NEW YORK —

Former President Donald Trump is set to appear in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday 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."

What to expect:

When is Trump's arraignment?

Trump flew into New York from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday and is expected to leave Trump Tower on Tuesday and make the nearly 4-mile drive to the Manhattan criminal courthouse, where he is scheduled to face a judge for his arraignment at 2:15 p.m. EDT.

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.

Video above: What is a grand jury and how does it work?

They may take his photo, known as a mug shot. In New York, this process usually takes about two hours, but it 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 is expected to answer "not guilty." And Trump's attorneys Joe 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.

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."

Video below: Crowds outside of NY courthouse ahead of Trump arraignment

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?

It depends. 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.

Will Trump walk out of there?

In all likelihood, yes. New York’s bail laws have been overhauled over the past few years, meaning Trump would be released without bail because the anticipated charges against him don't require that bail be set. But it's possible that Judge Juan Merchan could decide that Trump is a flight risk and order him held in custody, with or without bail. Trump's lawyers would argue that the former president's ties to the U.S. are strong, and because he's a presidential candidate, he has no reason to flee and should be allowed to leave.

What happens next?

The judge and legal teams will set dates for the next hearing and deadlines for discovery, in which the district attorney's office must turn over all its information to Trump's lawyers, and motions, which include any requests to shift the venue or dismiss the case outright. That process usually takes months. Tacopina has said he needs to read the indictment first and research before he decides what to do on a change of venue or any motions to dismiss, though it would be very common to file one.

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Avenatti was convicted by a jury on charges that he cheated porn actor Stormy Daniels out of nearly $300,000 that she was supposed to get for writing a book about an alleged tryst with former president Donald Trump.

The verdict was returned Friday at a federal court in New York.

The result was the culmination of an unusual trial in which Avenatti acted as his own lawyer and got to cross-examine Daniels about her belief in ghosts.

Earlier Friday, the jury foreperson told Judge Jesse Furman that a juror was acting on feelings and emotions. The judge reminded jurors of his original legal instructions and their pledge to consider the evidence. A short time later, Avenatti was found guilty.

The disgraced lawyer now reportedly faces up to 22 years in prison for Friday's conviction of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Avenatti still faces other legal problems. He has yet to begin serving a 2 1/2 year prison sentence he received in 2020 for trying to extort up to $25 million from sportswear giant Nike.

NEW YORK —

When he was Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen was hellbent on silencing Stormy Daniels, even arranging a hush-money payment to the porn actress that landed him in federal prison.

Now, as one of many of the former president's insiders-turned-critics, Cohen is literally broadcasting Daniels' story — including intimate new details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump — in a discussion ranging from shame and scandal to a haunted house in New Orleans.

Seeking to bury the hatchet, Cohen interviews Daniels in the latest episode of his podcast, “Mea Culpa,” in which the two commiserate over life-altering experiences with Trump and his recent departure from office.

“My battle is just now starting,” Daniels tells Cohen in their first ever conversation, referring to litigation she said had been in a holding pattern before Trump left office. “People are really upset, and they’re just going to get more pissed off at me.”

Cohen, in keeping with the title of his program, apologizes for “the needless pain" he put Daniels through when he arranged a $130,000 payment during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her quiet about an alleged dalliance with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

“Both of our stories will be forever linked with Donald Trump, but also with one another,” Cohen tells her. “Thanks for giving me a second chance.”

The scandal turned Stormy Daniels into a household name, and critics accused her of capitalizing on her newfound fame, including crisscrossing the country on a “Make America Horny Again” strip tour.

Federal prosecutors charged Cohen with skirting campaign contribution rules by arranging the hush-money payment to Daniels and a similar payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal. He pleaded guilty to those counts — as well as lying to Congress and tax evasion — and was sentenced to three years in federal prison.

Cohen has been producing his podcast from his Manhattan apartment, where he is serving the remainder of his sentence after he was released for a second time in July as part of an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons. The podcast is distributed by LiveXLive’s PodcastOne and produced by Audio Up.

Cohen and Daniels are united not only in infamy but deep regret over Trump. Despite the publicity boom — a windfall that included a bestselling book — Daniels said she longs for life before her allegations launched her into the zeitgeist.

“I got to go places I would never get to go,” she tells Cohen. "But overall, if I could just wave a magic wand and make everything go back to the way it was before, I would absolutely do that.”

Daniels said the waning weeks of Trump's presidency felt like the “eye of the storm.” The death threats — and headlines — had subsided as she remained in a sort of legal limbo.

But now she's braced for a “second wave” of controversy, including a defamation lawsuit she brought against Trump that she has taken all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Daniels sued Trump for defamation after the then-president commented on Twitter that a man she said had threatened her was “nonexistent.” She appealed a lower court's decision to dismiss the case and an order to pay Trump nearly $300,000 in attorneys' fees.

The lawsuit is among a minefield of legal issues Trump faces after leaving the White House, including state investigations in New York of his business dealings.

“I’ve already lost everything,” she said, referring to her prior way of life, “so I’m taking it all the way.”

Daniels also remains a witness in a federal criminal case against her own former attorney, Michael Avenatti, who is charged with cheating her out of $300,000 in proceeds from her 2018 book, “Full Disclosure.” Avenatti has pleaded not guilty.

The hourlong interview also includes graphic descriptions of Daniels' 2006 sexual encounter with Trump — details she said supports the veracity of her claims. She calls the encounter “the worst 90 seconds of my life, for sure, because it just made me hate myself.”

While she did not feel “physically threatened,” she said she had not expected to have sex with Trump and, at one point, thought about how to escape the room, thinking “I could definitely outrun him.”

She repressed details of the rendezvous for years, she said, adding the dynamics only came into focus after she saw the movie “Bombshell” about the sexual harassment women underwent in meetings with former Fox News executive Roger Ailes.

“I didn't say anything for years because I didn't remember," she said.

For Daniels, life after Trump has also included a new passion for ghost hunting and a related show, “Spooky Babes,” inspired by the “extremely haunted” house that bedeviled her in New Orleans' Garden District.

“I’ve been face to face with evil in the most intimate way,” Daniels said. “Demons don’t scare me anymore.”