Trump has been facing up to 34 charges all relating to $130,000 in hush money. The charges are for falsifying New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public in the 2016 election. And allegedly sexually assaulting a woman.  

After Trump’s arrest, he pleaded not guilty. He said the US was “going to hell” and  that the US should “defund the police.” His next hearing is scheduled for December 4th, and it’s believed that the case will not be resolved before the 2024 presidential election. 

He continued to plead not guilty and said that the only crime he committed was “fearlessly defending our nation from those who seek to destroy it.” 

He made three payments, two of which were made to women he had affairs with and one to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about Trump fathering a child out of wedlock. All three payments are alleged to be part of a “catch and kill” effort by Trump and others. He bought exclusive rights to “catch” a damaging story but then “kills” the story for the benefit of whomever he paid. 

District attorney Alvin Bragg said that Trump lied about the true nature of those payments because they were in support of a crime. Hush money in itself, is not illegal, but spending money to help a presidential campaign and not disclosing it violates federal campaign finance laws. 

Trump had repeatedly vented anger at Bragg and went as far to call him a “Soros-backed animal,” a phrase that prompted accusations of bigotry. He called on Bragg to “indict himself” and “resign now.” His lawyer, Joe Tacopina also said there was ”no crime by Trump.” 

He later said he wanted his case to be transferred to Staten Island, calling the Manhattan Supreme Court a “very unfair venue.” People believe he said that because Biden won against Trump in Manhattan. 

Trump made social media posts calling Bragg an animal and Manhattan Judge Juan Mercahn “Trump hating” during the indictment process. Him doing that may have gotten him a gag order from the district attorney’s office, but the details are unknown. 

CNBC news stated that Trump has been “drill[ing] into familiar foes” from his 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. He also repeatedly stated the conspiracy theory that widespread fraud led to his 2020 election loss and made unproven claims that the United States economy is on the verge of collapse. 

He earlier said that Bragg may have issues proving his case, a view expressed by a few legal experts outside of Trump’s orbit. 

On April 12, Trump’s lawyers requested to delay the start of two trials for one month to allow a “cooling off” period. The trial was scheduled for April 25th.

One of the people opposing to Trump, Caroll, is not against the delay and a letter from her attorney said, “Waiting an additional four weeks will do nothing to ‘cool’ the unavoidable press and security concerns that will attend this trial—concerns that Your Honor has taken substantial measures to address, and in all events, Trump is exceptionally ill-suited to complain about fairness when he has instigated so much of the very coverage about which he now complains.” The letter continued on to say that “Trump is the subject of an unusually large number of criminal investigations cannot possibly mean that Carroll is barred from going forward in her unrelated civil action, which involves wholly different facts and claims.”

Trump continued to deny that he had an affair and supposedly sexually assaulted Caroll ,and another woman who he allegedly had an affair with, Daniels. Further information is unknown, and or not public at this time.