By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -Dave Halls, first assistant director on Western “Rust, was sentenced on Friday for the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, marking the first conviction for the 2021 fatality which shook Hollywood.

A New Mexico judge approved the set manager’s plea deal with prosecutors for a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death on a movie set outside Santa Fe.

The conviction marked a step forward for state prosecutors plagued by legal setbacks since they filed charges in January against actor Alec Baldwin and others who handled the gun that killed Hutchins.

District court judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced Halls to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.

Hutchins was killed when Baldwin fired a live round from a revolver while rehearsing. As first assistant director, prosecutors said Halls was responsible for set safety on “Rust.”

“Halls did not check every round in the gun to confirm it was a dummy round and not a live round,” state prosecutor Kari Morrissey told the virtual plea hearing.

Halls, an industry-veteran with over 80 credits including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Crow: Salvation,” was the only member of the “Rust” cast and crew to enter a plea bargain. Prosecutors said he approached them and was cooperative.

It remains unclear whether he will testify on behalf of the prosecution in a May preliminary hearing where Marlowe Sommer will decide whether there is probable cause to try Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter. The actor said he relied on weapons experts – Gutierrez-Reed and Halls – to ensure the firearm was safe to use.

Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for firearm safety and training, will also plead not guilty, according to her lawyer.

‘COLD GUN’

The case is remarkable in that there is little or no precedent for a Hollywood actor to face criminal charges for an on-set shooting.

Investigators have been unable to discover who brought live rounds on set, an act strictly forbidden by the industry.

“Never in anyone’s wildest dreams never, never in anyone’s imagination, did anyone think that there could possibly be a live round in the firearm,” said Lisa Torraco, Halls’ lawyer.

She said Halls was suffering from “survivor’s guilt” after he only checked the gun for blank rounds, which make an explosive sound and muzzle flash, and dummy rounds – the two types of rounds used on film sets.

The chain of events leading to Hutchins’ death remains unclear, though Gutierrez-Reed has said she loaded the live round that killed Hutchins, believing it to be a dummy.

A 2021 police report said Halls announced the weapon was a “cold gun” – an industry term meaning it did not contain rounds with an explosive charge – before handing it to Baldwin.

Halls testified to New Mexico’s worker safety bureau in December that it was Gutierrez-Reed who said “cold gun” and gave the revolver to Baldwin. The armorer told the bureau she never used that term and it was Halls who passed the weapon to Baldwin.

Under the charge of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors must prove Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin were not only negligent in their handling of the firearm but showed intentional disregard for Hutchins’ safety.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson, Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)

By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -Dave Halls, first assistant director on Western “Rust, was sentenced on Friday for the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, marking the first conviction for the 2021 fatality which shook Hollywood.

A New Mexico judge approved the set manager’s plea deal with prosecutors for a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death on a movie set outside Santa Fe.

The conviction marked a step forward for state prosecutors plagued by legal setbacks since they filed charges in January against actor Alec Baldwin and others who handled the gun that killed Hutchins.

District court judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced Halls to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.

Hutchins was killed when Baldwin fired a live round from a revolver while rehearsing. As first assistant director, prosecutors said Halls was responsible for set safety on “Rust.”

“Halls did not check every round in the gun to confirm it was a dummy round and not a live round,” state prosecutor Kari Morrissey told the virtual plea hearing.

Halls, an industry-veteran with over 80 credits including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Crow: Salvation,” was the only member of the “Rust” cast and crew to enter a plea bargain. Prosecutors said he approached them and was cooperative.

It remains unclear whether he will testify on behalf of the prosecution in a May preliminary hearing where Marlowe Sommer will decide whether there is probable cause to try Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter. The actor said he relied on weapons experts – Gutierrez-Reed and Halls – to ensure the firearm was safe to use.

Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for firearm safety and training, will also plead not guilty, according to her lawyer.

‘COLD GUN’

The case is remarkable in that there is little or no precedent for a Hollywood actor to face criminal charges for an on-set shooting.

Investigators have been unable to discover who brought live rounds on set, an act strictly forbidden by the industry.

