Criminal trial of Donald Trump in New York

The Manhattan District Attorney (DA), Alvin Bragg, accused Trump of falsifying these business records with the intent to commit other crimes: violation of federal campaign finance limits, unlawfully influencing the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and tax fraud.

[1] In July 2006, Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film actress known professionally as "Stormy Daniels", met Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada.

[4][5] As Trump's 2016 presidential campaign began, Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez approached multiple publications, including the National Enquirer, and attempted to sell the story.

[11] Following Cohen's August 2018 admission of guilt, Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Cyrus Vance Jr. opened an investigation against the Trump Organization and two of its executives.

[13] In January 2023, the Manhattan DA's office impaneled a grand jury, and began presenting evidence of Trump's role in the Stormy Daniels payment.

[31][32] On July 19, arguing that the matter was apparently a personal "cover-up of an embarrassing event", District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the case should remain in state court.

[36] In March 2024, the U.S. Attorney's Office provided prosecutors with approximately 170,000 pages of documents, largely related to the 2017 federal probe of Cohen's payment to Daniels (and mostly reflecting evidence already turned over to Trump's lawyers in June 2023).

[54] If he chose to testify, prosecutors could have asked him about his civil lawsuits regarding business fraud, sexual abuse, and defamation as well as the 2018 dissolution of his charitable foundation.

[57] Initially, Merchan allowed photographers to stand at the front of the room for a few minutes each morning before the trial began to take photos of Trump seated.

[103] Prosecutors accused Trump, Cohen, and Pecker of campaign finance violations, alleging they coordinated payments to two women and concealed them as part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.

[104] During their opening statements, prosecutors said the jury would be presented with a document with a handwritten note in the margin by Allen Weisselberg outlining the hush-money payment scheme.

[105][106] The defense argued that the testimony of Cohen, a convicted felon, could not be trusted; that the payments were ordinary business transactions, akin to editorial decisions made by newspapers;[107] and that in democracies it is normal for candidates to attempt to influence an election.

[82] On April 23, Merchan heard arguments about whether Trump had violated the earlier gag order when he made social-media posts about two expected witnesses.

[138] The prosecution cited a state election law regarding conspiracy to defend their questioning of Pecker about his contacts with Steve Bannon, the chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 campaign.

Pecker detailed how his company, Trump and Cohen facilitated payment to McDougal in mid-2016, in tandem with promising her a ghostwritten monthly column in an attempt to disguise the contract's true nature.

Farro also noted that the account was set up for Essential Consultants LLC, the company the payment was made from, and that it was funded through Cohen's home-equity line of credit at First Republic.

[178] Hicks stated that the tape's release stressed Trump because he wanted members of his family, including Melania, to be proud of him and not hurt or embarrassed.

[191] Daniels said Trump offered to make her a contestant on The Apprentice; she stated that he continued alluding to the idea for a time in subsequent phone conversations, in which he referred to her as "honey bunch" and asked when they could meet again.

Daniels explained that the first time she realized the meeting was intended to be sexual was upon coming out of the bathroom inside Trump's hotel, finding him stripped to his boxers; she elaborated that she was "not expecting [this from] a man twice [her] age".

Much of the cross-examination focused on questioning the accuracy of her allegation that she was threatened in a Las Vegas parking lot, which was revealed to have been disputed by Davidson via texts with Cohen.

[198][199] Tracy Menzies, a senior vice president at HarperCollins, then testified about the accuracy of certain excerpts from the book Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life, which Trump had co-authored.

[208] Cohen said the release of the Access Hollywood tape was viewed as a campaign liability and that Trump afterwards directed him to pay Daniels to avoid "catastrophic" damage.

[205] A bank statement for Essential Consultants LLC from the end of October 2016 was presented, which showed the $130,000 sent to Keith Davidson and featured a note Cohen said was handwritten by Weisselberg.

[244][251][l] The defense team had initially planned to call Bradley Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), as an expert witness on campaign finance law.

In a May 2018 email to Citron, Costello said it was a goal to get Cohen "on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president" and said he believed it was "the clear and correct strategy".

[266] On Memorial Day, May 27, Trump complained that the prosecution would get the last word as "very unfair", though this is standard procedure in criminal trials where the state has the burden of proof.

[273] Steinglass stated that it made sense that Cohen was interested in the outcome of the case, noting that Trump dropped him "like a hot potato" when their relationship soured.

[294] On June 28, 2024, the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control declined to renew the liquor licenses for Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster and Colts Neck, instead issuing temporary permits.

[295] On June 4, Blanche filed a motion to have the gag order lifted, stating: "Now that the trial is concluded, the concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump.

[306][307] On July 1, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States, supporting presidential immunity for official acts committed by the seated president.