NEW YORK—Hundreds of passionate supporters and opponents of Donald Trump turned out Tuesday for his scheduled arrest and arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court, creating a carnival-like scene here.
A Manhattan grand jury last week indicted Trump on charges believed related to the payment of supposed hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels before his race for president in 2016. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, led the investigation leading to a controversial sealed indictment delivered late Thursday to the court.
Here is some of what I saw and tweeted about—including video—beginning just after 11 a.m. Tuesday outside the courthouse in Manhattan, before Trump arrived to turn himself in to authorities for processing and for his arraignment. The former president was expected to plead not guity to all charges.
The first criminal charges brought against a former president attracted many supporters who seem to agree with Trump that if a politically weaponized justice system can do this to a former president, they can do it to any American.
The specific counts in the sealed indictment, said to be 34, were expected to be revealed during the arraignment, from which cameras were banned.
Supporters also echoed Trump’s characterization of his indictment as a continuation of the “witch hunt” that plagued him both during and after his presidency.
Opponents and supporters traded chants and gibes with each other.
Trump opponents on the scene seemed to delight in chracterizing the former president’s followers as Nazis.
One woman who turned out to oppose Trump was scantily dressed and delighted in writhing and twerking for cameras, which The Daily Signal can’t show as a family publication.
The crowd seemed to become more animated as Trump’s expected arrival at the courthouse neared.
Authorities wisely trid to keep Trump opponents separated from his supporters.
Here is a good example of how many Trump supporters seem to feel on this historic day.
Amid all this, it was somehow reassuring to see an impersonator dressed up as Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s first Republican president.
I was able to move over to the area where police confined Trump opponents.
Both sides continued to blow off steam by yelling at each other.
Bragg’s record as a soft-on-crime prosecutor clearly annoyed Trump supporters who view this prosecution as politically motivated. As I wrote last week, for those on the Left who openly support the Trump indictment, one of the go-to lines has been: “Nobody is above the law!”
But as I wrote, Bragg became infamous for a Day One memo highlighting how under his leadership, many serious crimes wouldn’t be prosecuted.
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report on a developing story that may be updated.
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NEW YORK—Hundreds of passionate supporters and opponents of Donald Trump turned out Tuesday for his scheduled arrest and arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court, creating a… Read More
The post What I Saw Outside Trump’s Arraignment at Manhattan Courthouse appeared first on The Daily Signal.
