What two of Trump's potential presidential primary opponents said about his indictment

Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when he returns from his arraignment Tuesday night, according to a news release from his campaign.

Trump is expected to appear in court Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan, sources tell CNN.

His attorney said the former president will voluntarily surrender to New York law enforcement and plans to mount legal challenges.

Former President Donald Trump is mounting a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, even as several legal controversies swirl around him.

Two of his potential opponents in the GOP primary — who have not yet formally announced candidacies — took different tacks when discussing Trump's historic indictment this weekend.

Here is what they had to say:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attacked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for indicting “a former president on misdemeanor offenses” for “purely political purposes” in a speech Saturday at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference.

“That is when you know that the law has been weaponized for political purposes; that is when you know that the left is using that to target their political opponent,” DeSantis said. 

DeSantis further attacked Bragg at a rally Saturday in Garden City, New York.

DeSantis said while Bragg is looking to lessen penalties on other offenders, he's looking to charge Trump with a felony for business-related crimes that should be considered misdemeanors.

“This guy is doing politics. He has an agenda. That is not the rule of law,” DeSantis continued, as the crowd broke into applause that turned into a standing ovation.

Context on Bragg's campaign: Bragg ran for district attorney as a reformer. He has aggressively pursued Trump and other progressive priorities since getting elected, including not prosecuting some low-level crimes and finding alternatives to incarceration for certain offenders.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, one of the few Republican 2024 hopefuls who did not immediately criticize Donald Trump's indictment, said late Friday that the former president “shouldn’t be the nominee” and “can’t win” the 2024 election.

Sununu said on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher" that the historic indictment has created a “circus.”

Asked if he thought Trump was guilty, the governor said: “You know what the indictments are? Like, I'm assuming he is, right?"

Sununu said the indictment "only helps" Trump with his supporters, but he doesn't believe the former president should be the GOP's nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

More from the potential 2024 GOP field: You can read remarks on the indictment from former Vice President Mike Pence, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other Republicans to watch here.

Former President Donald Trump's legal team will make a robust response in court to try to challenge his indictment however it can once the charges are unsealed, Joe Tacopina, a Trump defense lawyer, said Sunday.

Tacopina and other Trump lawyers have done several TV interviews in anticipation of Trump's first appearance in court on Tuesday, when he will learn the charges the grand jury approved against him. 

Tacopina said Trump will plead not guilty.

At times, the former president's lawyers have vowed to ask for the charges to be dismissed. They have consistently said they believe the charges will be thrown out. But the full slate remains under seal and still isn't known.

At the arraignment, a judge will ultimately determine if the law is sound enough for the case to move forward to trial.

What a challenge could look like: The Trump team’s court challenge could center around the case's expected reliance on business record entries that prosecutors tie to hush money payments to Stormy Daniels seven years ago.

Tacopina suggested in TV interviews Sunday the statute of limitations may have passed on any alleged misconduct related to those transactions.

“They’re not false entries. But assuming they were, they’re misdemeanors way beyond the statute of limitations, so they had to cobble them together to try and get a felony,” he said.

Trump's legal team isn't currently considering asking to move the case to a different New York City borough, Tacopina said.

“There’s been no discussion of that whatsoever,” he separately told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in another interview Sunday. “It’s way too premature to start worrying about venue changes until we really see the indictment and grapple with the legal issues.”

William Barr, the former attorney general in the Trump administration, said on Fox News Sunday that it would not be wise for Donald Trump to testify in the criminal case against the former president.

Barr said he believes the Trump indictment is an “abuse of the prosecutor function."

“Based on what we know, it certainly appears to be (political prosecution) and I think the American people see that it's the very essence of the abuse of the prosecutor function, which is pursuing a person rather than pursuing a real crime," Barr said.

He added: “There's nothing inherently wrong or illegal about making a hush payment. They're saying he falsified the corporate record. But for that to even be a misdemeanor, you have to be trying to defraud somebody."

The former AG said it is "unclear" to him "exactly who was defrauded” by Trump.

Catching up on the case? You can read up on the details of the allegations against Trump, or learn more about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the Republicans accusing him of leading a politically motivated prosecution.

The grand jury indictment of former US President Donald Trump was a "vindication," "monumental" and "epic," adult film star Stormy Daniels told the British newspaper, The Times.

Daniels also said she received a torrent of abuse within hours of the indictment and that for the first time, she is scared.

Daniels was supposed to appear on Britain's TalkTV for an exclusive interview with host Piers Morgan Friday afternoon. Piers Morgan wrote on his official Twitter account that Daniels had to “suddenly postpone” the interview minutes before it was scheduled to begin due to “security issues.”

Former President Donald Trump’s team says they have raised over $5 million dollars since Trump was indicted Thursday.

Axios first reported the new fundraising figures. 

CNN reported Friday that Trump had raised $4 million since news of the indictment.

When Donald Trump enters a New York courtroom Tuesday, he’ll face a seasoned judge who is no stranger to the former president’s orbit.

Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Trump’s close confidant Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and overseen former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.

But Trump’s historic arraignment can be viewed as Merchan’s most high-profile case to date, even after a long career atop the state-level trial court.

Merchan has been described by observers as a “tough” judge, yet one who is fair, no matter who is before him.

Here's more background on the justice whose courtroom will soon be thrust into the spotlight:

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Merchan emigrated to the United States at the age of six and grew up in the New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, according to a New York Times profile of the judge. He was the first in his family to go to college.

Merchan initially studied business at Baruch College in New York. He dropped out of school to go work, only to return several years later to finish school so that he could get his law degree, the Times reported.

He eventually received his law degree from Hofstra University.

Attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN that Merchan does not stand for disruptions or delays, and he’s known to maintain control of his courtroom even when his cases draw considerable attention.

Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said during an interview Friday on CNN that Merchan was “not easy” on him when he tried a case before him, but said the judge likely will be fair.

“I’ve tried a case in front of him before. He could be tough. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be something that’s going to change his ability to evaluate the facts and the law in this case,” Parlatore said.

Read more here.

Donald Trump is the first former president to be indicted. Given that move by a New York grand jury and the other high-profile criminal cases involving Trump, you might think his political fortunes are endangered.

But many Republican officials seem hesitant to attack the former president (instead turning on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges), and betting markets still favor Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024.

So what's going on? We're in an obviously unprecedented situation, and the political reality can change post-indictment.

Still, Republicans and bettors are likely reacting to three facts:

Read our full analysis here.

Following his indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, former President Donald Trump’s advisers and allies have expressed concern about Trump potentially being tried in Manhattan, pointing to the borough’s predominately Democratic-voting population as reason the former president will not get a fair trial.

However, Trump's attorneys are not currently considering asking for a change of venue and do not plan to make many decisions until they see the indictment, which is expected to happen Tuesday when Trump is arraigned. 

Trump’s indictment remains under seal, so it’s unclear what charges the former president faces, and there’s a long road ahead before any potential trial. But the initial discussions among advisers indicate at least some of Trump’s political team’s concerns moving forward.

In a statement, Trump’s campaign did not address the location of the potential trial and instead again slammed Bragg’s investigation as a “political persecution.” 

“The Manhattan DA’s crusade against President Donald J. Trump is nothing more than political persecution and, just like with every other hoax that President Trump has been targeted with, there is no crime whatsoever, except for election interference by radical Democrats through weaponization of our justice system against President Trump and his supporters,” the statement said.