In the early hours of Wednesday morning AEST, Donald Trump will head from Trump Tower in New York City to Manhattan's arraignment court, becoming the first former president to face criminal charges in US history.
He flew from his Mar-a-lago estate in Florida to New York to spend the night in the skyscraper, which was surrounded by Trump supporters, reporters and security.
It's now Monday night in New York City and until the Republican presidential candidate heads to court, there's a a sense of watching and waiting.
Here's a quick guide to what's going on to get you up to speed before proceedings kick off.
What is Donald Trump being charged with?
The exact charge has not been made public yet.
In fact, Mr Trump and his legal team don't even know the exact charge yet.
The indictment remains under seal, but we're expecting to hear the actual charge after his arraignment.
An arraignment, by the way, isn't an arrest — it's just a term for a court appearance where the accused is read their charges for the first time.
He's heading to court on Tuesday morning, local time, with his arraignment set down for 2:15pm.
That'll be 4:15am AEST Wednesday.
He'll be subject to processing at the court, including being fingerprinted and potentially having his mug shot taken.
Hang on, hasn't this case been going for a while now?
Yep.
If you've skimmed the headlines lately, you might have heard about a grand jury deciding whether or not to indict Mr Trump.
That's something different to a criminal trial.
An 'indictment' is just another word for a list of charges.
The US Department of Justice says that, for potential felony charges, a prosecutor will present evidence to an impartial group of citizens — that's the grand jury you keep hearing about.
Evidence and an outline of the case is presented to jurors, who are tasked with deciding whether there's enough evidence to charge the person.
Witnesses may be called to testify before the jury. In this case, that includes Mr Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.
This whole process is sealed, meaning everything that happens in court is not made public, which is why there's so much mystery about what's happening in this case.
Why is Donald Trump being indicted?
The case is related to hush money allegedly paid to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
The grand jury heard evidence about a $US130,000 ($194,000) payment to Ms Daniels in the later stage of Mr Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Ms Daniels had previously said she had a sexual encounter with Mr Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006.
She said Mr Trump's team paid her to keep quiet about her claims so as to not hurt his chances at winning office.
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied the affair and any wrongdoing.
He and his allies say the case is politically motivated, especially given Mr Trump is running in next year's presidential election.
Will Donald Trump go to jail tomorrow?
It's very unlikely.
Danya Perry, a former deputy attorney-general for the state of New York, told Reuters she's certain Mr Trump will be released on recognisance.
That's a term for an agreement a defendant makes with the court to observe certain conditions — like returning to court when summoned.
In 2019, New York abolished the need for bail in most cases involving misdemeanours and nonviolent felonies — like Mr Trump's case.
After the arraignment, Mr Trump is expected fly straight back to Florida.
We know that because he's scheduled a press conference back on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago hours after he's supposed to appear in the Manhattan court.
That'll be 8.15pm local time, which will be 10.15am AEST.
Could Donald Trump eventually be jailed though?
Maybe.
Because we don't know the charges yet, we don't know the possible consequences of being found guilty.
All we can do is speculate.
Will this stop Donald Trump running for president?
It doesn't look like it.
Mr Trump said he was "completely innocent" and indicated he would not drop out of the race.
Besides, this case is likely to stretch on for some time, meaning it might not be resolved before the presidential election in November, 2024.
Could Donald Trump still run for office with a criminal record?
Yes.
There's nothing in the US Constitution that prevents someone from running for and becoming president with a criminal record.
In fact, there are only three requirements for a president:
- Be at least 35 years of age
- Be a natural born citizen
- Have lived in the US for at least 14 years
But what about those impeachments, you might ask?
Mr Trump was impeached twice by the House of Representatives but, in essence, an impeachment doesn't count unless it's passed by the Senate.
And both of Mr Trump's impeachments were overturned by the Senate.
So while he was symbolically impeached, technically he was acquitted.
In fact, no president has been removed from office via impeachment.
The House of Representatives launched early impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, but he resigned from office before it all came to a head.
Both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by the House of Representatives, but neither were convicted by the Senate.
And there's a question about whether an impeachment conviction would have barred Mr Trump from running for office again anyway.
