Trump protesters clash outside Manhattan courthouse ahead of historic arraignment

The drama at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse began hours before Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday when some of his fervent fans clashed with aggrieved protesters as the tension and anticipation surrounding his historic appearance bubbled over.

The former president is expected to leave Trump Tower for the downtown courthouse in Manhattan at 10.30am today, flanked by a Secret Service and NYPD motorcade that will trigger rolling road closures.

Outside Trump Tower, Democrat protesters clanged cowbells and commanded the former president to ‘wake up and smell the justice’.

At the courthouse, journalists from around the world lined up through the night to ensure their space in the courtroom. After dawn, protesters on both sides descended on the building and were separated by NYPD barricades.

Trump fan Juliet Germanotta threw herself at an anti-Trump banner and attempted to rip it up. She was met with incredulity from the protesters who’d erected it and a scrappy back-and-forth ensued.

‘You’re on the wrong side!’ yelled the anti-Trump crowd, grabbing at the flag that the woman was trying to remove in a clumsy tug of war. A second Trump fan was heard yelling: ‘Get out of here you old bag of bones!’

Pushing herself into her counterpart’s face, the Trump fan then threatened quietly: ‘I have COVID!’

Disgraced Congressman George Santos made a surprise appearance and was warmly greeted by Germanotta, a well-known Republican protester.

The crowds of fans were nowhere near the size of those who gathered in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

Instead, a handful of smaller groups and individuals turned out to show their support.

Among them was Ricardo “Ricky Superstar” Varano, a 62-year-old, 7/11 cashier from the Bronx.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘If he goes down I’ll go down. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. I’m here to make people feel this is real, I’m with Donald Trump all the way. This indictment is phony. It’s a hoax.

‘They have to find something because they see these rallies and they see he is building so they want to stop him.

‘How can you stop people who are encouraging people and trying to make the world a better. We had no problems under him as president for four years.

‘I’m going down to the courthouse!’

Julie Delaurier, 66, retired from Brooklyn, wearing a black t-shirt with Arrest Trump on it and holding a mock up image of Trump behind bars

‘I am celebrating the fact that Trump will finally see the outside of the court room after decades of criminal enterprise. I face the same law and my son saw the inside of a court room for jumping a turnstile so I think Trump can for this too.

‘He answers to the same law as you and I do and everyone else. We are finally seeing the rule of law,’ she told DailyMail.com outside Trump Tower.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose career will be defined by the controversial case, was seen quietly slipping into his office a few hours earlier, while Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene prepared to host her own protest nearby.

She was warned yesterday by New York City Mayor Eric Adams to be on her ‘best behavior’ while in town.

Trump’s attorneys say he will speak outside the courthouse before going inside, then will speak again afterwards before making his way back to  his plane at LaGuardia airport. The arraignment begins at 2.15pm.

The indictment – the first against any former US president – has been met with glee among Trump’s political enemies and disgust among many Republicans, who see it as nothing more than a biased attempt by left-wing prosecutors to stop him from returning to office.

The case has bolstered support among his die-hard donors and fans; in Massachusetts and New Hampshire Trump now leads main rival Ron DeSantis.

Trump now leads in both states. In Massachusetts, he has a 24 point lead on DeSantis, according to new Boston Herald/Opinion Diagnostics poll. In New Hampshire, his lead is narrower at 13 percent.

Since the indictment was handed down last Thursday, Trump’s team says he has raised a record $8million in donations.

Trump last night demanded that Alvin Bragg hand himself in for ‘illegally leaking’ details of indictment that includes 34 felony counts.

Trump is not expected to have to pose for a mugshot, not will he be led into court in handcuffs.

His fingerprints will, however, be taken.

While the full contents of the indictment remain secret, details have slowly leaked since the grand jury decided to bring charges last week.

Some 34 felony counts are expected, though it remains unclear what those are.

In a Truth Social post last night, Trump fumed: ‘D.A. BRAGG JUST ILLEGALLY LEAKED THE 33 points of Indictment.

