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.

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

[39] Several other witnesses met with the DA's office or the grand jury in March 2023, including Kellyanne Conway,[40] Hope Hicks, two Trump Organization employees, two former National Enquirer executives who helped broker the hush-money deal, a lawyer for Daniels,[41][42] Daniels herself,[43] Trump-aligned lawyer Robert Costello (who provided testimony, including emails, in which he attempted to discredit Cohen's reliability),[44][45] and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.

[121] The indictment was unsealed (publicly released) shortly thereafter, charging Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree as part of a "conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election".

[147] On April 17, 2023, the DA's office requested that Merchan obtain further information from Tacopina, including his firm's correspondence with Daniels, to determine whether their history constituted a conflict of interest.

[163][164][165] On May 10, Judge Juan Merchan suggested that Allen Weisselberg could be called to testify in court after the defense objected to the prosecution's plan to show the jury a $750,000 severance agreement.

Prosecutors further argued that there was a lack of hard evidence that a particular trial result would aid Merchan directly or greatly via his daughter's Democratic work,[175] which a state ethics panel had similarly concluded in early May.

[189][176][190][n][o] On April 6, Trump posted online that if arrested for violating the gag order, he would consider it a "great honor" to "become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela", the former South African president jailed for anti-apartheid activism.

[150][142][p] As proceedings continued in the New York Supreme Court,[202] Bragg asked for the removal request to be dismissed, arguing that Trump had failed to establish that he was an officer of the United States during his presidency,[203][204] to which the defense expounded its initial argument.

[215][216] On March 11, 2024, Trump's lawyers requested a delay of trial until after the federal election obstruction case on the basis that it would bolster his argument of presidential immunity, as some evidence and allegedly some acts overlapped with his time in office.

[223] 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).

[235] Merchan said he was not yet prepared to say whether trial would be held on May 17 to allow Trump to attend his son Barron's high-school graduation, but indicated that he probably would grant him the day off if the proceedings progressed at an expected pace.

[238] In a May 2023 hearing and court filing, prosecutors expressed concern that Trump would misuse evidence obtained through pretrial discovery procedure to attack people involved in the case, including witnesses.

[248][249][250] The same day, Merchan imposed a gag order forbidding Trump to publicly comment on court staff, prosecutors, prospective jurors, or their families, or to cause others to make such statements, in a way that interferes with the case.

[252][254] On March 29, prosecutors requested that the limits of the gag order be explicated regarding family of court staff in hopes of terminating what they considered intentionally defiant behavior by Trump.

[289] 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.

[290] 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;[291] and that in democracies it is normal for candidates to attempt to influence an election.

[319] She stated that she drafted a statement to respond to The Wall Street Journal, with Cohen offering feedback, but Trump overrode them by telling Hicks to say that McDougal's allegations were "totally untrue".

[329][328] 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".

[357] 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".

[379][383] 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.

[388][384] The U.S. Constitution does not bar individuals with criminal records from the presidency,[389] but the Fourteenth Amendment implies that crime beyond insurrection (as Congress could separately argue) may be cited as grounds for felony disenfranchisement (the rescinding of one's right to vote).

[394] 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.

"[395] On June 5, Matthew Colangelo asked that the gag order remain in place "to protect the integrity of these proceedings and the fair administration of justice at least through the sentencing hearing and the resolution of any post-trial motions".

This prompted Trump to write online that "'Acting' Justice Merchan, who is a radical partisan, just issued another order that is knowingly unlawful," asserting that the ruling violated the constitution and compromised the executive office's integrity.

[406] District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected defense arguments regarding presidential immunity in July 2023, when Trump attempted to remove the case to federal court, ruling that "the matter was purely a personal item of the President.

[418][419] On November 19, the Manhattan DA argued that the conviction should stand because no law states that temporary presidential immunity nullifies proceedings conducted during the president's time outside of office and regarding activities deemed unofficial to that post.

[431] On December 3, 2024, the defense suggested that the case should be dismissed on the basis of alleged "grave juror misconduct", implying that if Merchan ruled otherwise, Trump's team would pursue its appeal to the Second Circuit regarding the denied removal request.

[432][433][426] On December 5, prosecutors replied that the juror misconduct claim stemmed from "unsworn, unsupported, hearsay allegations" from a source who "has refused to endorse and has at least partially disclaimed" them.