The opening statements in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Monday set the stage for weeks of testimony about the former president’s personal life, putting his legal troubles at the centre of his presidential campaign.
Mr Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories that he thought might hurt his presidential campaign in 2016.
At the heart of the allegations is a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Mr Trump from surfacing in the final days of the race.
Prosecutors say the former president obscured the true nature of such payments in internal business documents. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.
Below, The Telegraph lays out four of the key moments as the day unfolded:
Trump calls for protests outside court
Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump called on his supporters to stage protests at courts around the country as he arrived at Manhattan Criminal Court for the second week of his trial.
“America Loving Protesters should be allowed to protest at the front steps of Courthouses, all over the Country, just like it is allowed for those who are destroying our Country on the Radical Left,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Free Speech and Assembly has been ‘chilled’ for USA supporters. Go out and peacefully protest… Save our country!”
Key witness ‘cannot be trusted’, says defence
Todd Blanche, acting for the defence, said Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former “fixer” and another potential witness in the trial, “cannot be trusted” because he had “talked extensively about his desire to see President Trump go to prison”.
Prosecutors said Mr Cohen had been enlisted to make a hush money payment to Ms Daniels to suppress her story of an alleged affair with the then-Republican candidate.
“I suspect the defence will go to great lengths to get you to reject his testimony, precisely because it is so damning,” said Matthew Colangelo, prosecuting.
Mr Blanche, acting for the former president, disputed Mr Cohen’s story and claimed he was “obsessed with President Trump even to this day”.
“He has talked extensively about his desire to see president Trump go to prison. He has talked extensively about his desire for president’s Trump’s family go to prison”, he told the jury.
He said Mr Cohen had described his former employer as a “despicable human being” and that he wants to “see him in an orange jumpsuit”.
Trump orchestrated ‘criminal conspiracy to corrupt 2016 election’
Prosecutors also claimed Mr Trump orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to “corrupt” the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Colangelo said the Trump campaign feared a story involving his alleged relationship with Ms Daniels would have been “devastating” to his electoral prospects.
Mr Cohen allegedly paid Ms Daniels to stay quiet and was reimbursed by his boss in what were recorded as legal fees. “It was election fraud, pure and simple,” added Mr Colangelo.
He claimed the then-Republican candidate had entered into a conspiracy with Mr Cohen and David Pecker, a former publishing executive, to “catch and kill” negative stories about him. He said the men “struck a deal” at a meeting in which they “conspired to influence the 2016 presidential election”.
However, Mr Blanche argued: “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.”
Daniels’ testimony ‘does not matter’
Mr Blanche said Ms Daniels “saw her chance to make a lot of money” before the election by signing a non-disclosure agreement, and had “no idea” about documents central to the case.
“Her testimony, whilst salacious, does not matter”, he argued.
He added that she made “hundreds of thousands of dollars” after the alleged sexual encounter became public, and has “no idea” about documents central to the case.