An explainer from the US House of Representatives archives shows that, of the eight people who have been impeached by the Senate, most weren't blocked from running again:
"In only three instances — all involving removed federal judges — has the Senate taken the additional step of barring them from ever holding future federal office."
Here's a look at key figures in the case
Adult film star: Stormy Daniels
Stormy Daniels is a adult film actor who has also had bit parts in mainstream films including The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.
Ms Daniels was paid $193,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Mr Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
Mr Trump denies having sex with Ms Daniels.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid the money in the final weeks of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign after her representative said she was willing to make on-the-record statements to the National Enquirer or on television confirming a sexual encounter with Mr Trump.
Her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is serving 11 years in prison for extortion and fraud, including a conviction for stealing $442,000 in proceeds from Ms Daniels's 2018 book, Full Disclosure.
Former Playboy model: Karen McDougal
Karen McDougal is a former Playboy model who said she had a 10-month affair with Mr Trump in the mid-2000s.
Ms McDougal was paid $223,000 in 2016 by the parent company of the National Enquirer for the rights to her story about the alleged relationship.
Mr Trump denies any affair.
The story never ran. The company suppressed Ms McDougal's story until after the election, a dubious journalism practice known as "catch and kill".
American Media has acknowledged that its payments to Ms McDougal were done specifically to assist Mr Trump's election bid and were made "in concert" with his campaign.
Ms McDougal has said Mr Trump tried to pay her after their first sexual tryst at a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2006.
She said she continued the relationship with Mr Trump for about 10 months and broke it off in April 2007 because she felt guilty.
Trump's former lawyer: Michael Cohen
A lawyer by training, Michael Cohen worked for the Trump Organization from 2006 to 2017, serving as Mr Trump's fixer. He once proudly proclaimed he'd "take a bullet" for his boss.
Cohen took the lead in arranging the payment to Stormy Daniels, passing it through a corporation he established for the purpose.
He said he was then reimbursed by Mr Trump, whose company logged the payment and related bonuses as "legal expenses".
A few months earlier, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer to make a similar payment to Ms McDougal for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Mr Trump.
Cohen made recordings of a conversation in which he and Mr Trump spoke about the arrangement to pay Karen McDougal through the tabloid publisher. Mr Trump denies the affair.
Federal prosecutors in 2018 charged Cohen with evading taxes related to his investments in the taxi industry, with lying to Congress and with campaign finance violations related to the hush money payments.
Cohen, who blamed Mr Trump for his legal problems, pleaded guilty and served about a year in prison before being released to home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is now a key prosecution witness in the Manhattan district attorney's investigation.
In charge of the Trump Organizations' finances: Allen Weisselberg
The longtime chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg made key decisions in how the company kept its books but did not appear to be cooperating with the hush-money investigation.
During testimony before Congress in 2019, Cohen said it was Weisselberg who decided how to structure his reimbursement for the payment to Ms Daniels.
Cohen said Weisselberg paid the money out over 12 months "so that it would look like a retainer".
Federal prosecutors gave Weisselberg limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for his grand jury testimony in their investigation of the payments.
But the Manhattan district attorney's office ultimately brought unrelated charges against Weisselberg for dodging income taxes on job perks he got from Mr Trump's company, including a rent-free apartment and a luxury car.
He pleaded guilty and is serving a short jail term set to expire this month.
Former CEO of the National Enquirer's parent company: David Pecker
The National Enquirer's former publisher and a longtime friend of Mr Trump, David Pecker testified twice before the grand jury about the tabloid's involvement in suppressing negative stories about Mr Trump.
Mr Pecker met with Michael Cohen during Mr Trump's 2016 campaign and said the Enquirer's parent company would help buy and bury potentially damaging stories about Mr Trump's relationship with women.
Mr Pecker, who was the Enquirer's chairman and chief executive at the time, agreed to keep Cohen notified of any such stories.
In June 2016, he alerted Cohen that Karen McDougal's lawyer had approached the publication seeking to sell her story about an alleged affair with Mr Trump.
The Enquirer's owner at the time, American Media, then agreed to pay Ms McDougal for "limited life rights" to the story of her relationship with "any then-married man".
Cohen signed an agreement to buy the non-disclosure part of Ms McDougal's contract for $186,000 through a company he formed, but Mr Pecker later called off the deal and told Cohen to tear up the agreement.
