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(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records — felony accusations that are laid out in a 34-count grand jury indictment.
Court documents allege Trump orchestrated a scheme to ultimately stop negative stories about him from being published ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Multiple checks that were paid out of Trump’s bank account and the Trump Organization’s trust had been recorded as attorney retainer fees. However, prosecutors say those fees were actually reimbursements for hush money payments that stopped potentially damaging stories from running during Trump’s campaign.
The crime alleged against Trump is the falsifying of those records, not the payments themselves.
“It is not just about one payment,” Manhattan District Attorney Bragg said. “It is 34 falsified business records concealing criminal conduct.”
The situation began in 2015 shortly after Trump announced his first presidential bid.
Prosecutors allege through court documents that Trump met in August of that year with his former attorney Michael Cohen and the CEO of American Media, Inc. —the company that publishes National Enquirer.
During that meeting, the CEO agreed to help Trump by alerting Cohen to potentially damaging stories as well as publishing negative stories about Trump’s competitors, prosecutors said.
In November 2015, that CEO paid a former Trump Tower doorman $30,000 to buy the exclusive rights to a potentially negative story and falsely characterized the payment on company books, Bragg said.
Cohen pleaded guilty in a separate instance to violating federal campaign finance law by using a shell company to issue adult film actress Stormy Daniels a $130,000 hush-money payment.
The former president acknowledged he paid Cohen a “monthly retainer” as part of an agreement to stop what he called Daniels’ “false and extortionist accusations.”
Cohen, also in 2016, arranged a $150,000 payment via the publisher of the National Enquirer to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to quash a story about a separate alleged affair with the former president. Trump has denied having an affair.
In an official statement issued Tuesday Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg repeatedly said prosecutors believe Trump “fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, will return to his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, where he will deliver a public, primetime speech.
He prematurely signaled to his arrest about two weeks ago when he posted on social media, urging his supporters to protest in advance of what he claimed would be his March 21 arrest.
That arrest didn’t happen.
Instead, the grand jury indictment came down more than a week later on March 30, and the former president surrendered himself to officials Tuesday.
The New York City Court System could be slow-moving as it handles already backed-up cases. Legal analyst Misty Marris told NewsNation it’s likely Trump’s case won’t be heard until well beyond 2024.
Former New York City mayor and once Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani has said the alleged six-figure hush money payments to Daniels as well as former Playboy model Karen McDougal were not exclusively political, but made with the intention to protect Trump’s family from embarrassment.
“If he (Trump) is not telling the truth about that, that’s not a crime,” Giuliani told NewsNation on Monday evening. “It’s not under oath. It’s not perjury.”
This is a developing report. Refresh for updates.