Former President Donald Trump was indicted in New York City today on criminal charges arising from alleged hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to avoid a scandal ahead of the 2016 US election.
Ms Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Mr Trump in 2006, the year after he married his third wife Melania and more than a decade before the businessman-turned-politician - at the time known for a popular reality TV show - became president.
Mr Trump has denied the relationship and has said the payment was made to stop her "false and extortionist accusations".
Here are details about Ms Daniels and her alleged relationship with Mr Trump.
Stormy Daniels, adult film star
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is 44 years old and from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
She has been a well-known personality for more than two decades in the adult film business, appearing in and directing numerous videos.
What she says she did with Trump
Ms Daniels has said she was introduced to Mr Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
She said he invited her to dinner and they dined at his hotel suite. She said the two had consensual sex.
Ms Daniels said Mr Trump made telephone calls to her over the following year and she met him again at his request in July 2007 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles to discuss her possible appearance on Celebrity Apprentice.
She said he wanted to have sex again at the hotel but she declined. She said Mr Trump called her a month later to tell her he had not been able to get her booked on Celebrity Apprentice.
Read more:
Donald Trump indictment: The storm begins
New York grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump
At a glance: Donald Trump's legal troubles
What's next following Donald Trump indictment?
Payment and non-disclosure agreement
On 28 October 2016, in the waning days before the presidential election that Mr Trump won, Ms Daniels signed a non-disclosure agreement in which she pledged not to publicly discuss her relationship with him in exchange for a $130,000 payment, according to documents filed in Los Angeles federal court.
The pact was signed by Keith Davidson, her lawyer at the time, and Michael Cohen, then Mr Trump's personal lawyer and fixer. The document included a spot for Mr Trump's signature, but he never signed it.
In 2018, after the Wall Street Journal reported on the payment to Ms Daniels, Mr Cohen stated publicly that he paid her using his own money and was not directed to do so by Mr Trump.
Ms Daniels sued Mr Trump and Mr Cohen seeking to have the agreement invalidated.
Mr Trump's lawyers subsequently acknowledged he did not sign the non-disclosure agreement and would not seek to enforce it. A judge dismissed her lawsuit because the matter was resolved.
Defamation lawsuit
Ms Daniels filed a 2018 defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump in federal court over a Twitter post in which he accused her of a "con job" after she described being threatened over publicising her account of an alleged sexual relationship with him.
A Los Angeles-based federal judge decided in 2018 that Mr Trump's remarks were not defamatory and were protected by the US Constitution's First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. The judge's decision was upheld on appeal and the US Supreme Court in 2021 declined to review the matter.
Ms Daniels has said an unknown man approached her and her infant daughter in 2011 in a Las Vegas car park and made threats after she agreed to talk about her relationship with Mr Trump in a media interview.
In 2018, she released a sketch of the man. Mr Trump responded on Twitter to the release of the sketch, writing: "A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!"
