For six weeks, Donald Trump will be a mostly passive observer as his fate is determined by 12 ordinary New Yorkers chosen to decide the first-ever criminal case brought against a former U.S. president.
Figures from Trump’s past as a real estate mogul and reality TV star will recount – with the world’s media watching – in detail the sordid saga of the billionaire’s alleged extramarital affair and the behind-the-scenes attempt that followed to prevent his infidelities from being made public during the 2016 election.
Here are the main characters who are expected to play a leading role in the debates.
Stormy Daniels
adult film star at center of allegations
Louisiana-born Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, began stripping at age 17 and became one of America’s most successful adult entertainment stars, as well as a producer and director.
Daniels claimed that in 2006, she reluctantly had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump, then a real estate mogul and reality TV personality, who suggested that she be cast on the next season of The apprentice. Trump, who married his third wife Melania a year before, always denied it took place.
In the lead-up to the 2016 election, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to buy his silence on the alleged affair. Daniels then broke a nondisclosure agreement and made the encounter public while Trump was president.
She is expected to testify at the trial, after Trump’s team failed to prevent her from appearing, arguing she would use the event to “monetize” her story.
Michael Cohen
Trump’s former ‘fixer’ turned state witness
A self-described “Manhattan lawyer and aspiring businessman,” Cohen entered the Trump world in 2006, admiring the billionaire since his teenage years, during which time he read Trump’s book, The art of the markettwice.
He became vice president of the Trump Organization and quickly became Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, aggressively lashing out at his boss’s critics in person and in the media, particularly in the run-up to the U.S. election. 2016.
Cohen’s payment of $130,000 in hush money to Daniels — which he says he made with money obtained from refinancing his home, only to be surreptitiously repaid by Trump — is at the heart of the Manhattan affair.
In 2018, he pleaded guilty to a plethora of federal charges, including lying to banks, campaign finance violations and tax evasion at his New York medallion taxi company. Cohen, who publicly split with Trump at the same time, was sentenced to three years in prison and later convicted of lying to Congress.
He has since become a vocal critic of Trump, writing two books condemning his former employer, whom he called a “crook” and “organized crime don.” He is expected to be the star witness in the trial, during which prosecutors will seek testimony that he paid Daniels on Trump’s orders.
Alvin Bragg
the Manhattan district attorney who was the first to indict a former president
Born and raised in Harlem, where he still lives, Bragg, a Democrat, attended Harvard and became a federal prosecutor, as well as a senior attorney in the New York attorney general’s office, before being elected Manhattan district attorney in 2021.
He inherited a vast web of interrelated Trump investigations from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, and chose to pursue the former president’s businesses for tax fraud, securing a criminal conviction against the real estate companies in 2022.
A few months later, an emboldened Bragg brought criminal charges against the former president himself, in a landmark indictment over hush money payments. Since then, he has been the target of widespread criticism on social media, being called a “thug” and “degenerate” by Trump, and has been the subject of at least one confirmed death threat.
Although his deputies handled arguments and filings with the court, Bragg attended most of the hearings in the case, sitting near his team and occasionally engaging in conversations with them. He said little outside the courtroom, choosing to make his arguments primarily through legal documents.
Todd Blanche
the lawyer who left a major firm to lead Trump’s criminal defense
A former paralegal in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office who went to law school at night and worked his way up to become a federal prosecutor, Todd Blanche left his career at the elite Wall Street firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in April 2023 to represent Donald Trump in 2023. the secret money affair.
Widely considered one of the most professional and experienced members of Trump’s legal team, Blanche has avoided making explosive statements to the press, choosing instead to vigorously defend her client in court, even though it has angered the judge.
At a hearing last month, Judge Juan Merchan called Blanche’s attempt to imply that a late filing of documents containing potential evidence was a deliberate ploy by prosecutors “truly disconcerting” and reprimanded the lawyer for not being able to substantiate such a “serious” claim.
He repeatedly echoed his client’s assertion that the case, and its timing, amounts to “election interference” by the DA’s office.
Blanche, who is expected to cross-examine key witnesses like Michael Cohen, has so far failed in numerous attempts to get charges against Trump dropped, citing court bias or immunity among other arguments. presidential.
Juan Merchan
the judge presiding over the first criminal trial of a former US president
A former state’s attorney who worked for New York’s attorney general before becoming a family court judge, Merchan previously enjoyed a relatively quiet tenure on the Manhattan bench.
But the Colombian-born lawyer quickly gained national prominence by overseeing the 2022 tax fraud trial against the Trump Organization.
He has so far kept a relatively neutral tone toward Trump’s lawyers, expressing only exasperation at what he sees as frivolous or repetitive interventions by the former president’s team. Early in the case, he acknowledged that “Mr. Trump is different” from the other defendants and said he was “going out of his way.” . . to ensure that he has every possible chance to advance his candidacy.”
Outside the courtroom, Merchan, who has previously donated to Democratic candidates, and his daughter, who works for a consulting firm that advises Democratic politicians, have faced media scrutiny after being publicly attacked as Trump supporters.
Merchan has so far refused requests from Trump’s team that he recuse himself from the trial due to an alleged conflict of interest.
Donald Trump
Former president in unprecedented legal trouble
Trump, the former president and current presumptive Republican nominee, will sit at the defense table four days a week during the trial.
His antics in various civil cases over the past year have made headlines, but Trump has been unusually obsequious in his previous appearances before Merchan, letting his lawyers do most of the talking.
Outside the courtroom, he denounced the judge, the prosecutor and their family members, before a silence order was imposed. At a news conference Friday, Trump said he would “absolutely” testify in his own defense at trial.
The 77-year-old, who has previously said he would happily go to jail for “telling the open and obvious TRUTH”, is unlikely to face jail time even if convicted, as the The charges against him are relatively minor.
Regardless, there’s nothing stopping him from running for president, but if elected, he would be the first criminal to enter the White House. Trump also could not pardon himself as president, because he has no authority over New York State’s convictions. He still faces three other criminal charges, but it is unclear whether any of them will be tried before the November election.
