The events underlying the criminal case against Donald Trump - hush money payments to suppress stories about extramarital affairs - took place nearly seven years ago.
But any potential trial could be more than a year away. That raises the possibility that the former US president could face a jury in a Manhattan courtroom as he seeks a return to the White House - or even after the November 2024 election.
After Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records on Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan set the next court hearing for Dec. 4.
Prosecutors said they plan to request a trial date of January 2024, while Trump's legal team suggested a spring 2024 trial.
In the courtroom, on the campaign trail
In the first three quarters of 2022, the average criminal case in Manhattan took more than 900 days to move from indictment to a trial verdict, according to data from the state's division of criminal justice services.
Trump's case is far from typical, and his lawyers say they intend to fight it aggressively with a blizzard of paperwork.
That could conceivably push any trial past the timetable floated by the two sides and closer to the presidential election.
The state-by-state contests for the Republican nomination is scheduled for the first half of 2024. The party will formally select a nominee in mid-2024 to face the Democratic nominee - likely incumbent President Joe Biden.
If elected, Trump would not hold the power to pardon himself of state charges. But putting a president-elect or president on trial for state charges would enter uncharted legal waters.
"This is so unprecedented that it's hard for me to say," said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former Manhattan prosecutor. "I think it's tricky." Aside from the New York case, Trump faces federal criminal investigations over allegations he tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents. He also faces a Georgia investigation into his attempts to fight his 2020 defeat in that state.
Photos: Trump surrenders to NY court on historic day
The former president and front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination arrived at a Manhattan courthouse to be formally charged in a watershed moment for the United States.
The state-by-state contests for the Republican nomination is scheduled for the first half of 2024. The party will formally select a nominee in mid-2024 to face the Democratic nominee - likely incumbent President Joe Biden.
If elected, Trump would not hold the power to pardon himself of state charges. But putting a president-elect or president on trial for state charges would enter uncharted legal waters.
"This is so unprecedented that it's hard for me to say," said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former Manhattan prosecutor. "I think it's tricky." Aside from the New York case, Trump faces federal criminal investigations over allegations he tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents. He also faces a Georgia investigation into his attempts to fight his 2020 defeat in that state.
During the campaign, Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to for her silence on an affair she says she had with Trump.
Trump denies the allegations and the affairs but has admitted to reimbursing Cohen for his payment to Daniels. He has called Bragg's probe a politically motivated "witch hunt" and pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance Tuesday.
Taken together, the charges carry a maximum of 136 years in prison under New York law, but any prison sentence following a guilty verdict would almost certainly be far less than that. Trump would almost certainly appeal any conviction.
Challenging the case
In his early career in real estate, as a television celebrity and then in politics, the famously litigious Trump has employed aggressive counter-attacks and delay tactics when confronted with legal challenges.
Trump has accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, of targeting him for political gain and could try to seek dismissal of the charges on those grounds.
He has complained that Merchan, the judge, treated his company unfairly when he oversaw a criminal tax-fraud trial last year.
On Tuesday morning Trump said the case should be moved from heavily Democratic Manhattan to Staten Island, a more conservative part of New York City.
Trump's lawyers would have to file a motion showing why Merchan is unqualified to handle the case. That would likely be denied as there is no basis for recusal, said Marc Scholl, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney.
Likewise, any request to change the venue would likely be denied this far in advance of a trial, Scholl said.
Trump will likely pursue other avenues as well, some of which could present thorny legal issues that take time to resolve.
Falsifying business records is typically a misdemeanor punishable by no more than one year in prison under New York state law. Bragg elevated those charges to felonies, each carrying a maximum of four years in prison, by arguing that Trump falsified those records to cover up campaign-finance violations.
The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it
Using state election law in that manner - and in a case involving a federal, not a state, candidate - is an untested legal theory, legal experts said, and Trump's lawyers would be sure to challenge it.
Trump could also challenge whether the statute of limitations - five years in this instance - should have run out.
That deadline has been extended due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under New York law, the statute of limitations can also be extended if the defendant has been out of state, but Trump may argue that serving as US president should not apply.
"This is a dream case for defense attorneys," former prosecutor David Shapiro said last week.
Trump defiant in Mar-a-Lago speech
Flanked by American flags, former President Donald Trump delivered a campaign-style speech to cheering supporters at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday night.
Trump was defiant, referring, among other things, to his two impeachment trials during his presidency and an ongoing probe into alleged attempts to interfere in that state’s 2020 presidential election. He called the New York indictment the latest in an "onslaught of fraudulent investigations.”
This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election and it should be dropped immediately
He also lashed out at the prosecutor and the judge presiding over the New York case — despite being warned hours earlier by the judge to refrain from rhetoric that could cause civil unrest.
Trump waved goodbye as he made his way out of the ballroom thronged by people recording the moment with their smartphones.
The crowd included supporters like failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and longtime ally Roger Stone.
The decision in California came at about the same time that that Trump became the only ex-president to be charged with a crime. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement days before the 2016 presidential election.
She sued him for defamation after he dismissed her claims of being threatened to keep quiet about the tryst as a “total con job.” A judge threw out the case in 2018.
On Tuesday, a commissioner for the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump's attorneys “reasonably spent” more than 183 hours on an appeal of the case but denied a request for another $5,150 in other fees because it wasn't itemised.
In all, Daniels has been ordered to pay more than $600,000 in Trump’s legal fees, tweeted Harmeet Dillon, one of his attorneys in the case.
That includes some $300,000 in attorney's fees that Daniels previously was ordered to pay.
After a federal appeals court upheld that award last year, Daniels stated: “I will go to jail before I pay a penny.”
Messages seeking comment from her attorney, Oklahoma lawyer Clark Brewster, weren't immediately returned after hours Tuesday.
Watch: What to know about Trump's felony charges
He had married his third and current wife Melania in 2005 and the couple had a new baby.
In early October 2016, The Washington Post published the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump made lewd comments about women.
Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, then employed by the Trump Organisation, sent $130,000 ($173,000) through a shell entity to a lawyer for Ms Daniels, in return for a pledge that she would not talk about her relationship with Trump.
Cohen later said that he made the payment at the direction of Trump and to influence the 2016 election. He took out a home equity line of credit to make the payment.
‘FALSIFYING’ BUSINESS RECORDS: Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion and violating campaign finance laws in 2018, has said that Trump reimbursed him for the US$130,000 payment in monthly payments of US$35,000 in 2017, the first year Trump was in the White House.
The 34 counts filed against Trump are related to those payments, which were recorded as legal expenses within the Trump Organisation.
While books and records violations on their own are misdemeanours in New York, they can be charged as felonies when committed in furtherance of another crime, in this case the violation of New York’s election laws.
VIOLATING ELECTION LAWS: In the context of a political campaign, money spent to silence unflattering information can be considered a campaign donation.
Cohen was convicted in federal court of campaign violations in part because his US$130,000 payment to Ms Daniels exceeded what was then the legal limit on an individual’s donation to a political candidate: $2,700.
Bragg alleges that Trump’s handling of the reimbursements to Cohen violated New York state election law, “which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means”.
