Trump surrenders to authorities in New York hush money case

• April 4, 2023

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, ERIC TUCKER, JENNIFER PELTZ and WILL WEISSERT

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump surrendered to authorities Tuesday at a Manhattan courthouse ahead of his arraignment on criminal charges stemming from a hush money payment to a porn actor during his 2016 campaign.

Wearing his signature dark suit and red tie, Trump turned and waved to crowds outside the building before heading inside to be fingerprinted and processed — a remarkable reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, business and political dealings and an extraordinary moment in U.S. history.

He arrived at court in an eight-car motorcade that took him from Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan through the main north-south highway on the east side of the city, past landmarks such as the United Nations. Along the way, the voluble ex-president posted on his social media platform: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL — WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!”

The booking and appearance before Judge Juan Merchan should be relatively brief — though hardly routine — as Trump learns for the first time the charges against him. Trump will plead not guilty, according to his lawyers, and is expected to enter the plea himself, as is standard in the court.

Merchan has ruled that TV cameras won’t be allowed in the courtroom.

Trump, who was impeached twice by the U.S. House but was never convicted in the U.S. Senate, is the first former president to face criminal charges. The nation’s 45th commander in chief was escorted from Trump Tower to the courthouse by the Secret Service and may have his mug shot taken.

“He is strong and ready to go,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina told The Associated Press. Earlier, Tacopina said in a TV interview that the former president wouldn’t plead guilty to lesser charges, even if it might resolve the case. He also said he didn’t think the case would make it to a jury.

New York police said they were ready for large protests by Trump supporters, who share the Republican former president’s belief that the New York grand jury indictment and three additional pending investigations are politically motivated and intended to weaken his bid to retake the White House in 2024. Journalists often outnumbered protesters, though.

Trump, a former reality TV star, has been hyping that narrative to his political advantage, saying he raised more than $8 million in the days since the indictment on claims of a “witch hunt.” His campaign released a fundraising request titled “My last email before arrest” and he has repeatedly assailed the Manhattan district attorney, egged on supporters to protest and claimed without evidence that the judge presiding over the case “hates me” — something his own lawyer has said is not true.

Trump is scheduled to return to his Palm Beach, Florida, home, Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday evening to give remarks, punctuating his new reality: submitting to the dour demands of the American criminal justice system while projecting an aura of defiance and victimhood at celebratory campaign events. At least 500 prominent supporters have been invited, with some of the most pro-Trump congressional Republicans expected to attend.

A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.

Inside the Manhattan courtroom, prosecutors led by New York’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, are expected to unseal the indictment issued last week by a grand jury. This is when Trump and his defense lawyers will get their first glimpse of the precise allegations against him.

The indictment contains multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press last week.

After the arraignment, Trump is expected to be released by authorities because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set.

The investigation is scrutinizing six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both say they had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics. Trump denies having sexual liaisons with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing involving payments.

The arraignment will unfold against the backdrop of heavy security in New York, coming more than two years after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to halt the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

Trump was defiant ahead of his arraignment. He used his social media network to complain that he was going to court in a heavily Democratic area, declaring, “KANGAROO COURT” and “THIS IS NOT WHAT AMERICA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE!” He and his campaign have repeatedly assailed Bragg and even trained scrutiny on members of Bragg’s family.

Despite that, the scenes around Trump Tower and the courthouse where Trump will stand before a judge did not feature major unrest. Police tried to keep apart protesters supporting the former president and those opposing him by confining them to separate sides of a park near the courthouse using metal barricades.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress, staged a brief rally at the park, but the scene was so chaotic that it was hard to hear her over the crush of reporters and protesters.

“We’re the party of peace,” Greene said, thanking those Trump supporters present. “Democrats are communists.”

Embattled Republican New York Rep. George Santos also showed up in solidarity with Trump, saying, “I want to support the president.”

“I think this is unprecedented and it’s a bad day for democracy,” Santos said, suggesting that future prosecutors could target Biden and other presidents with other cases, which “cheapens the judicial system.”

