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Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records on Tuesday at a court in New York, as he became the first former US president in history to be charged with a crime.

Prosecutors say that the hush money payments, allegedly made to two women ahead of the 2016 presidential election, were part of a conspiracy to influence the vote by silencing claims of extramarital affairs.

Speaking at a rally on his return to Florida, the state in which Mr Trump resides, the former president attacked prosecutor Alvin Bragg, accusing him of ties to the Democratic party.

On the programme we spoke to Rina Shah, former adviser to the Republican Party, who said that the party used to be the party of family values.

"Today the charges were unsealed, and this was really big... Will the electorate writ large come to know what the former president was guilty of doing when he was guilty of doing it? Will it have an impact on what used to be known as the party of family values, the Republican party?"

(Photo shows: Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in court for an arraignment on charges stemming from his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City, U.S., April 4, 2023. Credit: Reuters)

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