Also good morning! I am here at arraignment court waiting for Allen Weisselberg and any other Trump Organization people to show up after a grand jury indicted the business this morning. (It’s my first post-vax court trip! Wish me luck!) 
Here is the scene outside of the NY Supreme Court arraignment room. It is filled w sweat and journalists.
It’s like if the subway were made if reporters.
*of! It’s too hot my brain is melted
We've been filed into the courtroom. No phones allowed but they're allowing laptops for some reason, so I should be able to live tweet. Most importantly, there is AC in here. Brain starting back up.
The courtroom is full now. Someone I believe to be Mary Mulligan, Allen Weisselberg's lawyer, (masks make this hard!) walked to the chambers in the back of the court room. Murmurs could be heard over the loudspeakers and then someone said "Maybe we should mute the mic."
Cy Vance (the Manhattan DA leading the indictment of the Trump Org) and Leticia James (New York State Attorney General working with Vance) just entered the court room and took a seat in the front row. They're social distanced but leaning over to chat.
Allen Weisselberg was just led into the courtroom in handcuffs.
They uncuffed him and he is seated at the front of the court with his legal team and multiple officers standing beside him. They walked him in handcuffs through the lines of cameras outside first, before bringing him down the aisle through the rows of press.
Weisselberg is wearing a white N95 mask, glasses, and a grey suit. He was hunched as he walked through the courtroom in handcuffs, surrounded on all sides by officers.
Just seeing this:
https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1410663184336359428
The arraignment has started. Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg is charged w scheme conspiracy, grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records. He pled not guilty to all charges.
A lawyer for the state was the first to speak: "This is not about politics ... politics plays no role in the grand jury chamber and I can assure your honor that it played no role here."
The NY attorney said (closely paraphrased): This is a tax fraud scheme involving off the books payment, which not a standard practice in the business, and this is not the act of a rogue employee. ...
(cont.) Instead it was orchestrated by executives who were getting secret pay raises at the expense of the state and taxpayers. ...
"This was, to be blunt, sweeping and audacious," the NY attorney said "the CFO himself directed that company records be deleted with the knowledge of the company, yet he remains to this day" one of the most senior people in the company.
Lawyers for the Trump Org declined to make a statement, Weisselberg's lawyer said: "we reject to the characterization fo the facts that were just given."
Attorneys for NY said that Weisselberg is a flight risk, that he travels frequently by private jet and that he has connections and assets in places that the state has no power. Weisselberg's team agreed to turn over his passport.
Arraignment has concluded. The next hearing is scheduled for 9/20.
In a gaggle outside lawyer for the Trump org Alan Futerfas said in a gaggle outside the courthouse that he thinks this suit would not be happening “if the organization had a different name,” that he thinks this should be a civil suit not a criminal one.
Scene outside the courthouse rn as Trump Org team (but not Weisselberg’s) give a gaggle saying that this suit should not be happening
Here are the documents with the specific charges and allegations against Trump Org, Trump Corp, Trump Payroll & Weisselberg:
https://twitter.com/zoetillman/status/1410669184342704131
And here is our article from today, w me in court and @ZoeTillman on the keys: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Weisselberg allegedly received more than $1.76 million in “indirect” compensation from the company that wasn’t properly reported and wasn’t taxed. He is also separately charged with grand larceny for receiving tax refunds from the fed gov, and falsifying tax records.
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