Trump accused by court of falsifying records to conceal crimes

Former US President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty inside a packed New York courtroom as he becomes the first American president to be arrested on criminal charges.

New York judge Juan Merchan released Trump from custody on Tuesday without any pre-trial restrictions at the historic arraignment Tuesday where he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, counts related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election.

Prosecutors accused Trump of paying two women to suppress their accounts of sexual encounters with him. The two women were adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Merchan added during the hour-long hearing that a trial could potentially start in January 2024, although Trump's lawyers indicated they would rather push it back to the spring.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that Trump“repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

Bragg said Trump arranged for the payment of $130,000 to Daniels to buy her silence about a 2006 sexual encounter.

A payment of $30,000 was made through an intermediary to a former Trump Tower doorman who was claiming that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock, Bragg said.

The final case involved a woman who received $150,000 from a US tabloid in exchange for not speaking about a sexual relationship she allegedly had with Trump.

The 76-year-old former president was expected to speak at length later including at a campaign-style event after the native New Yorker flies back to his estate in Florida.

The hearing marked a watershed moment for the US criminal and political system the year before an election in which Trump leads the race to be the Republican nominee.

"Seems so SURREAL -- WOW, they are going to ARREST ME," Trump posted on his Truth Social app as he headed to the courthouse from Trump Tower, where he spent the night before the hearing.

"Can't believe this is happening in America. MAGA!"

The twice-impeached Republican is the first sitting or former American president to be criminally indicted.

"Not guilty," Trump, 76, said when asked how he pleaded.

"We're going to fight it. We're going to fight it hard," Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters after the arraignment.

He added that Trump was frustrated, upset and angry about the charges.

"But I'll tell you what - he's motivated. And it's not going to stop him. And it's not going to slow him down. And it's exactly what he expected," Blanche continued.

The judge set the next court hearing for Dec. 4 and did not issue a gag order on any of the parties.

The arraignment comes amid growing tensions and political divisions in a watershed moment ahead of next year's presidential election.

Trump was indicted by a grand jury in New York after a years-long investigation into alleged hush money paid by his lawyer to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called for protests against what he describes as political persecution and election interference at the highest level in US history.

MG