Donald Trump has used every legal tool at his disposal to dismiss, reduce or delay the four active criminal cases against him.

But on Monday, barring last-minute judicial intervention, Trump will become the first former president to be tried on felony charges.

The trial in New York Supreme Court centers on allegations that Trump falsified business records as part of a scheme to cover up a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormi Daniels in 2016, which he says was hers. Had an affair with Trump years ago.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Trump of using a “catch and kill” tactic to hide damaging information from voters before the 2016 presidential election.

The case could be the only one of 88 criminal charges against Trump in four separate cases to go to trial before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

If convicted in that case, the 77-year-old former president could be sentenced to time in New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison complex or a state prison.

Here’s what to know about the landmark case:

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

Under New York law, a person is guilty of a felony when his or her record is falsified with the intent to commit or conceal another crime.

The DA alleges that Trump and others violated election laws to carry out an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying and suppressing negative information about him.

At the center of Bragg’s lawsuit is Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges related to hush money payments to two women before the 2016 election.

Cohen is expected to be a key witness in the trial, where he will say Trump directed him to make the payments.

To secretly pay Daniels, the DA alleges, Cohen opened a bank account for a shell company he created specifically to facilitate the payment. He then transferred $131,000 from the home equity line of credit to that account. On October 27, less than two weeks before the 2016 election, Cohen wired Daniels’ lawyer $130,000 in exchange for her silence about the alleged affair with Trump.

After the election, Bragg says, Trump paid Cohen through a series of monthly checks processed by the Trump Organization, which provided him with a retainer agreement in 2017. Recorded as payment for legal services.

The DA alleges those records were false.

Trump and Cohen were also allegedly involved in a 2016 hush money payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougall, who received $150,000 from the then-publisher of the National Enquirer to remain silent about her alleged affair with Trump. had received

Bragg also cited a $30,000 payment by that publisher, American Media Inc., to a former Trump Tower doorman for the rights to a story about Trump fathering a child after marriage. After determining that the story was false, the publisher’s CEO, David Packer, wanted to terminate the deal — but at Cohen’s direction, he held off until after the 2016 election, the DA alleges.

The trial was originally scheduled to begin March 25, but was delayed until Monday to give Trump’s team time to review some recently obtained documents.

The trial will begin with the selection process of 12 jurors plus alternates.

Judge Joan Merchin has said she expects the trial to last about six weeks.

Yes, Trump will be there. New York law requires defendants to attend their own trials, with a few exceptions.

Trump has voluntarily attended multiple hearings in the hush money case and his other criminal cases, generating waves of mainstream media attention that his regular campaign events no longer include.

Trump was also scheduled to testify Monday in a separate case related to the public merger of his media company. Trump Media and Technology Groupbut its release was reportedly postponed.

Falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony with a maximum penalty of four years in prison. But the sentence a defendant ultimately receives is often less than the maximum, and Trump’s age and lack of prior convictions could also play in his favor in any potential sentencing decision.

However, his animosity towards Presiding Judge Murchan and others involved in the case – including the judge’s daughter – may work against him.

Norm Eisen, a legal analyst who helped House Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, said at a press briefing Thursday that “I think there is a substantial risk that he will be convicted and face prison time.” will have.” .

“When you have falsification of business records for the purpose of aiding, concealing or committing serious crimes, it regularly carries prison sentences,” Eisen said.

Trump can continue to run for office even if he is convicted and jailed.

Cohen and Daniels are expected to take the stand at trial. But prosecutors have compiled a list of about a dozen other potential witnesses, including McDougal and Packer, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC news.

The same source told NBC that Trump himself could be on the list of potential defense witnesses.

Trump has not yet said whether he plans to testify in his own defense. When he took the stand in his New York civil business fraud case in November, Trump angrily criticized the judge, the state attorney general and many other “haters.”

Bradley Smith, a former commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, is another potential defense witness, NBC news reported.

Trump’s lawyers have thrown the kitchen sink at the trial in hopes of delaying it. He has made more than 10 attempts to move it forward, three of which came in last-minute appeals filed in the final week before jury selection.

Trump, as he has in his other legal battles, has used his public following as a weapon against this case.

In regular social media diatribes and interviews, he has railed against the judge, the DA, key witnesses and various others, while claiming that all of his criminal charges are a conspiracy by the Biden administration to undermine his presidential bid. are part of

Murchin imposed a gag order on Trump and then extended it after the former president repeatedly criticized the judge’s daughter for working as a Democratic political consultant. Trump’s legal team has repeatedly demanded that Murchin recuse himself because of his daughter’s political activities. Murchan refused to do so last year.

In a video posted on TruthSocial on Thursday, Trump dismissed the gag order, falsely claiming, “It only happens to me,” and asserting, “There has never been a more controversial judge. “