In a spectacle playing out on live television, with rival protesters rallying outside, the hearing marks a watershed moment for the US criminal and political system, with the potential to upset the 2024 White House race in which Trump is currently the leading Republican nominee.
The seventy six-year-old Trump is expected to plead not guilty to a host of charges related to hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election that brought him to power.
