Reuters. Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty in a historic moment for the United States on Tuesday (April 4) to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, as prosecutors accused him of paying two women to suppress their accounts of sexual encounters with him.
The indictment, unsealed after Trump's court appearance along with a statement of facts, alleged that Trump and others violated election laws through a scheme to suppress the publication of negative information about him ahead of the 2016 U.S. election. The two women were adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, Trump, the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges, sat with his hands folded at the defense table as he entered his plea flanked by his lawyers.
"Not guilty," Trump, 76, said when asked how he pleaded.
The judge set the next court hearing for Dec. 4 and did not issue a gag order on any of the parties.
Some of the evidence against Trump was caught in an audio recording in September 2016 as he and his attorney discussed how to suppress stories about his affair, prosecutors said. Court documents said Trump can be heard saying, "So what do we got to pay for this?"
Trump's reimbursement checks to a lawyer for the suppression payments falsely stated that the money was for a "retainer agreement," prosecutors said. The indictment accused Trump of falsifying his real estate company's books with intent to defraud.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said nothing as he entered the courtroom or when he left roughly an hour later. Trump previously called the charges politically motivated.
Taken together, the charges carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison under New York law but an actual prison sentence if he is convicted at a trial would almost certainly be far less than that.
While falsifying business records in New York on its own is a misdemeanor punishable by no more than one year in prison, it is elevated to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison when done to advance or conceal another crime.
The Manhattan grand jury convened by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that indicted Trump heard evidence about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels has said she was paid to keep silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006.
Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has said he coordinated with Trump on payments to Daniels and McDougal. Trump has denied having had sexual relationships with either woman, but has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen.
Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said after the indictment that if the defendant was anyone other than Trump, there would have been no charges.
