Former President Donald Trump is soon to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on charges related to falsifying business records in a hush money investigation, the first president ever to be charged with a crime.

The Republican former president, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, has called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. Trump’s lawyers have said the former president “did not commit any crime” and they will “vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”

NEW YORKERS TOLD TO EXPECT STREET CLOSURES

New York Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said there were no specific or credible threats in the run-up to Trump’s court appearance, but the city would be significantly increasing its police presence as a precaution. City officials urged people to use public transit, warning that Tuesday’s hearing and possible protests would bring significant traffic to the area.

Sewell said there would be rolling street closures throughout Manhattan to facilitate the former president’s travel from Trump Tower to court, where he is expected to be arraigned at 2:15 p.m. local time, 11:15 a.m. Pacific. She said some streets near both locations would likely be closed all of Tuesday to facilitate Trump’s movement but declined to offer specifics.

Sewell said a “healthy number of officers” would be dispatched to subways to ensure safety.

RALLY FOR TRUMP

People began gathering Tuesday morning for a rally for Trump in a park outside the courthouse where the former president is scheduled to be arraigned.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared for the rally and, NBC reports, spoke for about 10 minutes before departing.

George Santos, the besieged Republican congressman facing multiple investigations into lies he told while running for office, joined the growing crowd of people gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse.

Santos told The Associated Press that he didn’t plan to go inside the courthouse but came to “support to president.”

“I want to support the president, just because I think this is unprecedented, and it’s a bad day for democracy,” Santos said. “What’s to stop the next prosecutor in two years from doing the same thing to Joe Biden and moving on every four years? So this makes bad precedent legally. And it makes, it cheapens the judicial system, and it’s not good for America.”

Santos has rejected calls for his resignation, including some from members of his own party. He demurred Tuesday when asked if he hopes Trump will continue to back him in return for the show of support.

“I’m not here for that,” he said.

The former president has said he plans to return to Florida following the arraignment and is expected to give a speech at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach on Tuesday evening.

Trump has a history of leveling unfounded criticism of judges and district attorneys when he’s in legal trouble. On his Truth Social platform, he has called Bragg, who is Black, an “animal” and “racist,” and has also attacked the judge, Juan Merchan, who oversaw a separate case involving the Trump Organization.

It’s unclear whether his legal team will be able to convince Trump to avoid such rhetoric during his speech at Mar-a-Lago. On Monday evening, Trump unleashed another tirade against Bragg on Truth Social, accusing him of leaking information from the indictment, which has not been unsealed.

“This means that he MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED. Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF,” Trump wrote.

TRUMP ATTORNEY: ‘NO GUILTY PLEA’

Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said the former president’s appearance in court for Tuesday’s arraignment would be brief because the processing “does not take long.”

“It won’t be a long day in court,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“We know the basis of the indictment and the factual allegations in the indictment,” Tacopina said, adding that Trump would maintain his innocence.

“One thing I can assure you as I sit here today: There’ll be no guilty plea in this case. That’s one thing I can guarantee you,” he said.

Tacopina appeared to predict that the case would ultimately be dismissed.

“I don’t think this case is going to see a juror,” he said. “I think there’s a legal challenge that will be made and should be made successfully.”

PROSECUTOR ARRIVES

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrived at court Tuesday morning in New York ahead of Trump’s arraignment.

Bragg became Manhattan’s first Black district attorney in 2022, following his election the previous November. He inherited a yearslong grand jury investigation into hush money paid on Trump’s behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign.

After taking office, Bragg slowed his office’s move toward an indictment of Trump and said he had concerns about the strength of the case. That sparked a public protest by two prosecutors who were leading the investigation and resigned.

But Bragg convened a new grand jury this year after convicting Trump’s family company for tax fraud. He called that result a “strong demarcation line” for proceeding with other parts of the probe.

SPECTATORS LINE UP

Spectators, many of them members of the news media, lined up overnight to get a seat inside the courtroom, or even just a glimpse of Trump, who wasn’t expected until Tuesday afternoon local time.

The building was surrounded by barricades, and people were undergoing layers of security checks. The reporters waiting in line were camped out under tents with lawn chairs, blankets and pizza boxes.

The nation’s 45th commander in chief was expected to be escorted by the Secret Service from Trump Tower — which was also surrounded by barricades — to a lower Manhattan courthouse, where he is scheduled to face a judge for his arraignment at 11:15 a.m. Pacific.

WILL THERE BE A ‘PERP WALK’?

No. So-called perp walks happen when a criminal suspect is taken in handcuffs out of a police precinct and then driven to the courthouse. But Trump won’t be going to a police precinct. He’s arranged a surrender with the district attorney’s office and will head straight to the court, skipping a police station entirely. It’s very unlikely anyone will get a glimpse of him going into or out of court, unless he wants to be seen. That’s because there are underground entrances, side doors and tunnels in and around the Manhattan courthouse.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER HE SURRENDERS?

Trump will get booked. Here’s what that means: Before computers, information on every criminal suspect would be written down in a big book kept by court officials. Now, it’s all computerized, but the process is largely the same. Court officers will take down Trump’s full name, age, birthdate, height and weight. They’ll check to see if the former president has any outstanding warrants. They’ll take his fingerprints — but they won’t roll his fingertips in ink; these days that’s done by computer, too. Officers will roll each fingertip on a computerized system that records the prints. They may take his photo, known as a mug shot. In New York, this process usually takes about two hours, but can be as long as four. But no one else is getting processed when Trump arrives, so it will go much faster. Then he goes before a judge.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE HEARING?

An arraignment is a hearing in which the indictment will be formally unsealed and the charges will be read aloud, though Trump could request to waive the public reading. He will be asked how he pleads to the charges and he will answer “not guilty.” And Trump’s attorneys Tacopina, Susan Necheles and Todd Blanche, will work with the judge and the district attorney’s office to set a date for the next time he’d be back in court. The judge has ruled that news photographers would be allowed to take photos of the former president at the start of his arraignment.

The former president bolstered his legal team Monday, adding a third high-profile attorney,Blanche. A former federal prosecutor, Blanche has previously represented Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

WILL HE BE ARRESTED?

Technically, yes. When he’s fingerprinted and processed, he’s considered under arrest and in custody. But it won’t look like what it does in the movies or on TV’s “Law & Order.” He won’t be handcuffed and he won’t sit in a jail cell, in part because parts of the courthouse will be cleared out for his arraignment — and because Trump is a former president with Secret Service protection. Not all defendants are handcuffed before they appear before a judge for an arraignment, though some are.

IF THERE IS A MUG SHOT, WILL IT BE MADE PUBLIC?

In New York City, mug shots aren’t generally made public. They are taken by the law enforcement agency that makes the arrest. There are situations where a judge could make the photo public in response to a public records fight. It could also get leaked, too.

–Tribune News Service contributed