A New York grand jury investigating Donald Trump's role in a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels has voted to indict him, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg confirmed Thursday, making Trump the first former president to ever be charged with a crime.

Trump is expected to appear before a New York City judge on Tuesday, when he will be arraigned on the charges in the indictment, which remains under seal.

The unprecedented case involves numerous figures in Trump’s orbit. Here are the key players to know.

Donald Trump

Age: 76
You know who he is

The former president and criminal defendant said he expected to be arrested last week, calling for his supporters to “protest” any indictment.

Trump then ramped up the attacks on the probe and the district attorney, warning of “potential death & destruction” if he was charged.

Trump has denied having the affair with Daniels but also admitted to the payment.

“I never liked horse face,” Trump said at a rally in Waco, Texas, on Saturday. “That wouldn’t be the one. There is no one. We have a great first lady.”

Trump, though, was reportedly “caught off guard” by Thursday’s announcement of his indictment. According to the New York Times, Trump and his aides “were caught off guard by the timing, believing that any action by the grand jury was still weeks away and might not occur at all.”

Key quote:

“They have absolutely no case. The only witnesses are against their so-called star witness, a serial liar, convicted felon and disbarred lawyer. I did nothing wrong, and they know it.”

— Trump to reporters before the rally in Waco

Stormy Daniels

Age: 44
Adult-film actress

The hush money saga began in 2006 when Daniels — née Stephanie Clifford — said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

According to Daniels, Trump — then host of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” — invited her back to his room, where he promised to put her on television. Then, she says, they slept together.

Trump was 60 at the time of their alleged tryst. Daniels was 27. His third wife, Melania Trump, had just given birth to their son, Barron.

According to the New York Times, Trump and Daniels saw each other at least twice more in 2007: at a launch party for the short-lived Trump Vodka and at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where, she said, “they watched ‘Shark Week.’”

“But they did not sleep together again,” the paper said. “And Trump never put her on ‘The Apprentice.’”

Over the years, as Trump flirted with running for president, Daniels tried unsuccessfully to sell her story to gossip publications, including the National Enquirer. Following the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in October 2016, Daniels pitched it again to the Enquirer, which connected her with Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer and fixer, who negotiated the $130,000 deal with Daniels to keep her quiet.

Daniels met with New York prosecutors probing the hush money case earlier this month and said she would be willing to be a witness in any potential case against Trump.

Key quote:

“I have a strong stomach and no gag reflex.”

— Daniels on Twitter when asked what her alleged sexual encounter with Trump says about her

Michael Cohen

Age: 56
Trump’s former lawyer and fixer

Cohen once said he would take a bullet for Donald Trump. Not anymore. Trump’s former lawyer and fixer was sentenced to three years in 2018 for orchestrating payments to Daniels and Karen McDougal — a former Playboy model who also said she’d had an affair with Trump (more on her in a bit) — as well as for lying to Congress.

Cohen said he was directed by Trump to pay Daniels $130,000 in October 2016, and that he was reimbursed by the president after Trump took office. According to Cohen, the Trump Organization paid him $420,000 to reimburse him for the payment and to cover bonuses and other supposed expenses. The company classified those payments internally as legal expenses. The district attorney’s office has been probing whether the payment to Daniels amounted to an illegal campaign contribution, coming just days before voters headed to the polls to decide that year’s presidential election.

Cohen began cooperating with the DA’s office when he was in prison and has emerged as the key witness in Bragg’s potential case against Trump, meeting with prosecutors dozens of times and testifying twice before the grand jury. He’s also a problematic one, considering he’s a convicted liar with a well-documented vendetta against the former president. But speaking to reporters before his testimony earlier this month, Cohen insisted he had no ax to grind.

Key quote:

“This is not revenge. This is all about accountability. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds.”

— Cohen to reporters ahead of his grand jury testimony

Robert Costello

Age: 75
Lawyer

A longtime Trump ally and former adviser to Cohen testified before the grand jury last week at the behest of the former president’s lawyers in an attempt to impeach Cohen’s credibility.

Speaking to reporters after his testimony, Costello said he “told the grand jury that this guy couldn’t tell the truth if you put a gun to his head.”

“He is totally unreliable,” Costello said.

Costello — who represented former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and ex-Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon — began advising Cohen in 2018 as federal investigators were ramping up their investigation into the hush money payments. He also tried to serve as a liaison between Cohen and Trump as their relationship began to sour. Cohen declined to retain Costello as counsel in 2019.

