Donald Trump is expected to fly Monday to New York for his historic arraignment on criminal charges, taking the United States and the office of the presidency into uncharted and potentially volatile territory.
The 76-year-old billionaire was indicted last week by a grand jury on a series of counts related to a hush-money payment made to an adult film star during the 2016 election campaign.
The Republican Party provocateur, who has already started a 2024 White House bid, is the first sitting or former US president ever charged with a crime.
His aides say Trump will decamp from his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and fly Monday to New York, his former base of operations.
There, as part of his arraignment scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, he will undergo the standard booking procedure of being fingerprinted and photographed, likely to result in one of the most famous mugshots of the modern era.
Trump, who plans to make public remarks Tuesday at 8:15 pm (0015 GMT Wednesday) from Florida, denounced the legal proceedings as a “witch hunt” and “political persecution”, and assailed the judge assigned to hear it.
It remains to be seen whether the famously unpredictable Trump will follow the script, or find a way to upend events.
