Security is intensifying on the streets of New York City in advance of the unprecedented appearance of a former president of the United States in a criminal court on Tuesday.
Along Fifth Avenue, where Trump Tower is located, and around the criminal court complex in lower Manhattan, crowd control barriers line the pavements.
About 35,000 officers from the New York police department have been told to report for duty in uniform.
Demonstrations by his supporters are expected as Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, surrenders to the office of the district attorney and is brought before a judge.
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The key question is whether any protests will be peaceful or whether the court hearing could lead to an effective rerun of January 6th 2021, when supporters of Trump violently attacked the US Capitol building in Washington as members of Congress were certifying the victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
[ Legal lingo: the terminology in the Trump caseOpens in new window ]
A grand jury in New York last week authorised that charges should be brought against Mr Trump. The exact details of these charges are, as yet, unknown and may not be revealed until the arraignment hearing in the court.
However, the grand jury – which determines whether there is enough evidence to prosecute a person – had been hearing details about an investigation headed by the district attorney Alvin Bragg into a $130,000 payment made just before the 2016 presidential election to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, allegedly to buy her silence about an affair with the then candidate Trump.
Trump has repeatedly denied that he had any relationship with Daniels.
She has claimed that she had sex with Trump after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada a decade earlier. She maintains that Trump had promised to secure a role for her on his TV programme, The Celebrity Apprentice, but that this never materialised.
Trump has claimed that the prosecution against him is politically motivated and represents “a witch hunt”.
Leading figures in Trump’s Republican Party have, largely, backed his assertions and have criticised the Bragg, who is a Democrat, for bringing the case.
Right-wing Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she is likely to join a rally planned by the New York Young Republican Club in Manhattan on Tuesday.
“Protesting is a constitutional right and I am going to NY on Tuesday to protest this unprecedented abuse of our justice system and election interference”, Ms Greene said on Twitter.
The New York Young Republican Club urged people to join its “peaceful protest” against what it described as the “heinous attack” on Trump by the district attorney.
In advance of the court appearance, New York City police department, state law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service and the US Marshals Service have all been co-ordinating efforts, while increasing intelligence gathering and mobilisation. Social media sites are being monitored to try to identify advance planning for potential violence.
Trump left his home in Florida on Monday lunchtime to travel to New York. His plan involved spending the night at Trump Tower on Fifth avenue.
He will report to the office of the district attorney on Tuesday afternoon. He is scheduled to be fingerprinted and potentially photographed, although it was unclear on Monday whether this would actually happen.
Trump will then be brought to court where the charges will be read to him and his legal team.
He will then be released pending further court hearings.
Trump is then scheduled to return to Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Florida, where he plans to make a speech, presumably about the prosecution.
Trump has already hit out at the judge Juan Merchan, who is expected to preside over his appearance on Tuesday. The former president has contended that the judge “hates” him.
It remains to be seen whether Merchan will issue any order to Trump regarding future comment on the case.
Any such gagging order may be difficult given that Trump is the front-runner to secure the Republican Party nomination to run again for the White House in 2024.
