Trump to be charged on Tuesday

Donald Trump will be placed under arrest Tuesday and told he has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, according to a source briefed on the former president’s arraignment proceedings. A New York City police arrest report outlining the charges against Trump will then be prepared and entered into the court system before he is taken to a courtroom to be formally arraigned on the charges, none of which which are misdemeanors.

But, the source said, Trump will not be handcuffed, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mugshot, typical procedures even for white-collar defendants until a judge has assessed pre-trial conditions. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which has been consulting with Secret Service and New York City law enforcement officials, concluded there was no reason to subject the former president to handcuffs or a mugshot.

Charges on Donald Trump

The stated reason for handcuffing the defendants is that they might pose a flight risk or threat to the district attorney or court staff, neither of whom were considered relevant to the handling of a former president protected at all times by a phalanx of the Secret Service. agents

The charge of falsifying business records can be prosecuted in New York State as a misdemeanor. But Bragg’s office upgraded all charges to Class E felonies, the lowest level of felonies in the New York state penal code, on the grounds that the conduct was intended to conceal another underlying crime, according to the fountain.

Under the New York State Penal Code, a conviction for the Class E felony falsification of business records can result in a prison sentence of up to four years. But as a practical matter, that seems extremely unlikely. “Nobody goes to jail for that as a first offender,” said an NYPD officer.

The evidence of the underlying crime that escalated Trump’s alleged misdemeanors to felonies is still unclear and won’t be until the indictment is unsealed Tuesday. But it is believed to be related to paying $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels during the final weeks of the 2016 election to hide an extramarital affair with Trump.Read More…….