Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees. Prosecutors have described it as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.

The historic criminal trial of former President Donald Trump may see a historic prison sentence should the jury render a guilty verdict. That's the thinking by Tristan Snell, the former New York State assistant attorney general who took the real estate mogul to task before he became president and helped bring about the demise of Donald Trump’s