Prosecutors in New York are preparing for Donald Trump’s surrender to court officials after he became the first US president to be charged with a crime.
Trump’s lawyer says the former president will not be handcuffed for his court appearance next Tuesday.
Joe Tacopina also says Trump will plead not guilty to the charges and they will “aggressively” challenge the “legal viability” of the case.
A court spokesman tells the BBC’s US partner CBS News the hearing has been set for 14:15 local time (18:15 GMT) on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have been investigating the payment of hush money to an adult film star before Trump’s election in 2016.
Former porn star Stormy Daniels claims she had an adulterous affair with the former president, and was paid $130,000 to keep quiet.
The payment was legal – but Trump allegedly recorded it as a business expense. Falsifying business records is illegal in New York.
He denies wrongdoing, and the affair, saying the indictment is “political persecution”.
Trump Friday began attacking the judge assigned to his case, as he attempts to undermine the credibility of the investigation and rally his base to his defense.
Judge Juan Merchan has presided over two cases of interest to Trump and the former president didn’t like the outcome of either.
One was the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial, in which a jury found his namesake company guilty on 17 counts, including falsifying business records.
In a related case, Trump’s former chief financial officer pleaded guilty to his role in the tax scheme as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Trump has complained about how his long-time employee was treated.
Earlier this year, Allen Weisselberg was led out of his sentencing hearing in handcuffs and transported to Rikers Island jail to serve his five-month sentence.
In a message posted online Friday, Trump accused the judge, without evidence, of strong-arming his CFO to accept the plea deal and of treating his company viciously.
Trump is unlikely to spend any time in jail as a result of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, according to one federal defense attorney.
Speaking to BBC News, Ronald Chapman II explained that while paying hush money is not in itself illegal, it can become a felony – punishable by at least a year in jail – if the payment is disguised as a business expense or used to cover up other criminal activity.
But he added: “My guess is that Donald Trump is unlikely to spend a day in jail.
“I believe the counts that he may be charged with are either four- or five-year felony offenses, meaning that is the maximum that the worst potential offender could spend in jail for those offenses.
“Typically, people with those low-level felonies would receive a probation-type sentence, a fine. And given that the conduct isn’t particularly egregious in this case, I don’t believe that he would see the inside of a jail cell at all.”
