The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump was a 2023–2024 criminal case against Donald Trump, then a former president of the United States. Trump 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 an alleged sexual encounter between them. The Manhattan District Attorney (DA), Alvin Bragg, accused Trump of falsifying these business records with the intent to commit other crimes.
The criminal indictment, the first of a former U.S. president, was approved by a Manhattan grand jury on March 30, 2023. On April 3, Trump traveled from his residence in Florida to New York City, where he surrendered to the Manhattan DA's office and was arraigned the next day. Trump pleaded not guilty and stated that he would continue to campaign for the 2024 presidential election, even if convicted. The trial began on April 15, 2024. On April 30, Trump also became the first U.S. president to be held in criminal contempt of court, due to comments he made earlier in the month about individuals involved with the trial.
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 presiding judge Juan Merchan 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 a series of delays and Trump's 2024 presidential election victory, he was sentenced to an unconditional discharge on January 10, 2025. He is appealing his conviction.
Background
Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal
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.
In 2011, Daniels considered selling the story to the celebrity magazine Life & Style for as Trump began exploring a potential presidential bid. His lawyer, Michael Cohen, threatened to sue Life & Style when it asked the Trump Organization for comment. Daniels' agent, Gina Rodriguez, leaked the story to the gossip blog The Dirty in October. The post was taken down following complaints by Trump's lawyers, and Daniels disputed the story's veracity. Cohen acknowledged during court testimony in May 2024 that he advised on the story's removal.
As Trump's 2016 presidential campaign began, 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. Cohen attempted to find the money as the election neared and repeatedly delayed her payment. Keith Davidson, Daniels' lawyer, canceled the deal in October 2016.
Ultimately, Cohen drew the money from his home equity line of credit and sent it through a shell company incorporated in Delaware. Trump initially denied knowing about the check made out to Daniels. In April 2018, aboard Air Force One, he told a reporter he did not know where Cohen got the money. Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post described this statement as a lie, as Trump had personally reimbursed Cohen for the payment. Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for Trump, also refuted Trump's claims in a Fox News interview, saying that Trump was aware of the payments.
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. The $180,000 paid to Cohen was doubled to offset taxes, and $60,000 was added. These payments were made throughout 2017, during Trump's first year of presidency. The payments made to Cohen were declared as a legal expense. Nine monthly checks from Trump to Cohen, dated April to December 2017, exist as evidence.
In January 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported on Cohen's payment to Daniels. 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.
On May 2, 2024, The Daily Beast broke a story that Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg had assisted the 2016 campaign with its finance reports.
Manhattan DA investigation and grand jury
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. The office paused its inquiry when the office of the federal U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York began a separate investigation into the payments, but the federal inquiry concluded without charges in July 2019.
The Manhattan DA's office then issued a subpoena for the Trump Organization in August, seeking documents relating to the payments. Additionally, the office subpoenaed accounting firm Mazars USA, demanding eight years of Trump's corporate tax returns. Trump's lawyers sued Vance to block the subpoena, citing Trump's immunity from criminal inquiries as the president of the United States. In Trump v. Vance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–2 in favor of Vance, allowing the subpoena to continue.
Following the 2021 New York County District Attorney election, Alvin Bragg succeeded Vance as the Manhattan DA. In early 2021, Mark Pomerantz, a Manhattan prosecutor, sought to revive the case under the theory that if Daniels had extorted Trump, the money would be criminal proceeds. Efforts to conceal its source would constitute money laundering. On further examination, Pomerantz found that the money laundering statute would not apply. Colleagues were skeptical that the hush money would qualify as extortion. With no path to felony charges, Pomerantz abandoned the inquiry and subsequently resigned in February 2022. 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. Cohen met extensively with the DA's office and the grand jury, and by March 3, Cohen had met with the DA's office 18 times and had given his cellphones to the DA's prosecutors, who wanted evidence of communications including voice recordings of Daniels' former lawyer Keith Davidson. Several other witnesses met with the DA's office or the grand jury in March 2023, including Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, two Trump Organization employees, two former National Enquirer executives who helped broker the hush-money deal, a lawyer for Daniels, Daniels herself, Trump-aligned lawyer Robert Costello (who provided testimony, including emails, in which he attempted to discredit Cohen's reliability), and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. As early as that February, prosecutors confirmed that they might leverage additional charges, including insurance fraud, against Allen Weisselberg to pressure him to testify against Trump, and in May, The New York Times reported that they were considering perjury charges against him.
In March 2023, District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office indicated that an indictment was likely. By March 9, 2023, prosecutors had offered Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury the following week, indicating that they were likely preparing to indict him. Around that time, Trump and his spokesperson began referring to both Daniels' allegation and the DA's proceedings as "extortion". On March 10, 2023, Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina asked New York City's Department of Investigation to review the criminal probe, asserting its "weaponization". On March 13, Tacopina announced that Trump would not testify. Early the next morning, The Guardian reported that Trump's lawyers had argued to the DA that Trump should not be indicted on the basis that the payment did not draw from campaign funds and would have been made regardless of his candidacy.
In late March 2023, there was reporting around Daniels having reportedly unsuccessfully communicated in 2018 with Tacopina about possibly representing her in the scandal, for which the DA could move to disqualify the lawyer due to attorney–client privilege and because she reputedly disclosed confidential information to his firm. Additionally, it reemerged that, in 2018, Tacopina had called the hush-money payment "an illegal agreement", "a fraud", and "a potential campaign finance issue".
On March 18, 2023, Trump stated on his social-media platform, Truth Social, that he was to be arrested on March 21 and that the proceedings were disinformation backed by President Joe Biden, calling for protests in anticipation of a possible indictment. Law enforcement and security agencies prepared for potential reactions to an indictment of Trump that week, especially in the areas of the Manhattan Criminal Court and Trump Tower, including by monitoring online threats. New York City Police began to increase security in preparation for the expected indictment on March 21, and a second time for the second expected indictment on March 30. Metal barriers were set up around Trump Tower and the district Criminal Court Building. On March 24, Trump, citing his presidential prospects, insinuated that "potential death & destruction" could result from Bragg's allegedly false charge.
Trump has called the investigation a "witch hunt", claiming political persecution. Trump proponents have referred to the case as harassment, calling it a "political hack job". The trial and accompanying political theatrics have been described as a "circus" by the media. Due to multiple investigation revivals, the case earned the moniker of "zombie case".
Initial proceedings
Indictment and charges
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 charges were under seal until published when Trump was arraigned.
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: 11 for invoices from Michael Cohen 9 for general ledger entries for Donald J. Trump 9 for checks from Donald J. Trump 3 for general ledger entries for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust 2 for checks from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust
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. The indictment alleges that they were actually to reimburse Cohen for the earlier, allegedly illicit, payment to Daniels.