Joe Sommerlad has the story.

In a further Truth Social post, the former president pushed a paragraph from a New York Times article reviewing the legal intricacies of the case against him.

The New York Times: “A New York Times review and interviews with election law experts strongly suggest that New York state prosecutors have never before filed an election law case involving a federal campaign. Bringing an untested case against anyone, let alone a former president of the United States, carries the risk that a court could throw out or narrow the case.”

Former president Donald Trump is up and “truthing” this morning, first declaring his innocence:

Every article I read, every show I watch, even the so-called Haters say that “President Trump did nothing wrong, there IS NO CRIME HERE!” As Biden would say, “No, I mean it, I’m not kidding.” The Crime would be if I get charged!!!

He again attacked “rogue prosecutor” Alvin Bragg for building a case against him rather than fighting violent crime, which he claims is destroying New York.

The Rogue prosecutor, who is having a hard time with the Grand Jury, especially after the powerful testimony against him by Felon Cohen’s highly respected former lawyer, is attempting to build a case that has NEVER BEEN BROUGHT BEFORE AND ACTUALLY, CAN’T BE BROUGHT. If he spent this time, effort, and money on fighting VIOLENT CRIME, which is destroying NYC, our once beautiful and safe Manhattan, which has become an absolute HELLHOLE, would be a much better place to live!

As a resident of Manhattan for 13 years, I dispute this characterisation.

Donald Trump’s so-called “billion-dollar lawyer” was left sputtering and stumbling during a television interview after being asked if his client was the victor in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.

Drew Findling, the famed Georgia defence attorney Mr Trump retained to represent him in a potential criminal case that could be brought against him by Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis, appeared on MSNBC on Tuesday night - as the former president faces a potential indictment in another case in New York.

MSNBC anchor Ari Melber appeared stunned by Mr Findling’s desire not to “start getting into political statements” considering the politically charged nature of the case that could be filed against his client, who in late 2020 and early 2021 was caught on tape trying to pressure Georgia officials to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the state.

“This is about the case,” said Mr Melber, who called the question of 2020 election results “an easy one” before asking Mr Findling again whether Mr Trump was the victor in the last Georgia presidential contest.

Read the full story here:

About half of Americans believe a New York investigation into whether Donald Trump paid hush money to a porn star is politically motivated, but a large majority find the allegations believable, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll found.

The two-day poll, which concluded on Tuesday, found 54 per cent of respondents — including 80 per cent of the former president’s fellow Republicans and 32 per cent of Democrats — said politics was driving the criminal case being weighed by a Manhattan grand jury.

Seventy percent of respondents, and half of Republicans, said it was believable that Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign paid the adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter.

Some 62 per cent of respondents, including a third of Republicans, said it was also believable that Trump falsified business records and committed fraud.

The findings underscore the unprecedented nature of the criminal probes surrounding Trump as he seeks the Republican nomination to run for the White House again in 2024.

No US president has ever faced criminal charges in court.

Few Republicans have criticised former president Donald Trump more than Senator Mitt Romney. The 2012 Republican nominee for president and current Utah Senator voted to convict Mr Trump in his impeachment trial in 2020 and his impeachment after the January 6 riot in 2021.

“You know, I’ll have something for you if and when that occurs, but it hasn’t and so I got nothing,” he told The Independent.

Read more from Eric Garcia.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels mocked Donald Trump in a string of tweets as the former president is expecting rumoured criminal charges in a hush money probe regarding payments made to Ms Daniels and another woman during the course of the 2016 campaign.

“Anything exciting going on today?” Ms Daniels wrote on Twitter, a cheeky reference to the potential arrest of Mr Trump.

In another post yesterday, Ms Daniels mocked Mr Trump, calling him “tiny” and describing how, “I won’t walk, I’ll dance down the street when he is ‘selected’ to go to jail.”

Joe Sommerlad has more.

Donald Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina’s once called the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels “illegal”.

In a 2018 panel discussion on CNN – which resurfaced this week – Mr Tacopina said that the payments and alleged falsification of records about the money was an “illegal agreement” and “fraud”.

“I mean, you know, once that net is out, once the microscope is on you, everything is fair game,” he said.

“And it’s hard to argue, ‘oh, you can’t look at this or you can’t look at that’. So, yes, if there’s an issue with that payment to Stormy Daniels being that it was made on behalf of the candidate. Okay. And it was not declared. That’s fair game. Unfortunately, if that’s the case.”

He added: “And you know, quite frankly, you know, Michael Cohen, again has made statements that would give rise to suspicion.

“For any prosecutor to say that doesn’t make sense, that a lawyer took out a home equity loan with his own money, paid somebody that he didn’t even know on behalf of a client who, by the way, had the wherewithal and the money to afford $130,000.

“And, by the way, didn’t tell the client about the settlement agreement. It’s an illegal agreement. It’s a fraud, if that’s, in fact, the case. It doesn’t pass the straight-face test, and quite frankly, if that is what happened, we have a potential campaign finance issue,” he added.

When reached by The Independent for comment, Mr Tacopina emphasised that twice during his 2018 appearance he made the statement: “If that is in fact the case”

“I was opining on a hypothetical that was posed by the host without [knowing] any of the facts. That is [why] I qualified my statements. The facts as I have now learned clearly show, that is NOT in fact the case,” he said in an email.

“My mind hadn’t changed about the issue but what has changed is that I learned the facts.

“My response was based on a hypothetical question … which is why I qualified my response TWICE.”

Across far-right social media accounts and message boards reviewed by The Independent, the former president’s prediction of his own arrest was the evidence they needed to support long-running conspiracy theories that Democratic officials and President Joe Biden’s administration have weaponised the federal government against him.

But unlike the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, which was organised openly across social media platforms, discussion of protesting Mr Trump’s potential arrest has largely revolved around denouncing the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation and echoing the former president’s incendiary and dramatic rhetoric about the state of the US.

Alex Woodward reports.

Stormy Daniels says she will “dance down the street” if or when Donald Trump is sent “to jail”.

“Sooo...tiny paid me to frame himself? You sound even dumber than he does during his illiterate ramblings. And I won’t walk, I’ll dance down the street when he is “selected” to go to jail,” she tweeted.