Trump Hit By Criminal Charges After Historic Arrest; Denies Them

New York: Former President Donald Trump was hit with 34 serious criminal charges relating to hush money allegedly paid to three people after he made history as the first former US President to be arrested.

Appearing in the New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty — a denial of the charges and a declaration to fight them.

The 34 criminal charges are each about falsifying business records for the payoffs made before the 2016 election to porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, both of whom asserted that they had affairs with him, and the doorman at his Trump Tower, who claimed to have known about an illegitimate child Trump fathered.

If he is convicted on all the 34 charges he could theoretically face 136 years in prison — four years for each offence — under the creative way Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg framed the charges breaking out separate transactions into individual charges.

Under New York’s legal system, a grand jury — a panel of citizens — investigated the case in secret hearings and voted on Thursday that there was a prima facie case against him, enabling Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg to file charges.

Trump is the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and in a poll aggregation, he is only two points behind US President Joe Biden.