First jurors sworn in after judge's stern warning to Trump
With Kayla Epstein, Madeline Halpert and Nada Tawfik reporting from court in New York
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With Kayla Epstein, Madeline Halpert and Nada Tawfik reporting from court in New York
Live Reporting
Edited by Brandon Livesay and Phil McCausland
All times stated are UK
BreakingTrump arrives at courthouse
Former US President Donald Trump has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse.
At previous court appearances, Trump has spoken to media briefly from the hallways of the courthouse. If he does so today, you can watch a livestream by pressing the play button at the top of this page.
Stay with us as we bring you all the live updates and analysis from inside the courtroom.
The hunt for an impartial Trump jury begins
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Hundreds of New Yorkers will soon find themselves stepping into a courthouse and faced with a historic prospect: sitting on the jury in the first-ever criminal trial against a former president.
Donald Trump has tried to change the setting of this trial in Manhattan - a city made up of mostly Democrats - arguing it will be impossible to find impartial jurors.
Experts agree it will be no easy feat.
"There's nobody in the country who doesn't have an opinion one way or another," says former Manhattan prosecutor Jeremy Saland. “But those in New York have been exposed to Donald Trump and his father and children for literally generations."
Trump’s legal team and prosecutors are expected to sift through as many as 500 potential jurors, asking them 42 questions to determine whether they are capable of setting aside their feelings about one of the most polarising US politicians to give him a fair trial.
These lawyers will ask questions like: what news do they read? Have they attended a rally for Trump? And are they supporters of extremist movements?
The whole process could take well over a week, experts say.
"It's doable, but it's going to be difficult,” says former Brooklyn prosecutor Julie Rendelman.
Trump labels gag order 'unconstitutional'
Donald Trump has posted again on his social media account - this time about his gag order.
"I want my VOICE back. This Crooked Judge has GAGGED me. Unconstitutional! The other side can talk about me, but I am not allowed to talk about them! Rigged Trial!" Trump writes in a post on Truth Social.
Justice Juan Merchan's gag order bans the former president from verbally attacking court staff, potential jurors and witnesses, and was expanded to also prevent Trump from criticising family members of both the judge and Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg. But it does not stop Trump from speaking about Bragg or Justice Merchan.
This expanded gag order was put in place after Trump posted comments on Truth Social about Justice Merchan’s daughter, calling her a “Rabid Trump Hater”.
Trump has fumed over the gag order, which his legal teams claim violates his freedom of speech.
Justice Merchan has acknowledged Trump’s right to speak freely to Americans, but says such attacks “serve no legitimate purpose”.
"It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family members as well are 'fair game' for Defendant's vitriol," the judge wrote.
Trump heads to court
Donald Trump's motorcade of black SUVs is now snaking its way through Manhattan towards the courthouse.
You can watch a live stream by pressing the play button at the top of this page.
Is this the weakest case against Trump?
Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York
The stakes are incredibly high for Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg as he begins his historic prosecution of a former president today.
Not least because legal experts have long been debating how strong the case really is and whether he should have brought the case against Donald Trump at all. Even a former prosecutor in Bragg's own office has weighed in.
Its success or failure seemingly hinges on an untested legal theory – whether a state prosecutor can invoke a federal crime that was never proven.
In other words: can Bragg argue that Trump falsified business records to conceal federal election law violations for which he was never charged?
The judge has so far accepted the District Attorney’s position that he can.
But former federal prosecutor Shane Stansbury says if Trump does end up getting convicted and he then appeals that conviction, federal courts and even the US Supreme Court could weigh in on the issue.
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Sign up for our weekly newsletter, where our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher will set out what you really need to know from the campaign trail, and help you see the bigger global picture.
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And if you're anywhere else, sign up here.
More than 100 journalists line up for a seat at historic trial
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Good morning from 100 Centre Street in New York City, the courthouse that will play host to one of the biggest criminal trials in decades.
The world’s media is camped out across the street from the courthouse and well over 100 reporters are lined up to get inside.
