History in the making with debut of Donald Trump: criminal defendant

The case, involving hush money paid to the adult film star Stormy Daniels, carries profound political and legal ramifications as the Republican runs for election against Joe Biden in November.

Trump will join the ranks of Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Imran Khan of Pakistan, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Jacob Zuma of South Africa as a world leader turned criminal defendant.

Trump is accused of arranging a $130,000 payment made by his lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election campaign, buying her silence about an alleged sexual encounter at a hotel in 2006, and falsifying records to cover it up.

Photograph: Mary Altaffer/APAlthough Trump is unlikely to testify at the trial, which will not be televised, past form suggests that outside the courtroom he will revel in the media spotlight and use it to rail against Bragg, spread conspiracy theories, paint himself as a victim and rally his supporters.

The justice department previously investigated the hush money, and Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance law violations, testifying that Trump orchestrated the payment to Daniels.

The spectacle of a former commander-in-chief appearing in the same Manhattan court where a group of Black and Latino teenagers known as the Central Park Five were wrongly convicted of raping a jogger, and where Mark Chapman pleaded guilty to murdering John Lennon, will be hailed by many as a symbol of equality before the law.