One demonstrator hoisted a sign reading “Trump or death 1776 2024,” but others carried placards showed images of Trump in prison.

The public fascination with the case was evident Monday as national television carried live images of Trump’s motorcade from his Mar-a-Lago club to a private, red, white and blue Boeing 757 stenciled with his name. From there, Trump was flown to New York, where cameras followed his motorcade into Manhattan and he spent the night at Trump Tower as he prepared to turn himself in.

The former president and his aides are embracing the media circus. After initially being caught off guard when news of the indictment broke Thursday evening, Trump and his team are hoping to use the case to his advantage. Still, they asked the judge in a Monday filing to ban photo and video coverage of the arraignment.

New York’s ability to carry out safe and drama-free courthouse proceedings in a case involving a polarizing ex-president could be an important test case as prosecutors in Atlanta and Washington conduct their own investigations of Trump that could also result in charges. Those investigations concern efforts to undo the 2020 election results as well as the possible mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Many top Republicans, including some of Trump’s potential rivals in next year’s GOP presidential primary, have criticized the case against him. Biden, who has yet to formally announce that he’s seeking reelection next year, and other leading Democrats have largely had little to say about it.

Prosecutors insist their case against Trump has nothing to do with politics.

Tucker and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Jill Colvin, Bobby Caina Calvan, Larry Neumeister, Karen Matthews, Larry Fleisher, Deepti Hajela, Julie Walker, Ted Shaffrey, David R. Martin, Joe Frederick and Robert Bumsted in New York and Colleen Long and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

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​ Orange County Register 

National Burrito Day 2023: Where to get cheap burritos on April 6

• April 4, 2023

National Burrito Day falls on the first Thursday of April, so the date fluctuates. This year, it’s April 6.

Southern California fast food chains are responding with offers for discounted burritos, and for a lucky few loyalty club members, they could be free.

Here are some chains that have announced discounts.

Chipotle Mexican Grill: The Newport Beach chain will be sending out codes on a Twitter account,  @ChipotleTweets, the can be texted to 888-222 for the chance to win one of 10,000 free burritos, according to a news release. chipotle.com

Chronic Tacos: The Aliso Viejo-based chain is offering 50% off burritos ordered through its app on April 6, according to a news release. Use the promo code “burrito” at checkout. The offer is limited to one burrito per customer. On that date, Chronic Tacos will also have a giveaway on Instagram of one free burrito a week for a year. chronictacos.com

El Pollo Loco: The Costa Mesa-based chain is using National Burrito Day to launch an overhaul of its rewards program and a new app. On April 6, new and existing Loco Rewards members will receive a buy-one-get-one burrito. Then on the 30 days between National Burrito Day and Cinco de Mayo, 30 members will be picked to receive 1 million points, according to a news release.

Miguel’s Jr.: Bean and cheese burritos and bean, rice and cheese burritos will sell for $1.99 on April 6, according to a news release. miguelsjr.com

Rubio’s Coastal Grill: Every burrito on the menu will be on sale for $7.99 on April 6. Customers can use the coupon code BURRITO for online or app purchases or scan a QR code at the cash register. It is available on the chain’s website. rubios.com/coupons/burrito-day

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​ Orange County Register 

OC Fair 2023: The Fab Four will return to Pacific Amphitheatre

• April 4, 2023

Fan favorites The Fab Four announced they’re coming back to Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa to play all of The Beatles No. 1 hits during the run of the annual OC Fair on Saturday, Aug. 5.

Tickets to the show are $22.50-$32.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 8 at Ticketmaster.com.

Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez will also return to the OC Fair & Event Center this summer with two shows inside The Hangar at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 6. Tickets to the shows are $20-$35 and go on sale at 10 a.m. April 8 at Ticketmaster.com.

Last week, promoters announced a couple of shows in The Hangar including Red Corvette: A Prince Tribute on Friday; Aug. 4 and Yachty By Nature (Yacht Rock cover band) on Saturday, Aug. 5. Tickets to both of those shows are on sale now for $20-$25 at Ticketmaster.com.

