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina was on Good Morning America today with co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, where they discussed today’s upcoming arraignment of the former president.

“It won’t be a long day in court,” Tacopina said, adding: “There will be no guilty plea in this case. That’s the one thing I can guarantee you.”

He complained that prosecutors had not shared substantive details regarding the indictment and declared that Trump’s team will be “making a lot of motions,” including selective prosecution and a motion to dismiss.

The attorney also says there was “no indication that there will be a gag order” imposed on Trump, meaning his big statement planned for this evening can go ahead.

The Independent’s Richard Hall is at the Lower Manhattan courthouse surveying the scene. He writes:

“Journalists have been lining up since yesterday afternoon outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump will be arraigned on Tuesday.

“More than a hundred are currently waiting on line to receive a ticket that will allow them access to the proceedings this afternoon – but not all of them will get a spot in the courtroom.

“When the doors open at 8am, journalists in the line will be given a colour coded ticket that will determine whether they will be granted access to the courtroom or an overflow room.

“Such is the competition for spots that some news organisations hired professional line sitters to hold their spot overnight.

“Some of those spotters have their own mini tents, chargers galore, snacks and heaters.

“The Independent arrived early this morning with a flask full of coffee.”

This was the scene outside of the court in the early hours of the morning when prospective spectators began to arrive and queue for tickets.

The New York prosecutor has been tight-lipped about his office’s investigation into the former president, who has made history as the first ever to face a criminal indictment, Alex Woodward reports.

Eric Garcia, The Independent’s chief Washington correspondent, says that Republican officials have missed their chance to get rid of the Trump “albatross” from around the party’s neck and now face the prospect of a running an election campaign with a candidate tackling criminal charges against him in several jurisdictions.

He writes: “Doing so would have allowed them to no longer have to defend his every action, keep the focus on the Biden administration. They could have actively opposed candidates he endorsed and supported more electable candidates in the 2022 midterm election where he supported clunkers and election deniers. Any amount of political pain or blowback they suffered would prove infinitesimal to the benefits of dumping him.

“Instead, they are stuck answering for Mr Trump and have to defer to him on any particular whim without any clear political benefit.”

Sixty per cent of Americans believe Donald Trump should face criminal charges in New York, according to a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS following the news that a New York grand jury voted for his indictment in connection with hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

That includes 94 per cent of Democratic voters in the poll, and roughly 62 per cent of Independents. Seventy-nine per cent of Republican voters disapprove of the indictment and 54 per cent strongly disapprove.

Those results follow polling from ABC News/Ipsos shows that a plurality of Americans (45 per cent) believe the former president should be charged with a crime in the Daniels case.

In that poll of 593 respondents, taken between 30 March and 1 April, around half (49 per cent) of those polled also feel that Trump should be charged with a crime for his actions related to the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, and (51 per cent) say he should face charges for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.