For the first time in US history, an ex-president is in the dock. Donald Trump will be the first former president to find himself as a defendant in a criminal trial.
The 77-year-old is accused in his hometown of New York in connection with hush money payments to the erotic actress Stephanie Clifford, better known by her stage name Stormy Daniels. It could take up to eight weeks before a verdict against Trump is announced. There is even a possibility of a prison sentence of several years, which could also be suspended. The trial will begin on Monday with the selection of jury members. A total of 34 charges are being negotiated. The process takes observers in the USA and beyond back to 2016. Then as now, Donald Trump was the Republican candidate for the upcoming US election. In the middle of the election campaign, he didn't need news of an affair with a porn star while his wife Melania Trump was heavily pregnant with their first child. Trump instructed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to buy Daniels' silence for $130,000.