Donald Trump has become the first current or former US president to be charged with a crime.

The 76-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony accounts. All together, the charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 136 years, however, it's expected that Trump would receive far less than that if found guilty in court.

The charges accuse Trump of three different incidents of giving hush money payments to women whom he had alleged affairs with.

The former president has also been charged for fabricating business records and conspiracy for his alleged role in hush money payments.

From August 2015 to December 2017, Trump allegedly issued a series of payments that he is said to have concealed through months of fabricated business entries.

In the first instance, American Media Inc allegedly paid $30,000 (£24,000) to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock.

Secondly, AMI allegedly paid $150,000 (£120,000) to a woman who alleged she had a sexual relationship with Trump.

In the third instance, and 12 days before the presidential general election, Trump's special counsel allegedly wired $130,000 (£104,000) to a lawyer for an adult film actress.

In total, 11 cheques were allegedly issued for phoney purposes.

After announcing the indictment, District Attorney Bragg said: "The People of the State of New York allege that Donald J Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."

"We cannot allow New York businesses to manipulate their records to cover up criminal conduct. As the Statement of Facts describes, the trail of money and lies exposes a pattern that, the people allege, violates one of New York's basic and fundamental business laws"

"As this office has done time and time again, we today uphold our solemn responsibility to ensure that everyone stands equal before the law," he said.