“Never in anyone’s wildest dreams never, never in anyone’s imagination, did anyone think that there could possibly be a live round in the firearm,” said Lisa Torraco, Halls’ lawyer.

She said Halls was suffering from “survivor’s guilt” after he only checked the gun for blank rounds, which make an explosive sound and muzzle flash, and dummy rounds – the two types of rounds used on film sets.

The chain of events leading to Hutchins’ death remains unclear, though Gutierrez-Reed has said she loaded the live round that killed Hutchins, believing it to be a dummy.

A 2021 police report said Halls announced the weapon was a “cold gun” – an industry term meaning it did not contain rounds with an explosive charge – before handing it to Baldwin.

Halls testified to New Mexico’s worker safety bureau in December that it was Gutierrez-Reed who said “cold gun” and gave the revolver to Baldwin. The armorer told the bureau she never used that term and it was Halls who passed the weapon to Baldwin.

Under the charge of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors must prove Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin were not only negligent in their handling of the firearm but showed intentional disregard for Hutchins’ safety.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson, Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)

By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -Dave Halls, first assistant director on Western “Rust, was sentenced on Friday for the on-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, marking the first conviction for the 2021 fatality which shook Hollywood.

A New Mexico judge approved the set manager’s plea deal with prosecutors for a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death on a movie set outside Santa Fe.

The conviction marked a step forward for state prosecutors plagued by legal setbacks since they filed charges in January against actor Alec Baldwin and others who handled the gun that killed Hutchins.

District court judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced Halls to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.

Hutchins was killed when Baldwin fired a live round from a revolver while rehearsing. As first assistant director, prosecutors said Halls was responsible for set safety on “Rust.”

“Halls did not check every round in the gun to confirm it was a dummy round and not a live round,” state prosecutor Kari Morrissey told the virtual plea hearing.

Halls, an industry-veteran with over 80 credits including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Crow: Salvation,” was the only member of the “Rust” cast and crew to enter a plea bargain. Prosecutors said he approached them and was cooperative.

It remains unclear whether he will testify on behalf of the prosecution in a May preliminary hearing where Marlowe Sommer will decide whether there is probable cause to try Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter. The actor said he relied on weapons experts – Gutierrez-Reed and Halls – to ensure the firearm was safe to use.

Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for firearm safety and training, will also plead not guilty, according to her lawyer.

‘COLD GUN’

The case is remarkable in that there is little or no precedent for a Hollywood actor to face criminal charges for an on-set shooting.

Investigators have been unable to discover who brought live rounds on set, an act strictly forbidden by the industry.

“Never in anyone’s wildest dreams never, never in anyone’s imagination, did anyone think that there could possibly be a live round in the firearm,” said Lisa Torraco, Halls’ lawyer.

She said Halls was suffering from “survivor’s guilt” after he only checked the gun for blank rounds, which make an explosive sound and muzzle flash, and dummy rounds – the two types of rounds used on film sets.

The chain of events leading to Hutchins’ death remains unclear, though Gutierrez-Reed has said she loaded the live round that killed Hutchins, believing it to be a dummy.

A 2021 police report said Halls announced the weapon was a “cold gun” – an industry term meaning it did not contain rounds with an explosive charge – before handing it to Baldwin.

Halls testified to New Mexico’s worker safety bureau in December that it was Gutierrez-Reed who said “cold gun” and gave the revolver to Baldwin. The armorer told the bureau she never used that term and it was Halls who passed the weapon to Baldwin.

Under the charge of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors must prove Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin were not only negligent in their handling of the firearm but showed intentional disregard for Hutchins’ safety.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson, Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)

By Karen Freifeld, Luc Cohen and Tyler Clifford

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse next week as he becomes the first ex-president to face criminal charges, in a case involving a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s expected appearance before a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday as the Republican mounts a comeback bid for the presidency could further inflame divisions across the country.

A New York judge on Friday authorized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to make the charges public, but it was not clear when he would do so.

For nearly two weeks, Trump has been using the legal threats he confronts to raise money and rally supporters as he seeks his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year.

The first U.S. president to try to overthrow an election defeat, inspiring the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, has signaled he will continue to campaign even as he faces charges.

