Donald Trump’s first criminal trial is now well underway. Widely expected to last between six and eight weeks, the former President will be stuck in the courtroom as the US Presidential election looms closer. Charged with 34 counts of fraud, Trump has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he paid “hush money” to the adult-film actress, Stormy Daniels, only 11 days before the 2016 Presidential election.

References to the case as the “hush money trial” are, however, misleading. The act of paying $130,000 to another person for their silence isn’t the detail of the case that is under scrutiny. Rather, it is how Trump made them. The prosecution intends to prove that Trump falsified business records by having his attorney, Michael Cohen, pay the money, which he then paid back disguised as legal fees.

New York’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, has argued that the payments are a form of campaign expenditure which were designed to influence the election as voters were denied information of Trump’s 2006 encounter with the actress.

Of the four criminal cases in which Trump is facing, the so-called “hush money” trial is legally the weakest. Often, the misreporting of business records is classed as a misdemeanour under New York state law, which could leave the case branded a political ‘witch-hunt’ – a phrase often employed by Trump.

The first week delivered many interesting takeaways. After opening statements set the trial up as one questioning election interference vs nothing to see, the prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, told the jury that Trump had attempted to interfere with the election while the defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, said there was nothing wrong with influencing an election – claiming that this was “democracy.”

The real damage to Trump’s case came when the prosecution called their first witness, the former National Enquirer publisher, David Pecker. Pecker told the jury that he performed “catch and kill” for Trump by purchasing stories and refusing to publish them in return for information about the celebrity world. Despite Pecker’s attempts, the jury heard how Trump was “upset” when the Wall Street Journal published a story regarding his affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, a story Pecker told the court he had brought on Trump’s behalf.

The second week of the trial proved no better for the defence as Judge Merchan issued Trump with a $1000 fine for each of his nine separate violations of the gag order, threatening him with “incarceration punishment” if he continued “willful violations”. The week only got worse for Trump as his former aide, Hope Hicks, took the stand. Hick’s testimony discussed the effect the McDougal affair and the Access Hollywood tape, a recording of Trump discussing sexually assaulting women, had on the 2016 campaign. Ultimately, it was a damaging testimony as Hick’s admitted that paying off threats to Trump to protect him was not something fitting with Cohen’s character, suggesting that Trump would have been aware of the actions taken by his “fixer”.

For a man so used to having his way, the trial will prove a test for Donald Trump who has already had to ask for permission to attend his son’s high school graduation. Not to mention the inconvenience of spending the coming months in the courtroom while his political opponent takes to the campaign trail. Despite all facing him, Trump’s support remains strong, and if a jail term is imposed, it would set a precedent if he became the first president to be convicted following criminal charges.