Former President Donald Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to two women before the 2016 presidential election.
The indictment was detailed in a New York court on Tuesday, where Trump became the first former U.S. president ever to be arraigned on criminal charges.
The indictment says those payments were intended to suppress the claims by the women, porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, claims that they had sex with Trump, in a bid to keep their stories from affecting Trump’s chances against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Prosecutors also said a Trump-friendly publishing company had paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock.
A prosecutor during the arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court said that Trump’s crimes had undermined the 2016 election.
“Not guilty,” Trump said from his seat to Judge Juan Merchan.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a statement said, “The People of the State of New York allege that Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
“Manhattan is home to the country’s most significant business market. We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct,” Bragg said. “As the Statement of Facts describes, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the People allege, violates one of New York’s basic and fundamental business laws. As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law.”
A prosecutor told the judge that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was concerned about comments Trump has made on social media that could threaten the DA’s office and the city.
That included one post depicting Trump wielding a bat over the head of District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The judge said that he was taking the harsh rhetoric by Trump about the case very seriously.
One of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, told Merchan that Trump has spoken forcefully, but that he was within his rights to do so.
Before the arraignment, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., posted a photo on Trump’s Truth Social site of Merchan’s daughter, who according to a Breitbart news article worked on the election campaign of President Joe Biden.
“Seems relevant,” the younger Trump wrote. “The BS never ends folks.”
Hush money payments
Daniels received $130,000 from Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen at Trump’s direction.
McDougal received $150,000 from the publisher of The National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid that was allied with Trump.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal crimes, two of which were campaign finance violations for facilitating the payments to both Daniels and McDougal.
Follow CNBC.com‘s live coverage of former President Donald Trump’s surrender and arraignment at the Manhattan criminal courthouse.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in court with his lawyer Joe Tacopina for an arraignment on charges stemming from his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City, U.S., April 4, 2023.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
The grand jury indicted Trump on Thursday. The charging document had remained sealed since then.
The grand jury began hearing testimony in the case in late January.
News of the proceedings came as a surprise, since a former prosecutor in the district attorney’s office last year had suggested the investigation into Trump was all but dead after Bragg declined to seek an indictment against Trump in connection with allegedly false financial statements involving real estate assets.
CNBC Politics
Trump separately is under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and a state prosecutor in Georgia for efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
The DOJ also is probing Trump for retaining government records after leaving the White House and for possible obstruction of justice.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
