Donald Trump to fly to New York ahead of court hearing

Donald Trump is set to fly from his estate in Florida to New York ahead of his scheduled court hearing on Tuesday.

The former US president is expected to arrive on Monday evening and will spend the night in Trump Tower.

Police erected barricades outside the building over the weekend, with demonstrations expected both there and at the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.

Mr Trump, 76, is facing charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star before the 2016 election.

The exact charges he faces are not yet known but they will be read in full when he appears at the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building at around 14:15 (19:15 BST) on Tuesday.

"I will be leaving Mar-a-Lago on Monday at 12 noon, heading to Trump Tower in New York," Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

The former president will be escorted by members of the US Secret Service and will reportedly arrive at New York's LaGuardia Airport on his personal plane.

After spending the night in Trump Tower, where extra security measures have been put in place, he will travel to the courthouse and surrender voluntarily. He is not expected to be handcuffed.

The former president will experience standard arrest procedure - being fingerprinted and photographed before investigators complete the usual paperwork and check for outstanding warrants.

He will then appear before a judge who will read the indictment - the set of charges - to him. His lawyers have already said he will plead not guilty.

A group of news organisations, including the New York Times and the Associated Press, have asked that cameras be allowed into the courtroom during the hearing. They have also asked the judge to unseal the indictment and make it public due to the "overwhelming public interest".

Two people familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that he is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records including at least one felony offence, which would be a more a serious charge.

Some reports suggest the indictment includes around 30 charges related to a $130,000 (£105,000) pay-out to adult film star Stormy Daniels that was made in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair, just prior to the 2016 election which he won against Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump is expected to be released on bail and will return to his Florida home on Tuesday evening.

He is the first US president in history to be charged with a crime but has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

The years-long investigation has been led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a registered Democrat, who Mr Trump says is leading a "political prosecution" aimed at damaging his run for the presidency in 2024.

"We're ready for this fight. And I look forward to moving this thing along as quickly as possible to exonerate him," one of his lawyers, Joe Tacopina, told ABC News on Sunday.

Following the court hearing on Tuesday, Mr Trump will return to Florida where he plans to deliver remarks at Mar-a-Lago at 20:15 local time.

His prospective court appearance comes as he faces numerous other criminal investigations.