Will Trump’s hush money trial be televised?

Donald Trump is making history as the first American president to face a criminal trial now that his so-called “hush money case” has come to trial.

The Republican, who is running for the White House once more this year, has been accused by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg of falsifying his business records, a felony in New York state, to conceal a “hush money” payment made to the porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election to ensure her silence over an extramarital affair she alleges she had with the businessman a decade earlier.

Mr Trump denies the affair and any wrongdoing in the case after being hit with 34 felony charges by Mr Bragg.

Ms Daniels, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Mr Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, ex-campaign aide Hope Hicks and perhaps even Mr Trump himself could all be compelled to appear as witnesses in what promises to be a sensational multi-week trial.

In addition to trying to win a belated second term in the Oval Office, the former president is also battling three other criminal indictments in Florida, Washington DC and Georgia and is appealing two further judgements against him in New York that required him to post multi-million dollar bonds.

His legal team has enjoyed some success in recent weeks in delaying many of the proceedings against him by subjecting the judges overseeing them to blizzards of motions seeking to have the cases dismissed or postponed.

But, in the hush money affair, Judge Juan Merchan has refused to budge, having already granted one delay from its original opening date of 25 March and despite suffering frequent attacks on his integrity from Mr Trump, who has also accused the justice’s