“I am not afraid of what’s to come,” he said in a fundraising email on Friday.

The specific charges are not yet known, though CNN reported that Trump faced more than 30 counts related to business fraud.

Susan Necheles, a Trump attorney, told Reuters the former president will plead not guilty.

Another Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Trump will not have to wear handcuffs at his court appearance and will likely be released without having to post bail.

“He’s ready to fight. He’s gearing up,” Tacopina told Reuters in a phone interview.

Trump, 76, said on Thursday that he was “completely innocent” and accused Bragg, a Democrat, of trying to damage his electoral chances.

PARTISAN BRAWL

Trump’s claims of political interference have been echoed by many of his fellow Republicans and his potential rivals in the 2024 race.

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, said the charges send a “terrible message” to the world about U.S. justice.

“I’m very troubled by it,” Pence, a possible 2024 candidate, said at a forum in Washington.

Senior Republicans in the House of Representatives have vowed to investigate Bragg and demanded he hand over documents and other confidential material from the investigation.

Bragg said on Friday that Congress does not have authority to interfere with a New York legal proceeding and accused the lawmakers of escalating political tensions. Bragg’s office has been the target of bomb threats in recent weeks.

“You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges,” Bragg wrote in a letter to Republican lawmakers.

Biden declined to comment on Friday as he left the White House for a trip to storm-ravaged Mississippi.

Trump alleges there are political motivations behind all four criminal investigations he is known to face – including federal probes into his retention of classified documents and attempts to overturn his election defeat, and a separate Georgia probe into his efforts to overturn his loss in that state.

He has also accused Bragg, who is Black, of racial bias.

SECURITY HIGH

Officials have stepped up security around the courthouse since Trump on March 18 called on his supporters to protest any arrest. A law enforcement source said police would close streets around the courthouse ahead of Tuesday’s expected appearance.

On Friday, media outlets were set up outside the courthouse but there was no sign of unrest or protests related to the case.

The Manhattan charges will likely be unsealed by a judge in the coming days and Trump will have to travel there to be photographed, fingerprinted and appear in court, which is expected on Tuesday. Necheles, the Trump lawyer, said she did not expect charges to be unsealed until that day.

Any potential trial is still at least more than a year away, legal experts said, meaning it could occur during or after the presidential campaign.

Trump appealed earlier this month for nationwide protests, recalling his charged rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, and warned last week of potential “death & destruction” if he were charged.

“It’s politics. I think they’re just dying to find a way to keep him from being eligible for running for reelection,” Mark Funk, 58, said at a beer garden in Houston.

Some 44% of Republicans said Trump should drop out of the race if he is indicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.

HAS ESCAPED LEGAL PERIL BEFORE

Trump has escaped legal peril numerous times since the 1970s, when he joined his family’s real estate business.

In the White House, he weathered two attempts by Congress to remove him from office and a probe into his campaign’s contacts with Russia in 2016.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office prosecuted Trump’s business on tax-fraud charges last year, leading to a $1.61 million criminal penalty, but Trump himself was not charged.

The presiding judge in that case, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, is expected to oversee the Daniels case as well, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Though it is unclear what specific charges Trump will face, some legal experts have said Bragg might have to rely on untested legal theories to argue that Trump falsified business records to cover up other crimes, such as violating federal campaign-finance law.

Ahead of the indictment, the grand jury heard months of evidence about an alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 campaign.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

The former president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said he coordinated with Trump on the payments to Daniels and to a second woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also said she had a sexual relationship with him.

Trump has denied having affairs with either woman and initially disputed knowing anything about the payments. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for what he called a “simple private transaction.”

Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign-finance violation in 2018 and served more than a year in prison. Federal prosecutors said he acted at Trump’s direction.

(This story has been refiled to add the dropped word ‘said’ in paragraph 25)

(Additional reporting by Tim Reid, Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)

By Karen Freifeld, Luc Cohen and Tyler Clifford

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse next week as he becomes the first ex-president to face criminal charges, in a case involving a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s expected appearance before a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday as the Republican mounts a comeback bid for the presidency could further inflame divisions across the country.

A New York judge on Friday authorized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to make the charges public, but it was not clear when he would do so.