The annual OC Fair is taking place July 14-Aug. 13 and tickets to shows happening inside The Hangar and at the adjacent Pacific Amphitheatre during that time period include same-day fair admission. For more information on the OC Fair go to ocfair.com. For the most up-to-date concert lineup at Pacific Amphitheatre, visit pacamp.com.

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​ Orange County Register 

Ban on state travel to red states may end

• April 4, 2023

California’s performative ban on state-funded travel to states with policies Sacramento politicians don’t like may soon end. Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, has introduced Senate Bill 447 to repeal California’s ban on travel to two dozen states with anti-LGBT laws. But, of course, there’s a catch.

Back in 2016, the state imposed a travel ban on “non-essential” state travel to select states. The list of states has continued to grow, including to states like Florida for restricting transgender women from participating in public sports teams intended for biological women.

In practice, the ban doesn’t really stop travel from California lawmakers and officials to such states. Last summer, for example, Gov. Gavin Newsom vacationed in Montana, which is subject to the travel ban.

Needless to say, none of the states facing the bans have decided to change course just because fewer California state-funded delegations were dropping by.

As this editorial board wrote three years ago, “these travel bans are really just a way to dupe voters into thinking Sacramento is doing something when it’s clearly doing nothing.”

Which brings us to Sen. Atkins’ proposal to scrap the travel ban.

In place of the travel ban, Senate Bill 447  authorizes the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development “to  promote social equity, civil rights, and antidiscrimination through marketing and advertising campaigns” through a new effort called the Building and Reinforcing Inclusive, Diverse, Gender-Supportive Equity Project.

Promoting civil rights and opposing discrimination is certainly noble, but it’s not hard to see the actual subtext of the bill. In other words, the state will consider lifting the ban on state travel so Gov. Gavin Newsom can travel to red states to campaign.

The bill comes as Newsom has launched a federal political action committee called “Campaign for Democracy” through which he plans to “take the fight to states where freedom is most under attack.”

In other words, Newsom wants to spend a lot more time out of California and specifically in Republican states of the sort currently subject to the state-funded travel ban.

The governor clearly has his eye on the White House and is doing everything he can to build up his national name ID and demonstrate to national Democrats that he is serious about leading the national party against the GOP. That’s the long and short of it.

It would be nice, though, if Newsom could be as serious about governing his own state as he is about politicking in other states. There’s no shortage of tangible problems to solve in California that Newsom was elected to try to solve. Alas, Newsom is more concerned about his political career than anything else.

​ Orange County Register 

Owen Wilson would FaceTime people in his Bob Ross-inspired ‘Paint’ outfit

• April 4, 2023

In “Paint,” Owen Wilson plays Carl Nargle, the host of a painting show on Vermont public television, who despite his lack of artistic talent is something of a superstar.

Writer-director Brit McAdams’s new film is a comedy filled with funny performances by Michaela Watkins, Stephen Root, and Wendi McLendon-Covey, but it also includes brushstrokes of melancholy.

That’s part of what Wilson says attracted him to a role, which is superficially based on the real-life painter and posthumous pop culture icon Bob Ross, both in the huge halo of hair and fondness for basic landscapes that you –.yes, you, TV viewer! – can replicate at home.

That mix of comedy and pathos is part of what attracted Wilson to the role, he says.

“I tend to watch a lot of documentaries,” Wilson says on a recent video call. “It’s rare that I’d ever pick a comedy.

“The emotions that people are feeling have to be sort of real to me,” he says.

“Paint” lets Carl Nargle be both the source of much humor – how can you not laugh at that hair and wardrobe? – and its heart. When his world starts to crumble around him, you feel for him even though he’s largely brought all his troubles down upon himself.

“I think with Carl, it’s not funny, of course, to him,” Wilson says. “It’s painful. Now that can be why I enjoy documentaries. I can find it funny when you see people experiencing these real emotions that we all get hit with. Vanity and pride and insecurities, and the ways we try to hide those.

“And Carl is really having to face that,” he says.

