Trump expands defense team for day in court

Former US president Donald Trump will enter a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon with a new lead counsel to defend him from criminal charges and face a "no-nonsense judge" who will read a criminal indictment against him.

Trump's office announced the hiring of Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor, on the eve of his surrender and first appearance in court since a grand jury voted last week to indict him on criminal charges linked to a payment made during the 2016 presidential election to buy the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels has said she had a brief sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

Trump, 76, has denied the affair.

Trump, who is running for president a third time, is the first former US president to be charged with a crime. He has said he is "completely innocent" and has called the case a "political persecution".

Blanche's addition to Trump's legal team came as Trump left his Mar-a-Largo estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in a motorcade that took him past supporters waving banners and cheering and then to the nearby West Palm Beach airport.

Trump posted on social media right before he left Florida: "WITCH HUNT'', as our once great country is going to HELL!"

He arrived at LaGuardia Airport at 3:28 pm Monday aboard his red, white and blue Boeing 757 with his last name on it in gold letters. Trump was joined onboard by a small group of senior campaign aides and his son, Eric. Media reports said the plane was quickly surrounded by more than a dozen police cars and motorcade vehicles.

Trump was expected to spend the rest of Monday with legal advisers inside his former New York City home at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The building and nearby areas were surrounded by metal barriers and scores of police officers as helicopters hovered above.

Alan Gotlieb said he was at Trump Tower on Monday to "welcome the president home, back to New York''.

"I don't think the president did anything wrong," Gotlieb told China Daily. "It doesn't look good for whatever's going on right now in the American government. I think the people have lost trust in the judicial system."

The criminal charge "doesn't change my opinion of Donald Trump in the slightest. It makes me even more of a supporter for Donald Trump. This is totally political. This is a totally political prosecution," said David Rem, a New York resident.

Robert Hoatson, a New Jersey resident, disagreed. "My purpose here is to celebrate the fact that Trump has been indicted and hopefully he will be tried and convicted for his crimes," he told China Daily.

Trump "almost killed our democracy", Hoatson said. "And any more time in power for him could mean the end. That's why we have to come out and say, ‘Lock him up. Throw the key away.'"

Trump will go to the Criminal Courts Building in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday morning with a large Secret Service detail.

"On Tuesday morning I will be going to, believe it or not, the Courthouse," he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. "America was not supposed to be this way!"

He will be fingerprinted, as per standard arrest procedure, but it remains unclear whether he will be photographed.

At around 2:15 pm local time, Trump will stand before Judge Juan Merchan, an acting New York state Supreme Court justice since 2009 presiding over felony criminal trials, who will read the indictment — the set of charges — to him.

His lawyers have already said he will plead not guilty. Trump is expected to be released on bail and return to his Florida home on Tuesday, where he plans to deliver remarks that evening.

Merchan doesn't tolerate disruptions or delays, attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN, and he is known to maintain control of his courtroom.

"He's a serious jurist, smart and even-tempered," Manhattan defense attorney Ron Kuby told NBC News. "He's not one of those judges who yells at lawyers, and is characterized as a no-nonsense judge. But he's always in control of the courtroom."

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a lawyer who previously worked in the Manhattan district attorney's office supervising cases that Merchan oversaw, told CNN that Trump likely wouldn't help his case by publicly criticizing the judge.

But she said Merchan is the kind of judge who will ignore it and not hold it against Trump. "He is not vindictive in any way like that," she said.

Trump has referred to Merchan as "Trump Hating" and suggested that he was "handpicked" by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the indictment against Trump.

Merchan presided over the fraud trial of Trump's real estate company and the related Trump Payroll Corp, which ended in December with a conviction and $1.6 million in fines.

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty in the case and served as a star witness for the prosecution. Merchan sentenced him to five months in jail and said he would have handed down a harsher sentence if he hadn't already agreed to the plea deal, according to Politico.

Merchan is also overseeing a criminal case against former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who is facing fraud and money laundering charges related to a former charity that promised to help build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.

Merchan dismissed the suggestion from the Trump Organization's legal team that the fraud trial was a politically motivated prosecution against the former president and told attorneys to focus on the specific charges, CBS News reported.

"I will not allow you in any way to bring up a selective prosecution claim, or claim this is some sort of novel prosecution," Merchan said, according to CBS News.

Merchan was previously a family court judge, a New York assistant attorney general and an assistant district attorney for New York County. He graduated from Baruch College in 1990 and earned his law degree from Hofstra University in 1994.

Lawyers for Trump told Merchan in a letter Monday that they oppose the request by media outlets to broadcast Trump's arraignment.

"We submit that the media request should be denied because it will create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment, raise unique security concerns, and is inconsistent with President Trump's presumption of innocence," the Trump team said.

Bragg's office also responded Monday to the news outlets' request and said that it was deferring to the judge to decide how to best manage his courtroom.

At a news conference earlier Monday, Mayor Eric Adams, a former New York City police officer, said that while there were no specific threats against the city, officials were prepared.

He warned that anyone, including US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who intends to show up near the court to protest the arraignment of Trump, "be on your best behavior".

"While there may be some rabble rousers thinking about coming to our city tomorrow, our message is clear and simple: control yourselves," the mayor said. "New York City's our home — not a playground for your misplaced anger."

Shortly after his comments, Greene responded on Twitter: "Now Mayor Adams is threatening me. Unbelievable."

President Joe Biden said on a visit to Minnesota on Monday that he was confident that New York authorities could handle any trouble. "I have faith in the New York Police Department," he said.

Agencies contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at aiheping@chinadailyusa.com.