It's a historic moment, the first time ever that a US president - former or current - has faced a criminal trial.
Some protesters gather outside the courthouse
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Bill Christeson is a frequent protestor at the Manhattan courthouse and one of the first here this morning, despite having to come from Washington DC.
The 70-year-old says he’s here today because he’s a “democracy activist”. Christeson says he is happy to see Donald Trump on trial, but has lost faith in the US justice system.
“We’re going to have to vote that guy out,” he says.
Trump calls New York trial a 'witch hunt'
We've just heard from Donald Trump, who is once again taking aim at the judge presiding over his case, which he accuses of being a Democrat-led “witch hunt”.
“As virtually every legal scholar has powerfully stated, the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case is, among other things, BARRED by the Statute of Limitations," the former president writes on his social media platform, Truth Social.
"The 'trial' shouldn't take place because of the highly conflicted presiding judge," he adds.
Over the weekend, Trump accused the proceedings of amounting to “election interference”, while not missing the chance to take aim at his main political rival - President Joe Biden.
These remarks aren't uncommon for Trump. The ex-president frequently seeks to characterise his legal cases as being an unfair abuse of the legal system.
As a reminder, the judge has already imposed a gag order on Trump, barring him from making public statements about court staff, jurors, witnesses and lawyers in the district attorney's office - or their families.
But that order does not apply to the Manhattan district attorney himself, Alvin Bragg.
What does Stormy Daniels claim?
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said in media interviews that she met Trump at a charity golf tournament in July 2006.
She alleged the pair had sex once in his hotel room at Lake Tahoe, a resort area between California and Nevada. Trump's wife at the time, Melania Trump, was not at the tournament and had just given birth.
In 2016, days before the US presidential election, Daniels said Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 (£104,500) in "hush-money" to keep her quiet about the affair.
Daniels said she took it because she was concerned for the safety of her family because she was "legally and physically threatened to stay silent".
In 2011, shortly after she agreed to give an interview to In Touch magazine about the alleged affair, she said an unknown man had approached her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas car park and told her to "leave Trump alone".
In 2018, she gave an interview to CBS. Before it was aired, a shell company linked to Cohen threatened Daniels with a $20m lawsuit, arguing she had broken their non-disclosure deal (NDA), or "hush agreement".
Since the allegations surfaced in 2018, the former president has denied any sexual involvement with Daniels.
Six key players in historic trial
Here's a quick look at the cast list.
Case is one of four legal battles for ex-president
To put things into context - this criminal case is one of several ongoing legal battles Trump is dealing with, as he seeks to return to the White House.
He also faces three other criminal indictments.
Two relate to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and whether he exploited the US Capitol riot on 6 January 2021 to delay the certification of President Joe Biden's victory and stay in power.
Trump also faces 40 criminal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified material after he left the White House.
He denies all the charges against him.
So, what's the 'hush-money' case about?
Trump has been charged with business fraud over hush-money payments to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claims she and Trump had sex, and that she accepted $130,000 (£104,500) from his former lawyer before the 2016 election (which Trump won) in exchange for her silence about the encounter.
Prosecutors allege Trump had his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, make the payments, and then fraudulently recorded the transaction in his company’s books as legal expenses when in fact he was paying Cohen back for the hush-money payments.
Since the allegations surfaced in 2018, the former president has denied any sexual involvement with Daniels. He's facing 34 counts of fraud, and has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Trump set to face criminal trial - a first for a US president
James FitzGerald
Live reporter
Hello. It's a significant day in American history, as Donald Trump is due to officially become the first US president - current or former - to face a criminal trial.
Today is day one of a trial expected to last six weeks or so. Proceedings will begin with the complicated job of selecting members of the public for the jury. That task alone could take up to two weeks.
It is expected that the former president will attend - if not all - of the court dates, including with an appearance today.
Stay with us as we explain this tangled web of charges, and bring you the latest developments from the Supreme Court in New York.