Bob Ross, but evil

For writer-director McAdams, who told the audience at the “Paint” premiere recently that it took 13 years to get the movie made, inspiration for “Paint” came from his experiences watching and working in television.

As a boy growing up in the ’80s, he wasn’t allowed to watch much TV, though his mother made an exception for the soap opera “General Hospital.”

“I’m old enough and my family was cheap enough that we didn’t have a remote control, so the catbird seat was right in front of the TV set where there was a knob to change the channel,” McAdams says. “So as ‘General Hospital’ would end, I would have just a moment to keep the TV on. I’d turn that knob and it was like the clicking of a bomb: tick, tick, tick with each turn.

“And then Bob Ross would come on,” he says. “We would start by being like, ‘Who’s this guy with his hair and the whispering,’ and then he would start this with magical, just a brown brushstroke that would become a branch, and then a tree, and the tree would become a forest, and the forest an entire mountain-scape.

“You would go from sort of laughing or thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’ to just being completely transfixed by what he created,” McAdams says. “I just always loved the idea of someone having that power over everyone – where people wanted to hear that voice and be in that comfortable place.”

Years later, working at the VH1 cable network in his 20s, McAdams says he was first thrilled to meet so many of his idols, then dismayed to realize that not all of them lived up to his expectations.

“What I realized was that a lot of my idols are better on stage than off,” he says. “Then my thought was: If you are a rock star at 22, how hard would it be for you to evolve beyond that if you stayed a rock star? And who would I be if I had never evolved from a 22-year-old?

“That’s the genesis of this character in a lot of ways,” McAdams says. “He’s the biggest painter and the biggest star of PBS in Burlington, Vermont. He’s had the top show for 22 years and would he ever evolve into who he should be if people kept telling him he was everything to them?”

Bob Ross, he stresses, was not the stunted, self-absorbed character that Carl Nargle is in “Paint.”

“He was seemingly the nicest person and by all accounts always was,” McAdams says. “I liked the idea of, What if there was someone like him, not him at all, who came across as just the nicest person in the world and wasn’t? What if you use that whisper and that power of grabbing people’s attention to keep them hanging on his every word and every breath and every stroke?

“What would happen if you didn’t use that power for good? That’s basically the idea behind it.”

Vintage brushstrokes

Carl Nargle isn’t just stuck as an artist, though he does paint Mount Mansfield over and over again, having decided, after learning that the Burlington Art Museum doesn’t have a single painting of Vermont’s highest peak, that that’s how’ll finally get his work on its walls.

He’s also stuck in time – the haircut he picked from a ’70s poster in the barber shop years ago, sure – but also his clothes, his airbrush-painted ’70s van with sofa bed in the back, and his caddish behavior toward women, from his long-suffering ex Katherine (Michaela Watkins) to the much younger Jenna (Lucy Freyer).

Wilson described what it felt like slipping into his character’s skin – and wig and calico-yoked shirts and high-waisted jeans.

“My dad worked at the PBS station in Dallas, and in the late ’70s. If you went down and walked around that station, you saw some Carl Nargle-looking people,” he says. “For me, it was a little bit self-conscious at first putting on the wig and the wardrobe. I don’t know if it appealed to the little kid part that likes putting on a disguise or a costume, but I started to get into it.

“I would like to have a list of all the friends that I Facetimed with – or sometimes not even friends, but somebody that was almost like a business meeting that I’d call and not say anything about the way I looked,” Wilson says of the surreal transformation he experienced in full hair, makeup and costume. “That would make me laugh and entertain me sometimes up in Saratoga Springs (New York, where the film was shot).”

McAdams said the crew working on the production, working with a modest budget and only 20 days to shoot, outdid themselves in recreating Carl’s world. Including dozens of paintings purportedly by Carl and a younger, more talented painter Ambrosia (Ciara Renée).

Wilson says he took painting classes to prepare for the role. “They actually have a Bob Ross school for painters,” he says. “But I don’t think I ever completed a Carl Nargle original.”