‘There are no changes or surprises from those he leaked days ago directly out of the Grand Jury.

‘No Crime by Trump. What a MESS. Bragg should resign. NOW!’

Reporters began lining up outside the court at 2pm on Monday – 21 hours ahead of the hearing.

By 6am there were more than 120 in line with dozens of TV cameras pointing at the courthouse and 20 satellite trucks parked on the streets.

Reporters had eaten pizza and bagels during the night and handed out bananas down the line in the morning.

Police barricades lined all the streets around the court with half a dozen officers on every corner.

In the building there were two overflow rooms for the press and public with a capacity of 260 people.

Judge Merchan banned TV cameras from the courtroom after Trump’s lawyers objected, but he did allow still photographers in court.

Photographers were allowed to shoot from the corridor leading to the courtroom as well.

Reporters have also been banned from using electronics in the courtroom, the judge ruled, saying that anyone caught using a phone or laptop would have it confiscated.

The ruling came after Trump’s lawyers argued against cameras in court because it would create a ‘circus-like atmosphere’

They claimed it could raise security concerns and was ‘inconsistent with President Trump’s presumption of innocence’.

Trump, who was impeached twice by the U.S. House but was never convicted in the U.S. Senate, will become the first former president to face criminal charges. The nation’s 45th commander in chief will be escorted from Trump Tower to the courthouse by the Secret Service and may have his mug shot taken.

The former reality-TV star has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, raising millions of dollars since the indictment on claims of a ‘witch hunt.’

He has personally assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest, and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case ‘hates me’ – something Trump’s own lawyer has said is not true.

Trump is scheduled to return to his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, this evening to hold a rally, punctuating his new reality: submitting to the dour demands of the American criminal justice system while projecting an aura of defiance and victimhood at celebratory campaign events.

A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.

Inside the Manhattan courtroom, prosecutors led by New York’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, are expected to unseal the indictment issued last week by a grand jury.

This is when Trump and his defense lawyers will get their first glimpse of the precise allegations against him.

The indictment includes multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press last week.

After the arraignment, Trump is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set.

The investigation is scrutinizing six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics.

Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.

The arraignment will unfold against the backdrop of heavy security in New York, coming more than two years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s win.

Though police said they had no intelligence suggesting any violence was likely, they were on high alert for any potential disruptions.

‘While there may be some rabble rousers thinking of coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: Control yourselves,’ Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Monday.

Trump pollster John McLaughlin said the former president would approach the day with ‘dignity.’

‘He will be a gentleman,’ McLaughlin said. ‘He’ll show strength and he’ll show dignity and … we’ll get through this and win the election.’

The public fascination with the case was evident Monday as national television carried live images of Trump’s motorcade from his Mar-a-Lago club to his red, white and blue Boeing 757. From there, he was flown to New York, where he was expected to spend the night at Trump Tower before turning himself in the following day.

The former president and his aides are embracing the media circus. After initially being caught off guard when news of the indictment broke Thursday evening, Trump and his team are hoping to use the case to his advantage. Still, they asked the judge in a Monday filing to ban photo and video coverage of the arraignment.

Though prosecutors routinely insist that no person is above the law, bringing criminal charges against a former president carries instant logistical complications.

New York’s ability to carry out safe and drama-free courthouse proceedings in a case involving a polarizing ex-president could be an important test case as prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington conduct their own investigations of Trump that could also result in charges.

Those investigations concern efforts to undo the 2020 election results as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Top Republicans, including some of Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s GOP presidential primary, have decried the case against him. President Joe Biden, who has yet to formally announce that he’s seeking reelection next year, and other leading Democrats have largely had little to say about it.

Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, was campaigning on Monday near the U.S.-Mexico border as part of her presidential bid and suggested that coverage of the former president’s indictment was distracting from other key issues, like immigration.

But even she added, ‘You’ve got a liberal prosecutor that’s doing political revenge against a former president.’

Prosecutors say their case against Trump has nothing to do with politics.