For nearly two weeks, Trump has been using the legal threats he confronts to raise money and rally supporters as he seeks his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year.

The first U.S. president to try to overthrow an election defeat, inspiring the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, has signaled he will continue to campaign even as he faces charges.

“I am not afraid of what’s to come,” he said in a fundraising email on Friday.

The specific charges are not yet known, though CNN reported that Trump faced more than 30 counts related to business fraud.

Susan Necheles, a Trump attorney, told Reuters the former president will plead not guilty.

Another Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Trump will not have to wear handcuffs at his court appearance and will likely be released without having to post bail.

“He’s ready to fight. He’s gearing up,” Tacopina told Reuters in a phone interview.

Trump, 76, said on Thursday that he was “completely innocent” and accused Bragg, a Democrat, of trying to damage his electoral chances.

PARTISAN BRAWL

Trump’s claims of political interference have been echoed by many of his fellow Republicans and his potential rivals in the 2024 race.

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, said the charges send a “terrible message” to the world about U.S. justice.

“I’m very troubled by it,” Pence, a possible 2024 candidate, said at a forum in Washington.

Senior Republicans in the House of Representatives have vowed to investigate Bragg and demanded he hand over documents and other confidential material from the investigation.

Bragg said on Friday that Congress does not have authority to interfere with a New York legal proceeding and accused the lawmakers of escalating political tensions. Bragg’s office has been the target of bomb threats in recent weeks.

“You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges,” Bragg wrote in a letter to Republican lawmakers.

Biden declined to comment on Friday as he left the White House for a trip to storm-ravaged Mississippi.

Trump alleges there are political motivations behind all four criminal investigations he is known to face – including federal probes into his retention of classified documents and attempts to overturn his election defeat, and a separate Georgia probe into his efforts to overturn his loss in that state.

He has also accused Bragg, who is Black, of racial bias.

SECURITY HIGH

Officials have stepped up security around the courthouse since Trump on March 18 called on his supporters to protest any arrest. A law enforcement source said police would close streets around the courthouse ahead of Tuesday’s expected appearance.

On Friday, media outlets were set up outside the courthouse but there was no sign of unrest or protests related to the case.

The Manhattan charges will likely be unsealed by a judge in the coming days and Trump will have to travel there to be photographed, fingerprinted and appear in court, which is expected on Tuesday. Necheles, the Trump lawyer, said she did not expect charges to be unsealed until that day.

Any potential trial is still at least more than a year away, legal experts said, meaning it could occur during or after the presidential campaign.

Trump appealed earlier this month for nationwide protests, recalling his charged rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, and warned last week of potential “death & destruction” if he were charged.

“It’s politics. I think they’re just dying to find a way to keep him from being eligible for running for reelection,” Mark Funk, 58, said at a beer garden in Houston.

Some 44% of Republicans said Trump should drop out of the race if he is indicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.

HAS ESCAPED LEGAL PERIL BEFORE

Trump has escaped legal peril numerous times since the 1970s, when he joined his family’s real estate business.

In the White House, he weathered two attempts by Congress to remove him from office and a probe into his campaign’s contacts with Russia in 2016.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office prosecuted Trump’s business on tax-fraud charges last year, leading to a $1.61 million criminal penalty, but Trump himself was not charged.

The presiding judge in that case, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, is expected to oversee the Daniels case as well, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Though it is unclear what specific charges Trump will face, some legal experts have said Bragg might have to rely on untested legal theories to argue that Trump falsified business records to cover up other crimes, such as violating federal campaign-finance law.

Ahead of the indictment, the grand jury heard months of evidence about an alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 campaign.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

The former president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said he coordinated with Trump on the payments to Daniels and to a second woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also said she had a sexual relationship with him.

Trump has denied having affairs with either woman and initially disputed knowing anything about the payments. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for what he called a “simple private transaction.”

Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign-finance violation in 2018 and served more than a year in prison. Federal prosecutors said he acted at Trump’s direction.