McAdams laughs when asked whether he has any Carl Nargle Mount Mansfields that he brought home from the shoot.

“Yes, I do,” he says with a grin. “There’s some additional shots and stuff coming up so they’ve been used. But yeah, they will be on my walls for years.”

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​ Orange County Register 

California Senate ‘Right to Repair Act’ could let us fix our broken stuff

• April 4, 2023

My “unfixable electronics” bin weighs almost as much as I do.

There’s the ancient iPad, where the kids made “Talking Tom” tell potty jokes, dropped one too many times. And ah, my beloved Microsoft Surface, where I could scribble notes with an electronic pen — it died immediately after I bought it that beautiful black-and-white leather case. And, um, there’s the Surface before it, with the spider-web shattered screen…. It was perched on the dining room table — cord taut to the wall — when the dogs gave chase. “Computer shotput” is how I remember it. And the phones … all those phones!

I’ve saved these seemingly useless electronics because, even though their makers said they couldn’t be fixed, it seemed clear that their makers simply wouldn’t fix them.

“When something breaks, you fix it. That’s just common sense. But manufacturers of everything from phones to appliances to tractors intentionally make things difficult to repair,” says a new study by the California Public Interest Research Group and its national affiliate.

Sforza’s dead electronics bin

Enter then “The Right to Repair Act,” Senate Bill 244 by Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton. It would allow individuals and independent repair shops access to the tools, parts and, vitally, manuals, needed to fix what’s broken.

It could shatter “manufacturers’ repair monopolies,” feed the growing independent “Repair Cafe” movement, lead to less electronic waste and save consumers money, supporters said.

American households spend about $1,767 every year buying new electronics, a 19% increase in just two years, despite falling prices for many items, CALPIRG found.

“And even as the financial burden of replacing broken laptops, refrigerators and other electronic products increases, so does the toll on the environment,” it said. “Disposable is not a word that should describe our electronics, but we are turning over our gadgets far too quickly. And when we dispose of electronics, we’re adding toxic elements such as lead, mercury and cadmium to our landfills. It’s time to unleash repair for our wallets and the planet.”

On average, Americans have 24 pieces of electronics in their homes, and the average American family generates about 115 pounds of electronic waste each year.

“When the cost of repair inches toward the cost of replacement, it might seem like buying the new product is cheaper,” CALPIRG said. “But fixing the product and extending its lifespan leads to big savings.”

Repair could reduce household spending on electronics and appliances by 21.6 percent, saving an average family nearly $400 per year, it found. With 13.4 million households in California, that could save folks $5.13 billion annually, which is almost real money.

“Repair makes our communities more resilient,” the report says. “Instead of relying on the global supply chain to bring a never-ending supply of new stuff, repair helps us keep devices going using only local resources. A robust repair ecosystem with more people in our neighborhoods working repair jobs, results in lower repair costs quicker and service. But if manufacturers further restrict repair, downtime and prices go up.”

Eggman’s bill is in committee, with a hearing slated for April 11. A similar bill died last year, but with “right to repair” becoming a national movement — Samsung, Apple and Google have loosened their grips on the parts and tools needed for folks to make simple fixes to their own devices — there’s hope that, someday, I may be able to use that beautiful black-and-white leather case on my rejuvenated, revived and reborn Microsoft Surface. Hope springs eternal.

​ Orange County Register 

Niles: Disney thwarts Florida’s bid to take over special district, but company needs oversight

• April 4, 2023

Disney CEO Bob Iger delighted the Internet last week when The Walt Disney Company smacked down Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with the slickest misdirect since Lightning McQueen learned to drift left by turning right.

But don’t let the jokes distract you from the fact that this was a conflict that never should have happened.

