Donald Trump arrived at a Manhattan courtroom Monday morning to watch jury selection begin in his hush-money trial, briefly speaking outside and calling the case an "assault on America," reports the Hill. And it's not just any trial, of course, but the "first criminal trial of an American president," notes the New York Times.
- Why we're here: Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, per CNN. The most high-profile allegation is that Trump, via former "fixer" Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the final days of the 2016 campaign to cover up an affair and fudged documents to hide the nature of the payment.