How a hush money scandal turned into a criminal case: The whirlwind history of People v. Trump

In January 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, had arranged a payment to Daniels a month before the 2016 election to silence her claims about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

Despite a series of denials by Trump and Cohen about various aspects of the episode, federal authorities quickly opened an investigation, and by April, the FBI executed searches of Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.

In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to several crimes including campaign finance violations, saying he had arranged hush money payments to two women “for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with” Trump.That admission came as the result of an investigation by federal prosecutors into conduct by both Cohen and Trump in connection with the hush money. But there was a catch: Trump was still president.

In November, Vance’s successor, Alvin Bragg, was elected as district attorney.

Bragg was sworn in in January 2022, and in his initial weeks in office, he hesitated on moving forward with the case related to valuations. And as a result, prosecutors paused their presentation of evidence about Trump to a grand jury. Shortly thereafter, Pomerantz and another top lawyer who had been leading the Trump investigation, Carey Dunne, resigned from the office.

By mid-March 2023, Trump predicted his own arrest on charges stemming from the Daniels payment. And on March 30, a grand jury voted to indict the former president, charging him with alleged falsification of business records related to his reimbursement of Cohen for the payment to Daniels. Five days later, Trump appeared at the criminal courthouse in Lower Manhattan to plead not guilty.On Monday, he will return to that same courthouse, where he will take a seat at the defense table to observe the selection of a jury that will decide whether he is guilty of 34 felony counts.