: Former President Donald Trump sits with his defense team in a state court in Manhattan, New York, April 4, 2023.
👉 Former U.S. President Donald Trump turned himself in to authorities in New York on Tuesday before appearing in a state court for arraignment on more than 30 counts of alleged wrongdoing in the first indictment ever filed against a current or former U.S. leader.
Trump's lawyers say he will plead not guilty to charges linked to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels just ahead of his 2016 presidential election victory to silence her about her claim of an alleged tryst with him a decade earlier.
Trump has long denied her claim of a one-night encounter but not that his one-time lawyer and political fixer, Michael Cohen, made the payment to Daniels and that reimbursement payments to Cohen were recorded on a Trump Organization business ledger as legal expenses. Trump disputes the payment was related to his presidential campaign seven years ago.
