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Donald Trump, the former US president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has arrived at a Manhattan courthouse to be formally charged in a watershed moment as his supporters and detractors noisily rally outside.

Trump, 76, is the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week in a case stemming from a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, though the specific charges had yet to be disclosed.

Trump was driven to the courthouse in a motorcade on Tuesday after departing his New York residence at Trump Tower.

Trump, who has said he is innocent and is due to plead not guilty, was expected to surrender to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg before an arraignment proceeding before Justice Juan Merchan. The arraignment, where Trump will be in court to hear charges and have a chance to enter a plea, was planned for 2.15 pm local time.

"Today (Tuesday) is the day that a ruling political party ARRESTS its leading opponent for having committed NO CRIME," Trump, who flew to New York from his Florida home on Monday, said in a fundraising email sent out on Tuesday morning.

On social media, Trump ahead of the arraignment renewed his attacks on Merchan, who last year also presided over a trial in which Trump's real estate company was convicted of tax fraud.

Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, in November announced a bid to regain the presidency in 2024 in a bid to deny Democratic President Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020, a second term in the White House.

On a cool and sunny early spring day in the most-populous US city, Trump supporters and detractors were separated by barricades set up by police to try to keep order, though there were some confrontations.

"Let's keep it civil, folks," a police officer told them.

Hundreds of Trump supporters, at a park across from the Manhattan courthouse, cheered and blew whistles, outnumbering his detractors. The Trump critics held signs including one of Trump dressed in a striped jail uniform behind bars and another that read, "Lock Him Up."

Typically, people facing arraignment are fingerprinted and have mugshot photographs taken. The court appearance was likely to be brief.

"It won't be a long day in court," Joseph Tacopina, one of Trump's lawyers, said on ABC.

Yahoo News late on Monday reported that Trump would face 34 felony counts for falsification of business records.

Any trial is at least more than a year away, legal experts said. Being indicted or even convicted does not legally prevent Trump from running for president.

Five photographers will be admitted to the courtroom before the arraignment starts to take pictures for several minutes. Trump's lawyers had urged a judge to keep them out, arguing they would worsen "an already almost circus-like atmosphere."

Bragg, a Democrat who led the investigation, was set to give a news conference after the arraignment. Trump and his allies have portrayed the case as politically motivated.

In a social media post, Trump said Manhattan Criminal Court was a "very unfair venue" and urged that the case be moved to the New York City borough of Staten Island, which regularly votes Republican. It was unclear whether Trump's lawyers would argue in court on Tuesday for a change of venue.

Trump will return to Florida and deliver remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday evening, his office said.

The Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump heard evidence about a $130,000 payment to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels has said she was paid to keep silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006.

Trump denies a sexual relationship but has acknowledged reimbursing his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for the payment.

Trump faces a separate criminal probe by a Democratic local prosecutor in Georgia into whether he unlawfully tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state. He also faces two US Justice Department investigations led by a special counsel into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

© RAW 2023

Gold Coast playmaker Toby Sexton says he is ready to step up and replace the injured Kieran Foran as he prepares for his first NRL game of the season against St George Illawarra on Sunday.

The 22-year-old says he is in the best mental frame of his career after learning plenty of lessons last season, when he played 19 games and lost 16 in a side that failed to fire.

His former schoolboy coach Brad Davis, now a Titans assistant, has been mentoring Sexton, and helped him rediscover his form and love of the game while playing for Tweed Heads in the Queensland Cup.

Foran on Tuesday succumbed to a calf strain he sustained against North Queensland in round four.

Sexton will play in the No.6 jersey and partner Tanah Boyd in the halves in the clash at Cbus Super Stadium.

"I will be ready to step up for 'Foz'. I am in the best head space and I know I will be confident enough to do the job and take the opportunity," Sexton told AAP.

"I'm enjoying my footy at the moment and it has been a great environment at Tweed Heads, which has made it an easy transition. I am good to go.

"Foz has has been unreal for me as a senior player mentor in my position this year too. I didn't have that guidance last year when I was struggling."

Sexton has his own sports psychologist he works with, but it is former Titans playmaker Davis who he said had been a rock this season.

"Losing a lot of games took a big toll on me mentally last year,'' Sexton said.

"I am very competitive and want to win and I felt I was just too focused on the team and forgot about me and my own game.

"I am doing that well this year. Our assistant coach Brad Davis has been enormous for me. He coached me back at Palm Beach Currumbin High, and I go to him for advice or with video on my game.

"Brad was a halfback himself and his footy IQ is through the roof. He is a thinker about the game and I am as well."

He said he had a relationship with Davis where they could talk footy non-stop for hours, but his old coach is honest with him too.

"If he has got something on his mind he won't hold back, which I really admire," Sexton said.

"He keeps it nice and simple too. Brad talks about doing two things well in a game, whether it be just my defence and kicking game. That sets up a lot of the good things that come off the back of it."

© AAP 2023

Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne has been found guilty of rape after a third trial jury deliberated for more than a week.

Hayne, 35, pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and faced a two-week trial over the allegation in the NSW District Court.

It was alleged he performed non-consensual sex acts on a woman for about 30 seconds, ending when she began to bleed.

The jury of six men and six women returned a guilty verdict on both counts on Tuesday afternoon.

Hayne attended the Newcastle home she shared with her mother on NRL grand final night in 2018, when he was in town for a bucks' weekend, paying for a taxi to wait outside before driving him to Sydney.

He was charged in November that year, after the allegation reached the NRL integrity unit.

Hayne was a star rugby league player, playing most of his 214 NRL games for the Parramatta Eels as well as representing Australia and Fiji.

He played 23 State of Origin matches, including in NSW's 2014 drought-breaking series win, the same year he won his second Dally M medal.

An attempt at gridiron with the US NFL's San Francisco 49ers was followed by a Rugby Sevens stint with Fiji before a return to league.

He was off contract when charged in November 2018.

Hayne will be sentenced at a later date.

© AAP 2023