Trump arrest as it happened: Former US president says ‘our country is going to hell’ after surrendering over alleged Stormy Daniels payment

Another unprecedented day in US politics, with Donald Trump appearing in court as a criminal defendant, facing 34 charges relating to alleged hush money payments.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Brag says the payments formed part of a “catch and kill” scheme used by Trump and his associates in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election to “identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects”.

During his court appearance, Trump pleaded not guilty, returning to his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago and launching an attack on Bragg, Juan Merchan who is the judge who is overseeing the case and their families.

Thankfully, fears of civil unrest and violent protests have so far not amounted to anything.

As the Trump arraignment unfolded, Wisconsin voters elected a liberal to the state’s Supreme Court, which could have implications for the 2024 presidential election.

Janet Protasiewicz has been elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, flipping control to a liberal majority ahead of rulings that could play a role in the 2024 presidential election.

(In the US some states elect Supreme Court justices while other states appoint them.)

Protasiewicz defeated conservative candidate Daniel Kelly in what New York University’s Brennan Centre for Justice called the most expensive judicial election in US history.

The public has picked up on one detail of the Manhattan hearing -- the moment Trump came into the courtroom.

One piece of footage appears to show that no one held the door for the ex-president as he entered.

Others took note...

Trump says his case is being overseen by a judge who hates him. So who is Justice Juan Merchan?

Merchan last year oversaw a criminal trial of the Trump Organisation that ended with the real estate company convicted by a jury of tax fraud and hit with fines, while one of its longtime executives, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and was sent to jail.

Merchan sentenced the Trump Organisation to pay $US1.6 million after jurors convicted the company in December. The judge also sentenced Weisselberg – who long served as an executive under Trump but was the prosecution’s star witness in the trial – to five months of incarceration.

The Trump Organisation trial is not Merchan’s only recent encounter with people close to the former president. Merchan is also presiding over a criminal case involving former Trump campaign and White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud related to a nonprofit that raised funds for building a wall on the US border with Mexico.

Some reactions to Donald Trump’s arraignment: