JAKARTA - Former US President Donald Trump will fly from Florida to New York City on Monday, ahead of scheduled charges related to mouthtones paid to a porn star before the 2016 elections, with security in Manhattan tightened.
Trump, the first former US president to face criminal charges, will be charged, fingerprinted, and photographed at a court building in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday. His lawyers said he would file an innocent defense.
Specific allegations included in the jury's indictment have not been disclosed. Tuesday's indictment marked Trump's first appearance in court and before the judge in this case.
The businessman, who is now a Republican politician, plans to travel from his Mar-a-Lago at Palm Beach in the middle of the day on Monday, arriving in the afternoon in New York and spending the night at Trump Tower in Manhattan, before visiting the court building on Tuesday morning, an adviser said.
Meanwhile, a court official said the reading of the indictment was planned for 14:15 local time on Tuesday. Trump will then return to Florida and deliver a speech in Mar-a-Lago at 20:15 on Tuesday, his office said.
News of the indictment, which emerged from an investigation led by Manhattan district attorney from the Democratic Party, Alvin Bragg, surfaced last Thursday. Trump called himself innocent, describing the charges politically motivated.
Trump is expected to appear before Judge Juan Merchant, the judge who also presided over last year's criminal trial, in which real estate company Trump was found guilty of tax fraud. Trump himself was not indicted in the case.
Prior to the indictment, the jury listened to evidence of a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels said he was paid to remain silent about the sexual relations he had with Trump at a hotel in Lake Tahoe in 2006. Trump denied the affair.
Joe Tacopina, a Trump lawyer said on Sunday he expects more details around the indictment to be finalized on Monday, noting that Secret Service, which protects former presidents, also has a role to play on Tuesday.
Tacopina said it was unlikely there would be a "perp walk" - abbreviation of the perpetrator of the crime - in which someone who had been charged would be paraded in front of the media, due to security concerns.
Tacopina added Trump's lawyers would "split" the indictment after it was published and would look at "any potential issues" to challenge, adding he was anticipating at some point that he would file a motion to cancel the indictment.
"To be honest I don't know how this will go - hopefully as smoothly as possible - and then we start a battle to correct this mistake," Tacopina said in CNN's "State of the Union" program.
Separately, due to Trump's planned arrival, New York police over the weekend began building barricades along the sidewalks around Trump Tower and the Manhattan Criminal Court building in the city center, while several other courtrooms would be vacated.
Demonstrations are expected to occur at these locations and the police are preparing to anticipate them.
"Officers have been alerted and the department remains ready to respond as needed and will ensure everyone can use their rights peacefully," the New York Police Department said in a statement.
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