Trump arrested: Ex-president surrendered himself to New York prosecutors at 1:22 p.m. local time Tuesday

• Trump turned himself in at 1:22 p.m. on Tuesday at a lower Manhattan courthouse.
• He will now get booked before his afternoon arraignment following his historic indictment.

Donald Trump surrendered into the custody of the Manhattan district attorney's office at 1:22 p.m. on Tuesday.

He will remain under arrest until mid-afternoon, when he'll enter a plea of "not guilty" and a judge will let him go home.

"Once he walks in to the DA's office to surrender, he is under arrest," said veteran Manhattan defense attorney Ron Kuby.

"The definition of being under arrest is when a reasonable person believes that they are not free to leave," Kuby explained.

"And he, most definitely, from the time of surrender until he's released, is not free to leave."

Trump arrived via motorcade at 100 Centre Street, a towering, 1940s-era building faced in limestone, granite, and decades of grime. The building houses the DA's office and Manhattan Criminal Court.

Crowds of onlookers and journalists have surrounded the building since the dawn — all straining for a glimpse of the former president's arrival.

On his way to the courthouse, Trump posted about his ride to Truth Social.

"WOW, they are going to ARREST ME," he wrote. "Can't believe this is happening in America. MAGA!"

But few in the press or public witnessed the historic moment when Trump turned himself in.

Trump's motorcade, which included Secret Service vehicles and an NYPD escort, pulled alongside the decorative brass doors of the district attorney's office. With his attorneys and Secret Service detail in tow, he stepped inside.

Their destination will likely be the building's seventh and ninth floors, where Trump will be booked.

Who actually has custody of Trump?

Trump is in the custody of "DA investigators," so-called "peace officers" who work for District Attorney Alvin Bragg and wear the dark suits and leather gun holsters of police detectives.

"Most of them are retired NYPD," explains attorney Diana Florence, a former Manhattan prosecutor who specialized in white-collar crimes.

It's the DA investigators who "book" Trump, a process that begins with the former president emptying his pockets.

"The DA investigators tell the defendant, 'Give your wallet, and your jewelry, and your keys and all that stuff to your lawyer to hold," Florence said. "You're not supposed to have anything in your pockets."

What will Trump's 'booking' be like?

Trump's lawyers will at this point be told to wait in a separate room while his Secret Service detail accompanies him through booking.

If he's processed in the routine way, Trump will be "printed," meaning his fingerprints will be taken.

Perps are no longer printed using paper and ink.

"They do computer scans," Florence said, usually on the building's ninth floor, where the NYPD keeps a scanner. "It's like placing your hands on a photocopier," she said.

Images of Trump's prints would be uploaded to a state system and checked against a national, FBI database. Prints are run on anyone arrested in New York, and Trump will be no different.

"They check to see if you have a record or any open warrants," Florence said.

Next, a mugshot?

It's unclear if Trump's mugshot will then be taken, but if it is, it would be shot on the building's seventh floor.

It wouldn't look like those mugshots in the movies.

"It's not like that famous photo of Frank Sinatra's mugshot, that everybody knows," said Florence.

"It's taken by a webcam — just your face with a white background, basically like a passport photo."

If one is taken, don't expect to see it, unless someone in the NYPD or the court system leaks it.

Mugshots are presumptively private in New York state.

Height? Weight? No one will check if Trump fibs

The DA investigators will also take Trump's pedigree information — name, date of birth, address, phone number, that sort of thing.

No one will check if Trump's lying about his weight and height.

"There's no scale, there's no one with a tape measure," she said. "It's on the honor system."

"It's not a crime to lie about your height and weight," Kuby noted. "But hair color can be kind of a crap shoot. They don't necessarily put down what you think your hair color is."

And finally, assuming Trump is being processed for a felony-level offense, and they book him by the book, the inside of his mouth will be swabbed for the state DNA database.

His genome would remain in the database — searchable by state and federal law enforcement — regardless of whether Trump is convicted, the US Supreme Court ruled a decade ago.

Then, he waits

Trump will be arraigned in the courtroom of New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, likely on charges of falsifying business records, a low-level felony for allegedly cooking his business books to hide a $130,000 "hush-money" payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Trump stridently denies any wrongdoing and has insisted that he never had a sexual encounter with Daniels, as she claims. He has repeatedly criticized Bragg, a Democrat, for conducting a politically-biased "witch hunt."

Trump may have to wait, still in custody, for some time before his arraignment begins.

Once booking is complete, wealthy defendants charged with white-collar crimes usually wait for their arraignments in a holding cell, like any other defendant, Florence said.

"There's a cell in the processing area in the DA investigators' offices," she said.

But Trump may be allowed to wait in slightly nicer surroundings.

"They may put him in an interrogation room," Kuby said. "Windowless, or with one of those one-way mirrors where people can see you but you can't see out."

Lunch will be served

Since he could be waiting during the lunch break, Trump will likely be offered food and something to drink.

"The investigators certainly will offer him a sandwich or a donut — or a Diet Coke," Florence said.

And in what may be some of the only good news of the day for Trump, there's a McDonald's on Canal Street, just a six minute walk away.

They may even get him his favorite order: two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fishes, and a large chocolate milkshake.

All the while, anything Trump says in the presence of law enforcement could be used against him.

"Usually, 'I want a hamburger' wouldn't count as a statement" that could be used against him, Kuby said. "But 'I didn't mean to do it' would."