Trump’s Criminal Trial Starts Monday: Get Up to Speed with Our Prior Coverage of Bragg’s ‘Hush Money’ Case

On Monday, Donald Trump becomes the first former American president and the first (presumptive) major-party presidential nominee in American history to face a criminal trial. The so-called hush-money case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected progressive Democrat known for his predisposition against prosecution and incarceration (at least in cases not involving Democrats’ political enemies).

We’ve been all over this at National Review from the start. It will likely take a few days to pick a jury (we’ll hopefully have a better sense of the pace at the end of Monday’s session). Unlike civil trials, defendants are expected to be present in court during the entirety of criminal trials. Judge Juan Merchan has said he will sit four days per week — there will not be trial sessions on Wednesdays. It’s not clear to me whether that includes during jury selection. As of now, the trial will not be televised.

If you’d like to get up to speed, I’m linking below to most of the columns and Corner posts I’ve done on the case since it became clear that Bragg had decided to seek an indictment in 2023 after seemingly shelving the investigation a year earlier:

NY Appeals Judge Denies Trump Delay Effort

Trump’s Futile Gambit to Forestall Monday’s Trial

Judge Merchan Peddles Dem Narrative: Trump’s “Federal Insurrection Matter”

Injustice of the Trump Gag Order

Trump Goads Judge Merchan into Gagging Him

Trump’s Imminent Criminal Trial — April 15 in Manhattan

Bragg Falsifies Business-Records Charges against Trump

Yeah, Michael Cohen Should Be a Great Witness in Bragg’s Trump Trial

Trump’s Manhattan Trial Postponed until Mid-April

Bragg Seeks 30-Day Delay in Trump Trial

Weisselberg Pleads Guilty, Will Be Sentenced in the Middle of Trump’s Criminal Trial

Bragg Gears Up for Imminent Trial: Trump CFO Pleading Guilty to Perjury

Alvin Bragg Prepares Criminal Version of AG James’s Civil Annihilation of Trump

Statute of Limitations and Bragg’s Trump Indictment

As Cop-Beating Aliens Go Free, DA Bragg Plans Another Prosecution of Trump’s 76-Year-Old CFO

Jordan Brings Judiciary Committee Probe of Progressive Prosecutors to Bragg’s Backyard

Judge Rebuffs Bragg’s Lawsuit against Jordan, but Former ADA’s Deposition on Hold

Hearing Day in Bragg v. Jordan

Bragg and Jordan Settle . . . at Least for Now

House GOP Errs in Demanding Bragg Testify about Trump Case

More Farce: Bragg’s Lawsuit against Trump’s House GOP Allies

GOP Beware: Bragg’s Case Is Just the Start of Trump’s Legal Jeopardy

What to Make of 34 Counts against Trump? That Bragg Just Needs One

Bragg Shouldn’t Be Prosecuting Trump Absent a Serious Crime and Strong Evidence

Bragg’s ‘Indictment’ Even Fails as an Indictment

Bragg Crosses the Rubicon, Indicting Trump on Stormy Daniels Nonsense

What’s Going on in Bragg’s Grand Jury Investigation of Trump

Alvin Bragg Should Suspend His Trump Pursuit

Progressive Democrat Bragg’s Motivation in Nakedly Political Indictment of Trump

Alvin Bragg Goes Full Captain Ahab on Trump

I’d also highly recommend Dan’s characteristically stellar five-part series on various legal problems with the indictment – here’s part five, which links to the series’ first four installments.