There were multiple attempts to delay the proceedings before Judge Juan Merchan moved forward with the start of the trial last Monday.
Former president of the United States, Donald Trump, arrived at the New York courthouse on Monday to hear how the prosecution would prove his alleged coverup of a hush money payment to a porn star during his 2016 campaign.
There were multiple attempts to delay the proceedings before Judge Juan Merchan moved forward with the start of the trial last Monday.
There are allegations that Trump made a "hush money" payment to an adult film star in an effort to conceal damaging information about him during the 2016 election.
The former president had also urged his loyalists to stage a peaceful protest outside the courthouses across the country.
It was also stated that few were on hand to greet him when he arrived at the downtown courthouse, which was surrounded by barricades but open to the public.
"Lower Manhattan surrounding the Courthouse, where I am heading now, is completely CLOSED DOWN. SO UNFAIR!!!" he wrote on social media.
Lawyers for the Republican presidential nominee will also make their opening statement in what could be the only one of Trump's four criminal prosecutions to go to trial before his rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden on November 5.
Prosecutors claim Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump a decade ago deceived voters in the final days of Trump's 2016 campaign, when his candidature was weakened by other revelations of sexual misconduct.
Trump has pled not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying company documents filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and he denies having sexual contact with Daniels.
The case is seen by many legal experts as the least consequential of the Trump prosecutions. A guilty verdict would not bar him from taking office, but it could hurt his candidacy.
Prosecutors have said the Daniels payment was part of a broader "catch and kill" scheme hatched by Trump, Cohen and David Pecker -- the former chief executive of tabloid publisher American Media -- to pay off people with potentially damaging information about Trump before the November 2016 election. Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Pecker is the first witness prosecutors plan to call after opening statements, the New York Times and CNN reported on Sunday. According to prosecutors, Pecker agreed during an August 2015 meeting with Trump and Cohen to act as the campaign's "eyes and ears" by looking out for negative stories about Trump.
SaharaReporters had also reported how the first six jurors were sworn in for the former U.S. President Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York.