Some supporters of former President Donald Trump and those in support of his trial have countered one another outside the courthouse ahead of the opening of trial on Tuesday.
The court process is slated to open at 2pm US time but protesters have gathered massing around the court either in solidarity with Trump or present to jeer at him.
They are to witness the first instance of an American President to be docked.
BBC reports a chaotic scene in front of the courthouse as US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene attempted to rally Donald Trump’s supporters ahead of his arraignment later this afternoon.
Despite shouting into a bullhorn, whistles and jeers nearly drowned out the lawmaker as she attempted to make her case in support of the former president.
“This has never happened in America ever and every single American should be concerned,” Greene said, referring to Trump being the first president to be indicted.”
One woman was reported by BBC to be blowing into a piercing police whistle in an attempt to drown out the speech Marjorie Taylor Greene delivered into a megaphone.
“We don’t speak MAGA here in New York City – go back to Georgia!” she said.
Next to her, a pro-Trump supporter was using an app on her phone that sounds like an air horn siren, in a competing attempt to drown out the anti-Trump whistles – so far with little success.
How will Trump be treated at court today?
Trump is getting the VIP treatment at court today.
Instead of languishing for hours once he arrives at the courthouse, he’ll be quickly processed and then hurried up to his arraignment hearing. He will not be held or physically restrained, unlike many of the other defendants who appear in Manhattan criminal court. While there are serious security considerations for a former president, this is a departure from what most defendants experience.
“For all the outcry of his advisors about how terribly he’s being treated, he’s actually getting tremendously special treatment, and he’ll be able to go home at the end of the day,” said Cynthia Godsoe, who was a public defender representing juveniles in the 2000s and now teaches at Brooklyn Law School.
She recalled that many of her clients, some as young as 11, were shackled, and waited hours to be processed and appear before a judge. Most were young men of colour, and not many had the money to post bail.
Many defendants at criminal court wait in jail for their trial. Some wind up in New York city’s largest and most notorious jail, Rikers Island, which has been subject to numerous investigations about the conditions and safety for inmates.
Immediately after his arraignment, the Secret Service will whisk Trump away. He’s set fly home to his sprawling Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, where he’s expected to address his supporters tonight.
Former US President Donald Trump is being charged with a crime in relation to a payment he made to a porn star.
The man who spent four years in the White House will be fingerprinted, could be given a mugshot photo and then brought before a judge on Tuesday.
This is happening as he campaigns to become president again, in the 2024 election.
Here is what the case is about.
What is Trump accused of?
Stormy Daniels says she had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006, which he has always denied.
In 2016 she tried to sell her account of what happened to the media. Mr Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 (£105,000) to keep quiet. That kind of payment is called hush money.
That is not illegal but what has got Mr Trump into trouble is how Mr Cohen’s reimbursement was recorded in his accounts. He is accused of falsifying his business records by saying the payment was for legal fees.
As it happened just before Americans were due to vote, it may also violate laws about payments that help an election campaign.
There will now be a trial where Mr Trump will make his case, but we don’t know when that will be.
He has denied any wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.
Additional Reports From BBC