Federal prosecutors agreed in 2018 not to prosecute American Media in exchange for its cooperation in the campaign finance investigation that led to Cohen's guilty plea and prison sentence.
The Federal Election Commission fined the company $279,000 deeming the McDougal deal as a "prohibited corporate in-kind contribution".
Mr Pecker stepped down as CEO of the publisher in 2020.
Manhattan district attorney: Alvin Bragg
Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, Alvin Bragg, could become the first prosecutor anywhere to bring a criminal case against a former US president.
The Democrat inherited an investigation of Mr Trump when he took office in January 2022.
Mr Bragg grew up in Harlem during the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic, where he says he was held at gunpoint six times — three times by police.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, he previously worked as a federal prosecutor, chief deputy state attorney-general, civil rights lawyer and law school professor.
After taking office, Mr Bragg paused an investigation into Mr Trump's business dealings that had been seen as gathering momentum toward a possible indictment.
But after his prosecutors won a trial last year in which Mr Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, was convicted of tax fraud, Mr Bragg convened a new grand jury to examine the hush money payouts.
Trump lawyer: Joseph Tacopina
Joseph Tacopina is the public face of Mr Trump’s defence team.
Mr Trump is just the latest big name to turn to Mr Tacopina, whose past clients have included the rappers Meek Mill, Jay-Z and A$AP Rocky and baseball great Alex Rodriguez.
In recent weeks, Mr Tacopina has been making the former president’s case on TV news shows, questioning Alvin Bragg’s investigation and motives, challenging Michael Cohen’s credibility as a star witness and suggesting Mr Trump was extorted.
It wasn’t always like that.
In a TV appearance in 2018, long before Mr Tacopina started representing Mr Trump, he told CNN that the payment to Ms Daniels appeared to be "illegal" and a "potential campaign finance issue".
He told the network that claims Mr Trump wasn't aware of the payment "doesn't pass the straight-face test".
Mr Trump hired Mr Tacopina in January, initially to defend him against a civil lawsuit brought by magazine columnist E Jean Carroll, who says Mr Trump raped her in the mid-1990s.
That case is scheduled to go to trial this month.
Trump lawyer: Susan Necheles
Susan Necheles is a New York City defence lawyer who represented Mr Trump’s company at its tax fraud trial last year and has been working behind the scenes on the former president’s criminal defence, meeting with prosecutors in an attempt to head off potential charges.
In the past, she served as counsel to the late Genovese crime family underboss Venero Mangano, known as Benny Eggs, and defended John Gotti’s lawyer, Bruce Cutler, in a contempt-of-court case in the early 1990s.
Like Joseph Tacopina, Ms Necheles is a former Brooklyn prosecutor.
During the Trump Organization trial, she made a point of referring to Mr Trump as "President Trump".
Trump lawyer: Todd Blanche
Mr Trump beefed up his legal team even further by bringing in Todd Blanche, Reuters reports.
Mr Blanche is a prominent white-collar criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor.
He previously represented Paul Manafort, Mr Trump's 2016 campaign chairman.
Mr Manafort was hit with New York state fraud charges after being sentenced to prison for federal crimes.
But the state charges were eventually dismissed and, while he was still president, Mr Trump pardoned Mr Manafort.
Mr Blanche also previously represented Igor Fruman, who was an associate Mr Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Leading the investigation: Matthew Colangelo
Alvin Bragg hired Matthew Colangelo in December to lead the investigation.
They previously worked together on Trump-related matters as senior officials at the office of New York Attorney-General Letitia James.
During his tenure with the attorney-general's office, Mr Colangelo worked on a lawsuit that resulted in the closure of Trump's charitable foundation for misusing funds.
He was also part of a wave of state litigation against Trump administration policies, resulting in dozens of lawsuits that challenged everything from diluted environmental standards to changes to US mail service ahead of the 2020 election.
After President Joe Biden took office, Mr Colangelo joined the US Justice Department and was temporarily its third in command. He then became a principal deputy to Associate US Attorney-General Vanita Gupta.
Previously, Mr Colangelo served as deputy assistant to then-president Barack Obama, was a deputy director of the National Economic Council and was a chief of staff for the US labor secretary.
ABC with Wires
