Donald J. Trump, who has weathered two impeachment trials, a special counsel inquiry and decades of investigations, was accused by Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday of orchestrating a hush-money scheme to pave his path to the presidency and then covering it up from the White House.

Trump pleaded not guilty in the case, which has far-reaching political consequences and opens a perilous chapter in the long public life of the real estate mogul and former President, who now faces the embarrassing prospect of a criminal trial.

Trump, who was indicted on 34 felony counts and stands accused of covering up a potential sex scandal involving a porn star, made an extraordinary appearance at the Criminal Courts Building in Lower Manhattan to face the charges. Even as Trump’s supporters rallied outside, the former President sat, almost docile, at the defence table, listening as prosecutors described the case against him.

Overall he said fewer than a dozen words, but at one point leaned forward and entered his plea of “not guilty” in the packed but pin-drop-quiet courtroom, a surreal scene for a man who months ago mounted a third run for the White House.

The hearing was also momentous for the prosecutor who brought the case, Manhattan district attorney Alvin L. Bragg. Afterwards, he made his first remarks since the indictment, punctuating a proceeding that gave his liberal Manhattan base a long-awaited moment of catharsis: Trump’s first day in court as a criminal defendant.

“Everyone stands equal under the law,” Bragg, a Democrat, said at a media conference after the arraignment. “No amount of money and no amount of power” changes that, he added.

During the hearing, one of the prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Chris Conroy, brought up threatening posts that Trump has made online in past weeks, including writing that “death and destruction” would follow if he were to be charged.

In response, the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, addressed Trump’s lawyers, telling them: “Please speak to your client and anybody else you need to, and remind them to please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest.”

With the charges now unsealed, the public can delve deeper into the details of a tawdry tale of sex, lies and intrigue that seems to have sprung from a gossip column and ended up in a felony indictment. The central players in the case are a stranger-than-fiction trio: the porn star, the hangdog fixer who paid her off and the former President who stands accused of trying to cover the whole thing up.

After returning to Florida on Tuesday, just hours after Justice Merchan cautioned him against incendiary rhetoric, Trump lashed out at Bragg, the judge and their families.

Trump was accompanied in court by his legal adviser, Boris Epshteyn, and the lawyers handling this case, Todd W. Blanche, Susan R. Necheles and Joseph Tacopina.

Blanche, speaking outside the courthouse after the arraignment, said the former President was determined to prevail. “He’s frustrated. He’s upset. But I will tell you what. He is motivated. It’s not going to slow him down,” he said.

The charges against Trump trace to a $130,000 hush-money payment that his fixer, Michael D. Cohen, made to the porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. The payment, which Cohen said he made at Trump’s direction, suppressed her story of a sexual liaison with Trump.

While serving as the commander in chief, Trump reimbursed Cohen, and that’s where the fraud kicked in, prosecutors say. In internal records, Trump’s company falsely classified the repayment to Cohen as legal expenses, citing a retainer agreement. Yet there were no such expenses, the prosecutors say, and the retainer agreement was fictional as well.

New York Times News Service