(This story has been refiled to add the dropped word ‘said’ in paragraph 25)

(Additional reporting by Tim Reid, Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)

(Adds dropped word “said” in paragraph 25)

By Karen Freifeld, Luc Cohen and Tyler Clifford

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse next week as he becomes the first ex-president to face criminal charges, in a case involving a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s expected appearance before a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday as the Republican mounts a comeback bid for the presidency could further inflame divisions across the country.

A New York judge on Friday authorized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to make the charges public, but it was not clear when he would do so.

For nearly two weeks, Trump has been using the legal threats he confronts to raise money and rally supporters as he seeks his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year.

The first U.S. president to try to overthrow an election defeat, inspiring the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, has signaled he will continue to campaign even as he faces charges.

“I am not afraid of what’s to come,” he said in a fundraising email on Friday.

The specific charges are not yet known, though CNN reported that Trump faced more than 30 counts related to business fraud.

Susan Necheles, a Trump attorney, told Reuters the former president will plead not guilty.

Another Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Trump will not have to wear handcuffs at his court appearance and will likely be released without having to post bail.

“He’s ready to fight. He’s gearing up,” Tacopina told Reuters in a phone interview.

Trump, 76, said on Thursday that he was “completely innocent” and accused Bragg, a Democrat, of trying to damage his electoral chances.

PARTISAN BRAWL

Trump’s claims of political interference have been echoed by many of his fellow Republicans and his potential rivals in the 2024 race.

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, said the charges send a “terrible message” to the world about U.S. justice.

“I’m very troubled by it,” Pence, a possible 2024 candidate, said at a forum in Washington.

Senior Republicans in the House of Representatives have vowed to investigate Bragg and demanded he hand over documents and other confidential material from the investigation.

Bragg said on Friday that Congress does not have authority to interfere with a New York legal proceeding and accused the lawmakers of escalating political tensions. Bragg’s office has been the target of bomb threats in recent weeks.

“You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges,” Bragg wrote in a letter to Republican lawmakers.

Biden declined to comment on Friday as he left the White House for a trip to storm-ravaged Mississippi.

Trump alleges there are political motivations behind all four criminal investigations he is known to face – including federal probes into his retention of classified documents and attempts to overturn his election defeat, and a separate Georgia probe into his efforts to overturn his loss in that state.

He has also accused Bragg, who is Black, of racial bias.

SECURITY HIGH

Officials have stepped up security around the courthouse since Trump on March 18 called on his supporters to protest any arrest. A law enforcement source said police would close streets around the courthouse ahead of Tuesday’s expected appearance.

On Friday, media outlets were set up outside the courthouse but there was no sign of unrest or protests related to the case.

The Manhattan charges will likely be unsealed by a judge in the coming days and Trump will have to travel there to be photographed, fingerprinted and appear in court, which is expected on Tuesday. Necheles, the Trump lawyer, said she did not expect charges to be unsealed until that day.

Any potential trial is still at least more than a year away, legal experts said, meaning it could occur during or after the presidential campaign.

Trump appealed earlier this month for nationwide protests, recalling his charged rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, and warned last week of potential “death & destruction” if he were charged.

“It’s politics. I think they’re just dying to find a way to keep him from being eligible for running for reelection,” Mark Funk, 58, said at a beer garden in Houston.

Some 44% of Republicans said Trump should drop out of the race if he is indicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.

HAS ESCAPED LEGAL PERIL BEFORE

Trump has escaped legal peril numerous times since the 1970s, when he joined his family’s real estate business.

In the White House, he weathered two attempts by Congress to remove him from office and a probe into his campaign’s contacts with Russia in 2016.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office prosecuted Trump’s business on tax-fraud charges last year, leading to a $1.61 million criminal penalty, but Trump himself was not charged.

The presiding judge in that case, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, is expected to oversee the Daniels case as well, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Though it is unclear what specific charges Trump will face, some legal experts have said Bragg might have to rely on untested legal theories to argue that Trump falsified business records to cover up other crimes, such as violating federal campaign-finance law.

Ahead of the indictment, the grand jury heard months of evidence about an alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 campaign.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

The former president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said he coordinated with Trump on the payments to Daniels and to a second woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also said she had a sexual relationship with him.

Trump has denied having affairs with either woman and initially disputed knowing anything about the payments. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for what he called a “simple private transaction.”

Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign-finance violation in 2018 and served more than a year in prison. Federal prosecutors said he acted at Trump’s direction.

(Additional reporting by Tim Reid, Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)

By Karen Freifeld, Luc Cohen and Tyler Clifford

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse next week as he becomes the first ex-president to face criminal charges, in a case involving a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s expected appearance before a judge in Manhattan on Tuesday as the Republican mounts a comeback bid for the presidency could further inflame divisions across the country.

A New York judge on Friday authorized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to make the charges public, but it was not clear when he would do so.

For nearly two weeks, Trump has been using the legal threats he confronts to raise money and rally supporters as he seeks his party’s nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden next year.

The first U.S. president to try to overthrow an election defeat, inspiring the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, has signaled he will continue to campaign even as he faces charges.

“I am not afraid of what’s to come,” he said in a fundraising email on Friday.

The specific charges are not yet known, though CNN reported that Trump faced more than 30 counts related to business fraud.

Susan Necheles, a Trump attorney, told Reuters the former president will plead not guilty.

Another Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said Trump will not have to wear handcuffs at his court appearance and will likely be released without having to post bail.

“He’s ready to fight. He’s gearing up,” Tacopina told Reuters in a phone interview.

Trump, 76, said on Thursday that he was “completely innocent” and accused Bragg, a Democrat, of trying to damage his electoral chances.

PARTISAN BRAWL

Trump’s claims of political interference have been echoed by many of his fellow Republicans and his potential rivals in the 2024 race.

Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, said the charges send a “terrible message” to the world about U.S. justice.

“I’m very troubled by it,” Pence, a possible 2024 candidate, said at a forum in Washington.

Senior Republicans in the House of Representatives have vowed to investigate Bragg and demanded he hand over documents and other confidential material from the investigation.

Bragg said on Friday that Congress does not have authority to interfere with a New York legal proceeding and accused the lawmakers of escalating political tensions. Bragg’s office has been the target of bomb threats in recent weeks.

“You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges,” Bragg wrote in a letter to Republican lawmakers.

Biden declined to comment on Friday as he left the White House for a trip to storm-ravaged Mississippi.

Trump alleges there are political motivations behind all four criminal investigations he is known to face – including federal probes into his retention of classified documents and attempts to overturn his election defeat, and a separate Georgia probe into his efforts to overturn his loss in that state.

He has also accused Bragg, who is Black, of racial bias.

SECURITY HIGH

Officials have stepped up security around the courthouse since Trump on March 18 called on his supporters to protest any arrest. A law enforcement source said police would close streets around the courthouse ahead of Tuesday’s expected appearance.

On Friday, media outlets were set up outside the courthouse but there was no sign of unrest or protests related to the case.

The Manhattan charges will likely be unsealed by a judge in the coming days and Trump will have to travel there to be photographed, fingerprinted and appear in court, which is expected on Tuesday. Necheles, the Trump lawyer, she did not expect charges to be unsealed until that day.

Any potential trial is still at least more than a year away, legal experts said, meaning it could occur during or after the presidential campaign.

Trump appealed earlier this month for nationwide protests, recalling his charged rhetoric ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, and warned last week of potential “death & destruction” if he were charged.

“It’s politics. I think they’re just dying to find a way to keep him from being eligible for running for reelection,” Mark Funk, 58, said at a beer garden in Houston.

Some 44% of Republicans said Trump should drop out of the race if he is indicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.

HAS ESCAPED LEGAL PERIL BEFORE

Trump has escaped legal peril numerous times since the 1970s, when he joined his family’s real estate business.

In the White House, he weathered two attempts by Congress to remove him from office and a probe into his campaign’s contacts with Russia in 2016.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office prosecuted Trump’s business on tax-fraud charges last year, leading to a $1.61 million criminal penalty, but Trump himself was not charged.

The presiding judge in that case, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, is expected to oversee the Daniels case as well, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Though it is unclear what specific charges Trump will face, some legal experts have said Bragg might have to rely on untested legal theories to argue that Trump falsified business records to cover up other crimes, such as violating federal campaign-finance law.

Ahead of the indictment, the grand jury heard months of evidence about an alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 campaign.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she received money in exchange for keeping silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump in 2006.

The former president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said he coordinated with Trump on the payments to Daniels and to a second woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also said she had a sexual relationship with him.

Trump has denied having affairs with either woman and initially disputed knowing anything about the payments. He later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for what he called a “simple private transaction.”

Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign-finance violation in 2018 and served more than a year in prison. Federal prosecutors said he acted at Trump’s direction.

(Additional reporting by Tim Reid, Doina Chiacu and Katharine Jackson; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone, Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)

By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -A Santa Fe judge on Friday accepted a plea deal, bringing the first conviction for the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the Western movie “Rust” in New Mexico.

Dave Halls, first assistant director on “Rust,” pleaded no contest as part of an agreement with prosecutors to the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon for his role in Hutchins’ death.

Santa Fe District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer presided over a virtual hearing in Halls’ case Friday. She sentenced Halls, who was responsible for on-set safety, to a six-month suspended sentence with unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, 24 hours of community service and a firearms safety class.

Hutchins was killed when actor Alec Baldwin fired a live round from a revolver while rehearsing. As first assistant director, prosecutors said Halls was responsible for set safety on “Rust.”

The conviction marked a step forward for state prosecutors plagued by legal setbacks since they filed charges in January.

“Halls did not check every round in the gun to confirm it was a dummy round and not a live round,” state prosecutor Kari Morrissey said during the plea hearing.

Halls, an industry-veteran with over 80 credits including “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Crow: Salvation,” was the only member of the “Rust” cast and crew to enter a plea bargain. Prosecutors said he approached them and was cooperative.

It remains unclear whether he will testify on behalf of the prosecution in a May preliminary hearing where Marlowe Sommer will decide whether there is probable cause to try Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty to a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter. The actor said he relied on weapons experts – Gutierrez-Reed and Halls – to ensure the firearm was safe to use.

Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for firearm safety and training, will also plead not guilty, according to her lawyer.

Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed are the only others charged in the case.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson, Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)

By Tim Reid and Katharine Jackson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The indictment of former U.S. President Donald Trump sends a “terrible message” to the world about American justice and will encourage dictators to abuse power, former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday.

“There are dictators and authoritarians around the world that will point to that to justify their own abuse of their own so-called justice system,” Pence, Trump’s former vice president and a potential rival for the Republican Party’s 2024 White House nomination, said during an interview at the National Review’s Ideas Summit.

Trump is due to be fingerprinted and photographed in a New York courthouse next week as he becomes the first former president to face criminal charges, in a case involving a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump, who is mounting a comeback bid for the presidency he lost in the 2020 election, was indicted on Thursday in New York.

Pence has joined fellow Republicans and Trump’s other potential 2024 rivals in condemning the indictment, calling it an “outrage.”

(Reporting by Timothy Reid and Katharine Jackson; editing by Rami Ayyub and Jonathan Oatis)

(Reuters) – A New York City man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a hate crime in the 2021 killing of a Chinese immigrant has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, authorities said.

Jarrod Powell’s attack on c, 61, in Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood was one of a spate of attacks targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders across the United States.

Ma was in a coma for eight months before he died. Police surveillance video of the April 2021 attack showed Ma being knocked down from behind and kicked in the head multiple times by a lone man.

Powell pleaded guilty in January to manslaughter in the first degree as a hate crime, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a statement announcing that the 51-year-old had been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

“Mr. Ma’s death was the result of a despicable racially motivated attack,” Bragg said. “(No) one should have to fear that they may be in danger because of their background.”

Ma was a pastry chef who came to the U.S. with his wife two years before the attack, U.S. media have reported.

Bragg’s office said Powell admitted in his plea that he targeted Ma due to his Asian heritage. The office said it currently has 39 open cases related to anti-Asian hate crimes.

The attack on Ma came a month after a shooting spree at three Atlanta spas left eight people dead, including six Asian women.

About one-third of Asian Americans say they have changed their daily routines due to concerns over threats and attacks, according to a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center. The FBI says there were 305 U.S. hate crimes against Asians in 2021.

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; editing by Jonathan Oatis)