NEW YORK – The United States made history on Tuesday with charges against former president Donald Trump in Manhattan’s criminal court, where he pleaded not guilty to falsifying business records to orchestrate payments to two women before the 2016 election to suppress publication of their sexual encounters with him.

Trump, 76, was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the case that involved adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

“I never thought anything like this could happen in America – never thought it could happen,” Trump said, in his first public remarks hours after the arraignment.

“The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” he told an audience of several hundred donors, political allies and other supporters at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.

With its first-ever prosecution of a former president, America joined the ranks of countries, from Pakistan to South Korea, that have prosecuted former leaders.

Wearing a dark blue suit and red tie, and looking grim with his hands folded, Trump, flanked by his lawyers, entered his plea.

“Not guilty,” he said when asked how he pleaded.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy said: “The defendant Donald J. Trump falsified New York business records in order to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and other violations of election laws.”

Falsifying business records in New York is on its own a misdemeanour punishable by no more than one year in prison – but it becomes a felony punishable by up to four years when done to advance or conceal another crime.

“Under New York state law, it is a felony to falsify business records with the intention of fraud and intent to conceal another crime,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told journalists after the arraignment.

“That is exactly what this case is about.”

Trump, who won the 2016 election and is the front runner in the race for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, made no comments when leaving the court, and flew back to Florida.

During the arraignment, prosecutors also referred to Trump making threatening social media posts, with Justice Juan Merchan asking the parties to “please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest”.

Earlier in the day, as his motorcade left his Fifth Avenue apartment, Trump posted on social media: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the Courthouse. Seems so SURREAL – WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America.”

Next hearing on Dec 4

Justice Merchan set the next hearing for Dec 4. Legal experts said a trial may not even get under way for a year, and indictment or even a conviction will not legally prevent Trump from running for president.

“We’re going to fight it hard,” Mr Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told reporters, adding that Trump was frustrated, upset and angry about the charges.

“But I’ll tell you what – he’s motivated. And it’s not going to stop him. And it’s not going to slow him down. And it’s exactly what he expected.”

Mr Bragg, a Democrat who pursued the case and has been accused by Trump and other Republicans of targeting the former president for political reasons, defended the charges.

“We today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law. No amount of money and no amount of power changes that enduring American principle,” Mr Bragg told a news conference.

The Manhattan grand jury convened by Mr Bragg that indicted Trump heard evidence about a US$130,000 (S$172,200) payment made to Ms Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Ms Daniels has said she was paid to keep silent about a sexual encounter she had with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006.

The former publisher of the National Enquirer, Mr David Pecker, offered to look out for negative stories during Trump’s presidential campaign, prosecutors said. American Media, its parent company, paid Ms McDougal US$150,000 to buy the rights to her story, but then kept it secret. It also paid a former Trump Tower doorman US$30,000 to buy the rights to an untrue story about a child Trump had allegedly fathered out of wedlock.

Trump’s former personal lawyer, Mr Michael Cohen, has said he coordinated with Trump on payments to Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal. Trump has denied having had a sexual relationship with either woman, but has acknowledged reimbursing Mr Cohen for his payment to Ms Daniels.

His reimbursement cheques falsely stated that the money was for a “retainer agreement”, prosecutors said. The indictment accused Trump of falsifying his real estate company’s books with intent to defraud.

One element of the charges is a method known as “catch and kill”, used by some media outlets to bury damaging information about a third party – in this case, allegedly to benefit Trump. Mr Bragg’s office did not charge Trump with violating election laws.

Trump surrendered to Mr Bragg’s office before the arraignment began in Justice Merchan’s court. At an arraignment, a defendant hears charges and can enter a plea. Trump was fingerprinted, but no mugshot photo was taken, according to a Twitter post by a New York Times reporter.

In other social media posts ahead of the arraignment, Trump renewed his attacks on Justice Merchan, who in 2022 presided over a trial in which Trump’s real estate company was convicted of tax fraud.

Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, last November announced a bid to regain the presidency in 2024, which would deny Democratic President Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020, a second term in the White House.

The White House remained mum on the drama in New York.

“I think the American people should feel reassured that when there is an ongoing case like this one that we’re just not commenting,” White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Trump faces multiple election-related investigations, but the fact that he is a front runner for the Republican nomination for the presidential election in 2024 makes his indictment particularly loaded. A conviction would not prevent him from running for, or winning, the presidency.

A CNN poll conducted after the indictment was announced last week found that 60 per cent of Americans approved of the indictment, with only 40 per cent disapproving. But 52 per cent said politics had played a “major role”.

Trump’s supporters – a majority of whom do not believe he lost the 2020 election – have rallied to his side, pumping donations into his campaign.

Firebrand ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman from Georgia seen by some as a potential running mate for Trump as he seeks the party’s nomination for the 2024 election, arrived on Tuesday morning to lead protests at a small park across the street from the courthouse.

“All these communist Democrats care about is arresting president Trump for their made-up fake crimes,” she tweeted on arrival.

The protest plan elicited a warning from New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “While there may be some rabble-rousers thinking about coming to our city... (the) message is clear and simple: Control yourselves,” he said.

But Trump pollster John McLaughlin told the Associated Press that the former president would approach the day with dignity.

“He will be a gentleman,” AP quoted him as saying. “He will show strength, and he will show dignity and... we will get through this and win the election.”

Since Monday, the courthouse has been surrounded by metal barriers and police, and ringed with media tents and cameras.

Among the pro- and anti-Trump protesters, one man – holding a sign saying “No one is above the law” and identifying himself as a retiree and human rights activist – said that “this first indictment will probably be good for Trump (politically)“.

“But the second, and the third, probably not so much,” he added, referring to the other investigations into Trump’s apparent efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, and keeping classified documents at his home.

With no sign of the imminent arrival of Trump at the courthouse, the crowd grew restless at one point amid chants of “Lock him up” by anti-Trump protesters.

The events were very much in keeping with Trump’s loud public persona. He was a reality TV star well before running for president. The media even filmed, from the air, his convoy in Florida leaving his estate for the airport.

In an online post, Professor Inderjeet Parmar, an expert in international politics at City, University of London, called the indictment a political theatre that “distracts from far-right threats to American democracy”.

But he added: “The world should take heed when one half of the US party political system no longer accepts the outcome of free and fair elections when it is on the losing end.”