The criminal trial in The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump was held from April15 to May 30, 2024. Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments made to the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels as hush money to buy her silence over a sexual encounter between them; with costs related to the transaction included, the payments totaled $420,000. 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.
The prosecution argued that Trump's 2016 campaign sought to benefit from the payment of hush money to Daniels through Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was reimbursed via a false retainer agreement. The prosecution rested on May 20, 2024, after calling 20 witnesses. The defense argued that Trump was unaware of any allegedly unlawful scheme, that Cohen was unreliable as a witness, and that the retainer agreement between them was valid. The defense rested on May 21 after calling two witnesses. Throughout proceedings, the defense also made unsuccessful requests for the case to be delayed or dismissed, for the judge to recuse himself, and for removal to federal court.
Trump was convicted on all counts on May 30, 2024, becoming the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Following his November 2024 election victory, his sentencing was temporarily suspended. Trump has said he will appeal his conviction, but can only do so after sentencing. Sentencing will be held January 10, 2025.
Background.
Stormy Daniels hush money payment.
In July 2006, Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film actress known professionally as "Stormy Daniels", met Donald Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. At the time, Trump was the host of the reality TV series "The Apprentice" and was married to Melania Trump. According to Daniels, Trump invited her to his penthouse at Harrah's Lake Tahoe where the two had sex and talked about making her a guest on "The Apprentice".
As Trump's 2016 presidential campaign began, Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez approached multiple publications, including the "National Enquirer", and attempted to sell the story. Following the publication of a controversial recording of Trump and "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush, the "National Enquirer" sought to suppress the story. Rather than paying Daniels, the "National Enquirer" editor-in-chief Dylan Howard negotiated a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement between Daniels and Michael Cohen.
Ultimately, Cohen drew the money from his home equity line of credit and sent it through a shell company incorporated in Delaware. Trump wrote several checks totaling $420,000 to Cohen. The checks reimbursed him for the non-disclosure agreement and covered the costs for Cohen to manipulate online polls to boost Trump's status. These payments were made throughout 2017, during Trump's first year of presidency. The payments made to Cohen were declared as a legal expense. Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts relating to the payment—as well as another payment made to Karen McDougal—in August. In his admission of guilt, Cohen stated that he acted "at the direction of a candidate for federal office", implicating Trump. In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison.
Investigation and indictment.
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. Following the 2021 New York County District Attorney election, Alvin Bragg succeeded Vance as the Manhattan DA. 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. In March 2023, Bragg's office indicated that an indictment was likely. 
The Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump on March 30, 2023. The indictment was filed with the New York Supreme Court (the ordinary trial court for felonies in the state of New York and not the final court of appeal for the state) the same day.
The indictment charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, in violation of New York Penal Law §175.10. Each count is related to a specific business document, each having a date ranging from February 14 through December 5, 2017. The allegedly falsified documents are related to Trump's payment to Stormy Daniels as hush money. The payments were listed in the business records as a legal expense payable to Michael Cohen, whereas the indictment alleges that they were actually to reimburse Cohen for the earlier, allegedly illicit, payment to Daniels. Falsifying business records in the first degree is a felony under New York state law that requires that the "intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof".
Trump was arraigned on April 4, 2023.
Pre-trial proceedings.
As he had done in other cases, Trump used "attack-and-delay" tactics, targeting the prosecutors and the judge while prolonging proceedings, with the aim that the case might continue into late 2024, near the presidential election.
Justice Juan Merchan, who has experience with financial cases, was randomly assigned to oversee the grand jury proceedings in Trump's case, and continued to oversee handling of the charges approved by the grand jury. On May 31, 2023, Trump's lawyers filed a motion asking Judge Merchan to recuse himself from the case citing his daughter's position as partner and COO of Authentic Campaigns, a consulting firm that serviced Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. The court denied the motion on August 11, 2023.
On May 4, 2023, Trump's lawyers asked for the case to be moved to a federal court (though it would remain a state-law prosecution conducted by the Manhattan DA), arguing that it involved alleged conduct somehow "performed while in office"—despite the potential federal election-law violations not being specified and occurring prior to Trump's inauguration. 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. Trump appealed the decision on July 28, but withdrew this on November 14.
On May 23, 2023, Justice Merchan set the trial for March 25, 2024. 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). Trump's lawyers sought a delay in the trial on the basis of the newly produced records; the DA's office said in court that only 300 of the documents were relevant to Trump's defense. On March 15, 2024, the judge delayed the start of trial until mid-April. On March 25, 2024, the judge set a trial date of April 15, and denied a motion by Trump's team to further delay the trial.
On March 26, 2024, Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump, restricting what he could say publicly about people involved in the case. On March 26, Trump made online posts attacking the judge, the gag order, and Merchan's daughter, the latter over an anti-Trump social-media post created by someone impersonating her on social media. The same day, Merchan imposed a gag order forbidding Trump to publicly comment on court staff, prosecutors, prospective jurors, or their families, or prospective trial witnesses; or to cause others to make such statements, in a way that interferes with the case. Bragg (as a public figure) and Merchan (as the judge) were specifically exempted from protection. On March 27 and 28, Trump again attacked Merchan's daughter on social media. On April 1, Merchan expanded the gag order to protect his and Bragg's family members, saying attacks on them "serve no legitimate purpose". Contempt hearings were later held concerning numerous alleged violations of the gag order. On May 14, a New York appeals court denied Trump's request to overturn the order.
Trial overview.
The trial began on April15, 2024, with recessed Wednesdays. Trump was required to attend every day of trial barring a court-approved absence. 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. Attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles represented him.
The trial was not televised. 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. Merchan withdrew this permission on May9 after at least one photo was taken from the side of the table. There are courtroom sketch artists present to capture the milieu.
The temperature in the trial courtroom was a point of contention, with Trump repeatedly complaining that it was too cold, akin to an icebox, possibly intentionally. Judge Juan Merchan acknowledged that the courtroom was chilly, but has stated that he would rather it be a little cold than too hot, and that climate control is limited in the 80-year-old building. Despite Trump's complaints, reporters in the courtroom noted that the temperature was not as cold as he claims.
Jury selection and opening statements.
On April8, 2024, the judge gave attorneys a copy of the jury selection questionnaire, with jury selection beginning on April 15 from a pool of over 500 candidates.
Over the first two days, 96 potential jurors appeared, of which more than half were immediately dismissed after indicating that they could not be impartial. Nine jurors provisionally qualified on the first day, and an additional ten on the second; from these 19, seven jurors were selected and sworn in.
However, two were excused on April 18, one of whom complaining that her friends and family had recognized her from details published in the news. Trump was reprimanded by the judge on April 16 for gesturing and audibly speaking in the direction of a potential juror.
Another group of 96 potential jurors was brought in later in the week. Twelve jurors, along with one alternate, were selected by April 18. The selection of six alternate jurors concluded on April 19. The jury reportedly comprised seven men and five women, who mostly had white-collar careers. The jurors were allowed to tell their family and employers that they were on the jury but could not discuss the case with them.
Trump was described as falling asleep for brief intervals on four out of the first five days of the trial, ahead of opening statements, and as being flatulent. Trump has denied dozing off at his trial.
On April 22, opening statements began. 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. 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.
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; and that in democracies it is normal for candidates to attempt to influence an election.
Contempt hearings.
On April 15, prosecutors asked the judge to hold Trump in contempt and fine him $3,000 for three alleged violations of the gag order against him; prosecutors also requested to use the attacks on Cohen as evidence. By the morning of April 18, prosecutors alleged that Trump incurred seven further violations of the order and requested that he be fined another $7,000.
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. Merchan criticized Trump's attorney Todd Blanche for failing to justify Trump's claim that he was merely responding to "political attacks" and for failing to provide any legal precedent supporting Trump's claim that reposting an article could not be a violation of a gag order; Merchan told Blanche, "You're losing credibility." Merchan rejected Trump's position that reposting a news article to social media was a merely "passive" rather than active act. The defense also declared that "Trump absolutely knows what the gag order allows him to do and does not allow him to do."
On April 30, Trump became the first U.S. president ever to be held in criminal contempt of court, under NY Judiciary Law Section 750(3). (Trump had previously been