The former president is accused of repeatedly and fraudulently falsifying New York business records to disguise a hush money scheme that hid potentially damaging information about his past from the voting public.

Prosecutors say the scheme started in August 2015 at Trump Tower, where Trump met Cohen and David Pecker, the chairman of American Media, Inc., the company that formerly owned The National Enquirer, to devise a plan to “catch and kill” stories brewing that could foil his candidacy. Pecker agreed to be the Trump campaign’s “eyes and ears” and to alert Cohen when anything arose so they could negotiate exclusive rights to stories and ensure they’d never be published. Both American Media, Inc. and Cohen have admitted to their roles.

Among those Trump sought to keep mum about his lurid misdeeds, prosecutors say, were:

—Daniels, who alleges Trump cheated on Melania with her at a 2006 Lake Tahoe golf tournament, less than a year after the birth of his youngest child.

—Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who alleged she had a nine-month affair with Trump in 2006

—Dino Sajudin, a doorman at Trump Tower trying to sell a story alleging Trump fathered a child out of wedlock.

Trump faces 34 felony counts representing 11 checks reimbursed to Cohen for facilitating the scheme totaling $420,000, 11 related invoices, and 12 ledger entries. Prosecutors allege that he falsely recorded the payments as “legal expenses” and retainer fees to cover up a second crime — the hush money scheme that violated election laws — constituting Class-E felony offenses.

According to the DA’s case and admissions by Cohen and Pecker in Cohen’s 2018 federal case, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 and handled related hush money expenses and American Media, Inc., made a $150,000 payoff to McDougal and $30,000 to the doorman.

Why is this case being tried eight years later?

Within a year of the public learning about the hush money scheme, Cohen had turned on Trump, copped to doing his dirty work, and was on his way to federal prison. But it looked like the former president would emerge unscathed.

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