More from Robert Niles

Is Universal’s new early entry a good deal or a cash grab?
Looking around Disney’s world for clues to Disneyland’s future
Springtime is now Halloween time at theme parks
Six Flags needs to rebuild trust with fans to get back on track
Festivals level the playing field between Knott’s and Disney

DeSantis and his allies in the Florida legislature had been trying to scuttle the Disney-controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District that governs the Walt Disney World Resort’s land. Florida’s move came after former CEO Bob Chapek criticized the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. But before the legislature voted to approve Reedy Creek’s replacement with the new, DeSantis-controlled Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, Reedy Creek’s board approved a Declaration of Restrictive Covenants that gave Disney Parks control over the resort’s planning and zoning for years to come.

But Disney did not stop there.

To guard against a legal prohibition of perpetuities, Reedy Creek tied its declaration to the lifespan of the last surviving current descendent of King Charles III. Yes, that means that control of the Walt Disney World Resort is now tied to the life of a literal princess (or prince).

How very Disney. All that was missing from Reedy Creek’s action was a little old fairy godmother telling the Florida legislature, “Bless your heart.”

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After DeSantis and his applies complained, Disney issued a statement that “All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law.”

To that end, the company bought classified ads in the Orlando Sentinel’s legal notices section in advance of the meeting, telling everyone who bothered to read them exactly what Reedy Creek planned to do, and when. Well, let that be a lesson — always read the newspaper.

Another lesson from this farce should be that the notion of a company running its own government is insane. Disney’s competitor Universal has built a world-class resort just up the road in Orlando, under the inspection of local city and county government. Not even Disney ought to be exempt from that kind of oversight.

But what DeSantis proposed was not voter-controlled oversight. It was a power grab.

​ Orange County Register 

What time is Trump’s arraignment?

• April 4, 2023

Former President Donald Trump will face a historic arraignment Tuesday in New York, following an indictment on criminal charges stemming from prosecutors’ long-running investigation into his business dealings. He will be the first current or former United States president ever in that position.

Here’s what we know about the arraignment:

What time is Trump’s arraignment?

Trump, 76, is expected to appear before State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan around 2:15 p.m. EST.

How will Trump be booked?

Trump is expected to arrive at the District Attorney’s offices several hours before appearing before the judge. There, authorities will fill out arrest paperwork, get his fingerprints taken and possibly a mugshot photo, too. That won’t be made public unless he shares it or it’s leaked.

Criminal defendants are usually handcuffed and kept in a courthouse jail cell upon surrender, though Trump’s lawyers said they don’t anticipate he will be. Armed Secret Service agents will accompany him at all times, and court officials plan to halt all other proceedings while he’s in the courthouse, sources familiar with the arrangements told The New York Daily News.

What will happen at the arraignment?

Once he’s finished being booked, authorities will bring Trump to the courtroom for his arraignment, where he’ll hear the charges for the first time and enter a plea. Though he doesn’t know what he’s charged with, Trump’s legal team said he plans to plead not guilty.

Protesters gather outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive later in the day for his arraignment on April 4, 2023 in New York City. With his indictment, Trump will become the first former U.S. president in history to be charged with a criminal offense. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

What are the charges?

The charges, expected to remain under seal until Trump appears in court, are believed to relate to his notorious hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump is expected to face multiple charges, including at least one felony related to business fraud, but it’s unclear whether they all relate to the hush money. The indictment stems from an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office spanning more than four years.

The charges against Trump are expected to be nonviolent and non-bail eligible. Merchan is not expected to find he poses a risk of flight, meaning the former president will most likely be released on his own recognizance. Prosecutors may ask the judge to impose other restrictions, possibly relating to travel, as Trump fights his case.

Once the indictment has been unsealed and Trump has answered to the charges, Merchan will give him and his lawyers and the prosecution a date to return to court. Trump’s attorneys have indicated they plan to file motions to have the case thrown out of court and moved to a different venue.

A supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a sign outside of Trump Tower on April 04, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Will media be allowed inside the courtroom?

Five pool photographers will be allowed inside the courtroom for the arraignment, Merchan ruled late Monday. Video cameras will be confined to hallways outside the courtroom, and reporters won’t be allowed to bring laptops or other electronics inside.

Contributing: Harry Parker, Evan Simko-Bednarski, Josephine Stratman and Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News

​ Orange County Register