According to Costello, Cohen told him that he paid Daniels of his own volition, contradicting Cohen’s assertion that he made the payment at the direction of Trump.

Key quote:

“If they want to go after Donald Trump and they have solid evidence, so be it. But Michael Cohen is far from solid.”

— Costello to reporters following his grand jury testimony

Alvin Bragg Jr.

Age: 49
Manhattan district attorney

The indictment handed down by a grand jury on Thursday against Trump puts the Manhattan district attorney at the center of one of the most extraordinary legal cases in American history.

A native of Harlem, Bragg was elected in 2020 promising to pursue progressive criminal justice reform. He also promised to hold the former president — a Manhattan resident until 2021 — and his company to account for a series of finance-related misdeeds.

Whether the 49-year-old Harvard-trained attorney can convince a jury that Trump broke New York law in making the payment will determine his legacy.

Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., looked at the potential case against Trump twice, and decided not to bring charges against the former president.

Since reviving the so-called zombie case, Bragg, a Democrat, has faced a barrage of attacks from Trump and his allies in Congress, who sent a letter to him last week demanding he turn over documents and other material from his investigation. Bragg responded in a letter saying he would not be intimidated.

Bragg was also the target of another threatening letter. Last week, his office received an envelope containing white powder and a note that read: “Alvin, I’m gonna kill you.” The powder turned out to be harmless.

Key quote:

“We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”

— Bragg in a statement following Trump’s call for supporters to “protest”

David Pecker

Age: 71
Former publisher of the National Enquirer

Pecker, a longtime Trump ally, has emerged as another key witness in the case.

As chief executive of American Media, the publishing company that owned the National Enquirer, Pecker allegedly helped broker the $130,000 payment to Daniels in order to suppress the story of her affair with Trump.

In a 2018 agreement with federal prosecutors, Pecker admitted that he had agreed to buy negative stories about Trump during the 2016 campaign and not publish them — a practice known as "catch and kill." As part of the immunity deal, he began cooperating with investigators in the hush money probe. Dylan Howard, American Media’s chief content officer, also reportedly cooperated in the initial federal probe.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that testimony from Pecker “tied Mr. Trump directly” to an August 2016 payment made to Karen McDougal (more on her in a minute.) The Enquirer bought the rights to McDougal’s story for $150,000 but never ran it. The Journal previously reported that Trump had asked Pecker to buy McDougal’s story in order to kill it.

Pecker testified twice before the grand jury, the second time occurring earlier this week.

Key quote:

“It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal. It’s not a fair thing.”

— Trump’s reaction in 2018 to Pecker’s plea deal with the government

Karen McDougal

Age: 52
Former Playboy model

McDougal is a former Playboy model and actress who says she had an affair with Trump, and was paid to keep quiet. Before the indictment was announced this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors in the Manhattan DA’s office had also asked witnesses who appeared before the grand jury about the $150,000 payment to McDougal by American Media.

McDougal, who was Playboy Magazine’s Playmate of the Year in 1998, has said she and Trump began a 10-month affair in 2006. Trump has denied having a relationship with McDougal.

In a 2018 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, McDougal said that Trump tried to pay her after they had sex.

Key quote:

“After we had been intimate, he tried to pay me, and I actually didn’t know how to take that.”

— McDougal to Cooper in 2018, describing her first alleged sexual encounter with Trump

Melania Trump

Age: 52
Former first lady

Melania Trump has not said much publicly about her husband's alleged affairs. But according to a recent People magazine report, the former first lady is still livid about the hush money saga.

“She remains angry and doesn’t want to hear [the alleged hush money payment] mentioned,” a source close to Melania Trump told the publication. “She is aware of who her husband is and keeps her life upbeat with her own family and a few close friends.”

Trump’s alleged tryst with Daniels took place less than four months after Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron.

According to the report, Melania and Donald live in separate quarters of their Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, though they are still often spotted eating dinner together.

Hours after news of the indictment broke, the New York Times reported that they were “seen having a very public dinner” with Melania’s parents at the club at Mar-a-Lago.

The former first lady wants to ignore the indictment and “hopes it will pass,” the source added. “But she doesn’t sympathize with Donald’s plight.”

Key quote:

“I have much more important things to think about and to do.”

— Melania Trump to ABC News in 2018 when she was asked whether her husband's alleged infidelities have put a strain on their marriage

Other key players

Allen Weisselberg

Age: 75
Former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization

According to Cohen, Weisselberg — the former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization — reimbursed him for the $130,000 payment to Daniels.

