Jim Trusty, on ABC’s This Week, said the ex-president’s team will file ‘robust motions’ before the case even reaches its trial stage

While Donald Trump launches verbal attacks against the prosecutor and judge overseeing his criminal charges in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, an attorney for the former US president has said his main focus is on legal maneuvers aiming to get the case dismissed long before a trial jury is ever seated.

Jim Trusty appeared on Sunday on ABC’s This Week and argued that “there’s a lot to play with” when examining whether New York state prosecutors waited too long to secure an indictment against Trump and if the ex-president intended to commit any crimes with the payments at the center of the case.

A grand jury has voted to criminally indict Donald Trump, the first time in US history that this has happened to a former president

• Donald Trump indicted by grand jury over hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

A grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump in New York over a hush money payment made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election.

This is the first time in US history a former president has faced a criminal indictment.

The charges remained under seal but the investigation centred on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.

The former president will appear in court for his arraignment on Tuesday, several outlets have reported.

The former president has responded with an attack on Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, saying, the indictment amounted to “political persecution”. “I can’t get a fair trial in New York”, he wrote on Truth Social.

Democrats said if Trump broke the law, he should face charges like any American. Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer added: “There should be no outside political influence, intimidation or interference in the case. I encourage both Mr Trump’s critics and supporters to let the process proceed peacefully and according to the law.” California Democrat Adam Schiff said: “The indictment of a former president is unprecedented. But so too is the unlawful conduct in which Trump has been engaged.”

Republicans across the country, including Trump’s potential rivals, criticised the indictment. House speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed that the House of Representatives “would hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account”. Mike Pence, a potential Trump rival for the presidential nomination, said the indictment sends a “terrible message” about the US justice system to the world. Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally, called it a “shocking and dangerous day for the rule of law in America”.

Stormy Daniels celebrated the news, saying: “I have so many messages coming in that I can’t respond ... also don’t want to spill my champagne.”

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who was expected to run against Trump for the Republican nomination, said his state would not assist in any extradition request for the former president.

Reports suggest Trump’s team was surprised by the timing of the announcement and was not expecting it on Thursday evening. Trump was in Mar-a-Lago when it was announced.

Trump will be will be fingerprinted, photographed and processed for a felony arrest. It is unclear whether he will be handcuffed when he surrenders. Multiple sources close to the former president have said he wanted to be handcuffed when he appears in court.

All of New York’s police have been put on duty for Friday, with NBC quoting a police memo stating that the order applied to “all officers regardless of rank”. It reported that the memo instructed officers to be aware of “unusual disorder” duties.

Daniels has claimed she had sex with ex-president and that she received $130,000 payment in 2016 to hush up about it

Donald Trump for years has faced criminal investigations on multiple fronts, ranging from alleged presidential election interference to purported financial crimes and recent scrutiny over his storage of government secrets.

In the end, though, what got a grand jury to vote to indict him Thursday wasn’t election interference, spurious bookkeeping, unsecured federal documents, or even that his supporters staged the deadly January 6 Capitol attack after he was voted out of office and told them to “fight like hell”. It was the porn star and director known to fans as Stormy Daniels.