Trump becomes first former US President to face criminal trial: What is the hush money payment case? 

Here is a look at the case.

What is the hush money payment case? 

Trump’s criminal trial is related to the payment of $130,000 to Daniels in October 2016, in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. The money was given by the former President’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she allegedly had with Trump in July 2006. Cohen funded the payment through a home equity line of credit and was reimbursed later by Trump through his company, the Trump Organization.

After initially denying any knowledge of the transaction between Cohen and Daniels, Trump admitted to reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he called a “simple private transaction”.

This happened in 2018, the same year in which Cohen pleaded guilty to charges including federal campaign finance crimes involving the hush money, and testified that Trump and his company had falsely classified the purpose of the payments by labelling them as legal expenses. This led federal prosecutors to conclude that the money given to Daniels was “an improper donation” to Trump’s campaign, media reports including in The New York Times said. In the days that followed, the DA’s office began its probe into the matter, focusing on Trump’s role in the transaction.

What laws has Trump broken? 

Making a false entry in a company’s records is against New York state law. Falsifying business records on its own is a misdemeanour, but it can be elevated to a felony if prosecutors prove that the records were falsified to conceal another crime.

In this case, the other crimes include violation of election law, “under the theory that the payout served as a donation to Mr Trump’s campaign because it silenced Ms Daniels and shut down a potential sex scandal in the final stretch of the campaign,” The NYT reported last year.

What is the maximum sentence if Trump is convicted? 

All the charges against Trump are Class E felonies — the lowest category of felonies in New York. Each of the 34 counts carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. But it isn’t necessary that Trump would be thrown behind bars even if he is convicted by a jury. The NYT report said there is nothing in the law that requires the judge to sentence Trump to prison after he is convicted. The judge could sentence Trump to probation only.