Weisselberg pleaded guilty in 2022 to tax fraud, grand larceny and other crimes in an unrelated case focusing on financial crimes by the Trump Organization. In January, he was sentenced to five months in Rikers Island prison in New York City. He began serving his sentence the same month.

As part of a plea deal, which helped Weisselberg avoid a longer prison sentence, he agreed to testify against the Trump Organization — but not against his former boss.

“It was my own personal greed that led to this,” Weisselberg testified last year during the tax fraud trial.

Unlike Cohen and Pecker, Weisselberg did not cooperate with Bragg’s investigation.

Lanny Davis

Age: 77
Lawyer for Cohen

Davis, a lawyer and Democratic political strategist, served as special counsel to then-President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 1998, and as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton during her 2008 run in the Democratic primary for president. Despite his longtime loyalty to the Clintons, Davis has insisted that his decision to represent Cohen in the hush money case was not an act of “revenge” against Trump.

“It’s about having young children and being frightened to have a president this unhinged,” Davis told the Washington Post in 2018. “I saw it as an opportunity not to bring Trump down but to offer people hope that you could fight back.”

Joe Tacopina

Age: 56
Lawyer for Trump

The New York Post once called Tacopina “the most hated lawyer in New York.” Before joining the Trump team, the criminal defense lawyer and Brooklyn native had already built up a roster of high-profile clients, including Michael Jackson, former New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder, and rap artists Jay-Z and Meek Mill, to name a few. He even represented Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalie Holloway in Aruba, who was later convicted in the murder of another woman in Peru.

Tacopina has been appearing on television in recent weeks defending Trump in the hush money case. But he also distanced himself from the former president’s tweets attacking Bragg, calling them “ill-advised.”

Alina Habba

Age: 39
Lawyer for Trump

Alina Habba, a prominent Trump lawyer and senior advisor to the former president’s political action committee, MAGA Inc., appeared on Fox News following the news of the indictment on Thursday evening. She called the Manhattan district attorney’s hush money case “legally pathetic,” and insisted that Trump “will be vindicated” at trial.

Habba, who met Trump after joining his Bedminster, N.J., golf club in 2019, was brought on to the former president’s legal team in 2021, and quickly rose to the position of top lawyer in a number of high-profile cases, including the lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump and the Trump Organization alleging financial fraud. Earlier this year, a judge in Florida sanctioned Habba and Trump, ordering them to jointly pay nearly $1 million in fines for filing “frivolous” lawsuits against Hillary Clinton, James Comey and others, who they accused of conspiring to sabotage Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Kellyanne Conway

Age: 56
Former senior counselor to Trump

According to Cohen, Conway — who managed Trump’s 2016 campaign in its final months — was the person he notified after completing the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. In his 2020 memoir “Disloyal,” Cohen wrote that he’d called Trump “to confirm that the transaction was completed, and the documentation all in place, but he didn’t take my call — obviously a very bad sign, in hindsight.”

Instead, Conway “called and said she’d pass along the good news,” according to Cohen.

Conway was seen arriving at Bragg’s office in Manhattan earlier this month for what was reportedly at least her second meeting with prosecutors investigating the hush money case.

Hope Hicks

Age: 34
Former Trump spokeswoman and White House communications director

Hicks served as the press secretary for Trump’s 2016 campaign and went on to serve in various roles in the Trump White House. According to court records from an earlier federal probe into Trump’s alleged hush money payments, which resulted in Cohen’s arrest, Hicks spoke to Trump and Cohen on the phone the same day that they learned Daniels wanted to be paid for her silence, and she also spoke to Cohen the day after he completed the $130,000 payment to Daniels’s lawyer.

Hicks, who met with prosecutors at the Manhattan district attorney’s office earlier this month, previously testified before Congress that she was unaware of the hush money payment at the time, and denied being present for any conversation between Trump and Cohen regarding the deal with Daniels.

Ron DeSantis

Age: 44
Governor of Florida

DeSantis, who is widely expected to challenge Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, needled the former president when he was initially asked about an impending indictment. “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” he said.

After news of Trump’s indictment broke, the Florida governor called Bragg’s case a “weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda,” and vowed that his state would “not assist in an extradition request.”

Cover Thumbnail Photo Illustration: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; Photos: Win McNamee/Getty Images, Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images, Marion Curtis via AP Photo, Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images, Roy Rochlin/Getty Images, Ethan Miller/Getty Images, Jefferson Siegel/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Str/Reuters, Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Joe Raedle/Getty Images)