Trump surrenders, pleads not guilty to felony charges

ATLANTA (Pajhwok): Former US president Donald Trump has been arrested formally after he surrendered to a court in New York.

As Trump — the first US president to face criminal charges — surrendered to the court late on Tuesday, strict security measures were put in place in New York City.

A day before his court appearance, Trump went from Florida to New York, where he stayed in Trump Tower, the Voice of America reported.

On his way to the court, the ex-president wrote on his own social media page Truth Social: “It looks quite real, they would arrest me. I can’t believe it, it happens in America.”

Trump has been charged with paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, a prone films star, to suppress the publication of their sexual encounter unpublicized during the 2016 presidential elections.

In the court, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The indictment papers show he violated election laws to suppress the publication of negative information about him ahead of the 2016 election.

Reuters quoted Alvin Bragg, New York’s district attorney, as saying the former president made a payment to a doorman at Trump Tower, who said he had fathered a child out of wedlock.

Following his court appearance, before which he was taken into custody, the ex-president returned to his residence in Florida.

“We’re going to fight it. We’re going to fight it hard,” Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told journalists after the arraignment.

December 4 is the next court hearing for Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination for next year’s election.

According to the Associated Press and the New York Times, Trump only had his fingerprints taken for the record.

aw/mud