In a historic and unprecedented event, former President Donald Trump has been arrested, arraigned, and charged with multiple felonies. In this blog post, we will delve into the details of this groundbreaking case and its potential implications. We will provide you with a comprehensive transcript of an NBC Ten Breaking News segment that discusses Trump’s arraignment and the various charges he faces. The transcript features our very own Delaware County criminal defense attorney Enrique Latoison, who offers valuable insights into the complex legal issues at play in this case. Join us as we examine this momentous event and its potential impact on American politics and jurisprudence.

Video transcript

NBC 10 breaking news. Former President Trump has been arrested and arraigned and becomes the first former president of the United States to be charged with a crime. A historic day in a Manhattan courtroom. Former President Donald Trump has been arraigned for his alleged role in hush money payments and how those were documented.

That’s right, Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 felonies against them. NBC Ten’s Jacqueline London joins us from the newsroom to explain what happened in court today. Jacqueline.

Keith, and Tracy, the former president is heading back to his Mar a Lago home after being inside the courthouse this afternoon. Trump was arraigned on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy. He only spoke during his arraignment to plead not guilty, told the judge he was advised of his rights and to answer a few questions. The judge warned Trump to refrain from rhetoric that could cause civil unrest. And this all stems from his alleged role in hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Under New York State law, it is a felony to falsify business records with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime. These are felony crimes in New York State, no matter who you are.

While everyone is not above the law, no one’s below it either. And if this man’s name was not Donald J. Trump, there is no scenario. We’d all be here today. Please understand that based on these charges.

And Trump is due back in court in December, but his lawyers asked for him to be excused from attending the hearing because of extraordinary security proceedings. In the newsroom Jacqueline London, Keith and Tracy Back to you, Jacqueline.

Thanks. In this case, does involve some complicated legalese right, so let’s bring in our.

Legal expert, Enrique L1 Latoison is the managing partner and founder of Latoison Law. He joins us now to help analyze this indictment. Enrique, help us understand, we heard all leading up to this, that there would be a second crime that is going to elevate these bookkeeping crimes to a felony. What happened?

Well, you’re correct about that. Okay, so if you just have bookkeeping crimes, falsifying business records, those are just misdemeanors in New York. And at this point, that would be out of the statute of limitations. The time would have went by, he could not have been charged. However, under New York law, if you were charged with falsifying business records in conjunction with some other crimes, then it gets elevated to a felony and it becomes elevated to a felony. Now, you’re still within the statute of limitations to charge Mr. Trump. So the other crimes in this case have not been charged. Okay, so the crimes that elevated to a felony have not been charged. And those crimes they’re accusing Mr. Trump of is federal campaign crimes, state campaign crimes, even though it’s a federal election, when he was running for presidency and also evading taxes. Now, those crimes haven’t been charged, but they’re being used to elevate the case to a felony, which allows New York to prosecute them for these crimes. Wow. It’s a lot.

We anticipate, of course, motions being filed by the defense here probably within the next two weeks. Hey, the former president’s floated the idea trying to get the trial moved out of Manhattan, right? Which is heavily Democratic, to say Staten Island, which has more Republicans. What do you think the likelihood of that happening is?

Well, to get cases moved for a change of venue, there must be an actual compelling reason. Unfortunately for Donald Trump, he’s already kind of went on live to say basically once, it only switched just because the voters are different. So I will say, in my legal opinion, it will not be changed because there isn’t really a compelling issue other than the voters are different. It has to be some other reasons, like the jury pool has been tainted. He’s the president. Former President of America. Everyone knows about this case or some other issues with security and some other reasons. In my opinion, he would not be successful in moving this to a different venue.

And what do you think about the prosecution’s case? What are they going to have to prove to move forward? I mean, no one says anything about the evidence, right? Everyone says it’s here, it’s here, it’s here. But how do you bring that to a felony status?

I think the way the prosecution has to move this case forward is make this, in general, a complete plot. This needs to be a plot. This cannot just be hush payments to Stormy Daniels. This needs to be a complete plot to falsify a lot of business records in conjunction with hiding bad information that was going to hurt him in the election. I think if you put this together as a big common scheme and they’re going to use Michael Cohen, his fixer to testify, his Stormy Daniels and some other people to testify, I think you make it look like a more general long term scheme than, hey, you just paid off Stormy Daniels to hire.

Yeah, a scheme somewhat of a conspiracy. Enrique, thank you so much. I’m sure we’ll be talking with you more as the months go on. Thanks for being with us and sharing your legal expertise. Appreciate you. And stay right here. For complete coverage of the Trump indictment, we will be live in New York City at 06:00 right here on NBC Ten. And then NBC Nightly News will have the latest updates starting at 630.

Yeah, this is just the tip of the iceberg here. Right now, this case does involve some complicated legal issues. Legalese, right. So let’s bring in our legal expert, Enrique L1 Latoison is the managing partner and founder of Latoison Law. He joins us now to help analyze the indictment. Enrique, always great seeing you. You’ve had a chance to look over this indictment. Now, what were your first thoughts?

My first thoughts was I was expecting a little more information because this case comes down to falsified business records. This is what the key of the case is for the prosecution, for New York. And in order to elevate this from a misdemeanor falsifying the business records to a felony, there has to be in furtherance of other crimes. So there’s other crimes, as New York prosecutor came out today and said those other crimes could be evading taxes or violation of state campaign laws and violation of federal campaign laws. So what I was really looking for was that information that tells us what those other crimes were, which in conjunction with the misdemeanor falsifying of business records, makes this a felony. So I was kind of looking for that. And at this point, that really has not been unsealed at this point. Enrique, thanks. Learn more from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump