Porn stars, gag orders, sex scandals and zzzs: The A to Z of Trump’s hush money trial
Opening statements are due to be heard in the trial of Donald Trump over hush money payments to a porn star.
A jury has been selected at the New York court which will witness the first criminal trial of a former US president.
Opening remarks by the prosecution and defence teams will be followed by evidence from witnesses.
Donald Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business records. They relate to $130,000 paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged affair in the days before the 2016 US presidential election, which Trump won.
He is accused of criminally altering business records to cover up the payment. His lawyers say the payment was meant to spare himself and his family embarrassment, not to help him win the election.
Trump denies the charges against him.
Below is an A-Z guide of this historic trial:
A is for AMI, the publishing company whose portfolio includes the National Enquirer magazine. It admitted its involvement in a scheme to suppress damaging stories about Trump prior to the 2016 election.
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Trump slams ‘hoax’ trial
B is for Bragg, as in Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who has brought this prosecution. Upon issuing the indictment, Mr Bragg said: “Someone lied again and again to protect their interests and evade the laws to which we are all held accountable.” He has been the target of racist abuse and death threats. Trump has called him a “thug” and a “degenerate psychopath”.
C is for “Catch & Kill”, the prosecution label for the scheme to “catch” stories of Trump’s extra-marital liaisons and “kill” them before they could be published.
D is for Daniels, as in Stormy Daniels. The former porn star – real name Stephanie Clifford – claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 after meeting him at a golf tournament. He denies they had an affair. Ms Daniels claims she accepted $130,000 from Trump’s lawyer to keep it quiet, days before the 2016 election.
Who is Stormy Daniels, the porn star at centre of Trump’s hush money case?
E is for entries, as in entries into Trump’s company books. The “hush money” payments were made by Trump’s lawyer, who was then reimbursed. The reimbursement was put through the books as legal expenses – aka “falsifying business records”.
Pic: Reuters
F is for four years. It’s how long Trump could face in state prison for each of the 34 counts he’s charged with, to a maximum of 20 years. A prison sentence is thought unlikely, however, for a non-violent first-time criminal offender.
G is for gag order. The judge has ordered Trump not to make, or direct others to make, public statements about witnesses or other participants in the case. The district attorney argues Trump has breached the order and wants a $1,000 fine imposed.
H is for Hope Hicks. Trump’s press secretary during the 2016 campaign, and one of his most trusted confidantes, is expected to testify. Her “in the room” evidence could take us to the heart of the Trump operation as it fought to suppress scandal.
I is for interference, as in election interference. Prosecutors say the falsification of business records was carried out for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election.
Pic: Curtis Means/Pool via Reuters
J is for jury. Seven men and five women have been selected for duty. Six others will sit through the trial as alternates, or replacements, if needed. Jury members have been subject to a rigorous assessment of their ability to be impartial, including questions on their political affiliations, news sources and views on Trump himself.
K is for Karen McDougal. She is the other woman involved in the hush money payments scheme. The former Playboy model claims to have had an affair that started in 2006 and that she and Trump had sex “many dozens of times”. Her silence was allegedly bought for $150,000.
L is for liar. It’s the description used by Trump of the witness at the centre of the prosecution (see M). Michael Cohen admitted lying to Congress in 2017 about a Trump project in Russia. His admission is highlighted by Trump in an effort to discredit him.
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Trump has called Michael Cohen a ‘proven liar’
M is for Michael Cohen, the “star” witness. He was Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer who made the hush money payments. In 2018, he was jailed for his part in the scheme and given a three-year sentence for campaign finance violations. He was also convicted of lying to Congress among other crimes. Cohen once said he’d “take a bullet” for Trump but now calls him a “cheat”, a “bully” and a “conman”. Trump calls Cohen a “rat” and a “proven liar”.
N is for a New York jurisdiction. Trump, originally from Queen’s in New York, is being tried on home turf. However, the jury pool, from which its members were selected, doesn’t sit well with his politics. New York is Democrat territory and that concerns the defence team of a Republican presidential candidate. It has tried, but failed, to have the trial moved elsewhere.
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Trump in New York: ‘I love this city’
O is for other cases. Trump’s three other criminal prosecutions are snagged in delay and legal argument. On Thursday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on his right, or otherwise, to immunity from prosecution in relation to the 6 January Capitol riots. Its decision, and the speed with which it’s made, will dictate whether that case is heard before the November election. The other two – on mishandling classified documents and Georgia election interference – look less likely to proceed in that timeframe.
P is for Pecker, as in David Pecker. The owner of AMI publishing could be a key witness. In a “non-prosecution” agreement, AMI has admitted to making hush-money payments. Pecker, a long-time Trump ally, agreed to identify negative stories about Trump so they could be bought and their publication avoided.
The key figures in the Donald Trump hush money case
Q is for questions about politics in the administration of US justice. In most American states, District Attorneys (prosecutors) are elected and Donald Trump points to the Democratic leanings of Alvin Bragg. In a news release the day before opening statements, the Trump team wrote that “his lawfare efforts against President Trump were the lead focus of his [election] campaign”.
R is for removal from the presidential campaign trail – a Trump complaint. He told the media at court: “I’m supposed to be in New Hampshire, I’m supposed to be in Georgia, I’m supposed to be in North Carolina, South Carolina. I’m supposed to be in a lot of different places campaigning, but I’ve been here all day on a trial that really is a very unfair trial.”
Pic: AP
S is for the sex scandal that hung over Team Trump in the midst of the 2016 hush money payment and, arguably, drove the scheme. In a so-called “Access Hollywood” tape that was made public, Trump was heard to say about women: “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the [genitals]. You can do anything.” It was three weeks later that the money was paid to Stormy Daniels.
T is for testimony. Trump insists he will testify during the trial. If so, prosecutors have asked the judge if they can raise his previous brushes with the law, for example, a civil court’s finding of sexual assault, to cast doubt on his credibility.
U is for unanimous. Members of the jury must deliver a unanimous verdict to convict Trump. He only needs one to dissent.
V is for the vote, as in the impact a conviction will have on Trump at the polls. While this, and other prosecutions, have cemented support for Trump among his MAGA base (Make America Great Again) and have fuelled fundraising, that isn’t necessarily the case with voters generally. A recent Politico/IPSOS survey showed that more than a third of independent voters said a guilty verdict would make them less likely to support Trump’s candidacy – potentially significant, in a tight race.
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Pic: Reuters
W is for “witch hunt”. Trump repeatedly criticises this prosecution, and others, as a “political witch hunt”. He views it as an effort to undermine his presidential election campaign and has branded it a “scam” and “an assault on America”.
X is for the cross that potential jurors were asked to put against groups they might have been members of: the QAnon movement, Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, Three Percenters, Boogaloo Boys and Antifa.
Y is for yellow. It’s how a juror described Trump, having seen him in court. She told MSNBC: “He looked less orange, definitely, like more yellowish, like yellow.”
Z is for zzzz… During jury selection, some observers said Trump fell asleep in court, more than once. New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman noted: “Mr Trump appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head dropping onto his chest.” Trump’s aides denied the suggestion.
A shirtless man waving a Mexican flag stands atop a burning car in the heart of Los Angeles, as another man throws a traffic cone into the flames and some play drums and shout chants in opposition to immigration officials.
In the background, city hall can be glimpsed through a haze of thick black smoke.
The downtown district of one of America’s biggest cities was a scene of pandemonium and lawlessness as protests, which had previously been mainly peaceful, turned ugly.
Critics of Donald Trump said the president’s extraordinary decision to deploy National Guard troops, defying the wishes of the state’s governor, had inflamed tensions and stoked emotions.
A protester throws a cone into a burning fire in LA. Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
The 101 Freeway, the main highway cutting through the downtown area, was also closed down for much of the day as police and protesters faced off, with flash bang devices sending some people scattering.
Bottles and other projectiles were hurled towards police, who responded by using tear gas and rubber bullets.
It was this chaos, his critics say, that Donald Trump wanted to provoke.
California Highway Patrol officers try to dodge rocks being thrown. Pic: AP/Ethan Swope
Trump’s decision to call in 2,000 National Guard troops, several hundred of whom were on the streets of LA on Sunday, was taken without consultation with the California governor and LA mayor, and marked an extraordinary escalation by the president.
The military arrived on Sunday morning and was ordered to guard federal buildings, after two days of protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
As part of Trump’s closed border policy, ICE has been ordered to find, detain and deport as many illegal immigrants as possible, and it was these raids that stoked the first signs of protest on Friday into the weekend.
Smoke rises as the National Guard clashed with protesters in downtown Los Angeles.
Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
By midday Sunday, the military was surrounded by protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown LA. It was here that many immigrants had been held before being shipped off to detention facilities.
The walls and floors are covered in expletive-ridden graffiti, reading f*** ICE.
The Los Angeles police soon split the crowd and drove a wedge between the National Guard and the crowd.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has called Donald Trump’s acts those of a “dictator, not a president”.
A police officer fires a soft round in Los Angeles. Pic: AP Photo/Eric Thayer
Los Angeles Metro Police officers strike protesters during unrest in the downtown area of the city.
Pic: Reuters/Daniel Cole
He’s formally requested that the Trump administration withdraw the National Guard. The White House say the military will remain there until order is restored. Five hundred marines are still on standby.
Los Angeles Police Department police chief Jim McDonnell, asked whether the National Guard was needed, said: “This thing has gotten out of control.”
He said that although the LAPD would not initially have requested assistance from the National Guard, the disorder had caused him to reevaluate his assessment.
US correspondent Martha Kelner is reporting from Los Angeles
Several people were arrested.
Sky News witnessed a young woman, who called herself Gabriella, riding her motorbike at speed towards a line of police officers.
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Analysis: Trump deploys federal force in LA
Trump claims CA officials ‘can’t do their jobs’
One of the police officers used his arm to push her off the bike. She said she was protesting because her “people were being rounded up.”
Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned the violence, but some vehemently disagreed about what actions led to the escalation.
US
National Guard to be deployed to LA immigration ‘riots’ – as Trump claims state officials ‘can’t do their jobs’
The National Guard will be deployed to Los Angeles after “riots” in response to immigration raids extended into a second day.
California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed that the Trump administration is deploying “2,000 soldiers” to Los Angeles after local police used tear gas, stun guns, and riot shields to push back immigration protesters on Saturday.
Demonstrations began outside the Los Angeles Federal Building in the downtown area of LA on Friday after officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out raids in the area.
On Saturday, several dozen protesters were involved in police standoffs in Paramount, a city south of LA.
Mr Newsom warned in a post on X: “The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate. That is not the way any civilized country behaves.”
He described the deployment as “purposefully inflammatory” and claimed it will “only escalate tensions”.
President Donald Trump hit back at Mr Newsom in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday.
“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!,” he wrote.
Mr Trump’s defence secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that active duty marines would also be mobilised if “violence continues”.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy holds back protesters in Paramount, Los Angeles on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
Fireworks amid police standoffs with protesters in Paramount, Los Angeles on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
LA mayor Karen Bass said that amid the recovery from this year’s wildfires, “many in our community are feeling fear” following “recent federal immigration enforcement actions” across LA County.
“We’ve been in direct contact with officials in Washington, D.C., and are working closely with law enforcement to find the best path forward,” she said.
“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable.”
Reports the guard would be deployed to LA came earlier on Saturday, from Mr Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan on Fox News.
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Tear gas is fired at protesters in Paramount on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
Fires amid immigration protests in Paramount, Los Angeles County on Saturday. Pic: AP
44 arrested in Friday raids
At least 44 people were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations during raids on Friday, with crowds of around “1,000 rioters” forming around the building before some “assaulted law enforcement officers, slashed tires, and defaced taxpayer-funded property”, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The raids saw street vendors and day workers rounded up across Home Depots, a clothing factory, and a warehouse, Salas of Chirla (The Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles) said.
In a statement on Saturday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “violent mobs” had “attacked ICE officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations”.
She described such activity as “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States”.
Ms Leavitt said Californian politicians were “feckless” and had “completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens”, prompting Mr Trump’s order to send in the guard.
Police fire stun grenades at protesters outside the Los Angeles Federal Building on Friday. Pic: Reuters
A protester holds up a sign to police outside the Los Angeles Federal Building on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Protests spread to second city
On Saturday, protests spread to the Paramount area, where there is a significant Latino population, after demonstrators spotted ICE employees in a Home Depot car park they appeared to be using as a base.
Law enforcement officers faced off protesters at a road junction at around 5pm where a car had been set on fire earlier in the day.
The roads were pictured strewn with trolleys and rubbish bins set on fire, as gas canisters and fireworks were also set off.
A car burns on Atlantic Boulevard in Paramount, Los Angeles on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
The car burnt out in Paramount on Saturday. Pic: Reuters
Commenting on Saturday’s protests, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said: “It appeared that federal law enforcement officers were in the area, and that members of the public were gathering to protest.”
Vice President JD Vance claimed that “insurrectionists” were seen “carrying foreign flags” and “attacking immigration enforcement officers” in Paramount.
“One half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,” he posted on X. “Time to pass President Trump’s beautiful bill and further secure the border.”
Mexican and US flags are flown by protesters in Paramount. Pic: Reuters
‘Death to ICE’, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is written on a bin in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. Pic: Reuters
The clashes come amid Trump’s nationwide crackdown on illegal migration.
As soon as he was re-elected in January he set a target of arresting 3,000 suspected illegal migrants per day – and promised to lock down the US-Mexico border.
Elon Musk’s social media post claiming Donald Trump is in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has been removed.
The tech billionaire made the allegation on X as he traded blows with the US president in a dramatic public row.
In the post, which now appears to have been deleted, Musk said: “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.
“Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”
He gave no evidence for the claim, which was dismissed by the White House – with the post disappearing from his social media platform by Sunday.
Users clicking on the message – first posted on Thursday – were instead greeted with: “Hmm…this page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else.”
Epstein killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
File pic: Reuters
Musk and Mr Trump’s relationship broke down publicly on Thursday, just days after the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive left his role as a special government employee.
In a fiery exchange, Musk posted a series of messages on X criticising the president’s signature tax and spending bill as a “big ugly spending bill”.
President Trump posted on Truth Social, saying Musk had been “wearing thin” and claimed he “asked him to leave” his government position – something Musk denied.
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Musk then hit back with his claim about the US president appearing in the Epstein files.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the comment in a statement.
“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted,” she said.
“The president is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”
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The spat hit Tesla shares, which closed down 14.3% on Thursday, losing about $150bn (£111bn) in value.
In an interview with ABC News, Mr Trump was asked about reports a phone call was scheduled between him and Musk on Friday.
He reportedly said: “You mean the man who has lost his mind?”
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