Mr Trump allegedly paid Ms Daniels (real brand Stephanie Clifford) to hold tranquil about an affair they had. Since the payment was made a month before the election, it could be considered a campaign violation.

On Saturday, March 18, Mr Trump said in a social media post that the “leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States will be arrested on Tuesday of next week”.

If Mr Trump is arrested and later convicted, he would be the first former president to be charged with a criminal offence.

He’s also seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, so his potential arrest could acquire a considerable impact on his campaign.

Timeline of the Trump-Daniels case

2006

Ms Daniels previously told reporters that she met Mr Trump at a charity golf tournament in July 2006. She alleged that the pair had sex at his hotel room at Lake Tahoe. He was 60 at the time and she was 27.

Mr Trump was already married to his wife, Melania Trump, at the time Ms Daniels alleges the affair happened.

2011

In 2011, Ms Daniels agreed to an interview with In Touch magazine about the affair, and later said that she was approached by an unkown man soon after and told to “leave Trump alone”.

In a 2018 interview with Anderson Cooper, she claimed that during the 2011 incident, (where her young daughter was present) the same man told her: “That’s a gorgeous dinky girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”

2016

In October 2016, days before Mr Trump was elected president, Ms Daniels said she was paid $130,000 by Mr Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, to hold tranquil about the alleged affair.

March 2018

In 2018, while Mr Trump was president, Ms Daniels gave an interview on 60 Minutes.

Shortly beforehand, a shell company linked to Trump’s lawyer Mr Cohen threatened her with a $20 million lawsuit. It claimed that she had broken their non-disclosure deal.

August 2018

Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and breaking campaign finance rules.

He initially claimed that Mr Trump wasn’t involved in the payment, but later said that Mr Trump had directed him to pay Ms Daniels.

Mr Cohen also said that the then president paid him back, with Mr Trump recording payments as “legal fees.”

Mr Trump wrote on social media that the money came from him, insisting the payments were not a campaign violation.

October 2018

Ms Daniels published a memoir, Full Disclosure, in which she wrote about her alleged affair with Mr Trump.

January 2023

In January, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, convened a grand jury to evaluate the evidence in the “hush money” case.

March 2023

Mr Trump was invited to testify before a grand jury investigating the Daniels case.

With speculation that Mr Trump could be arrested this week, considerable US cities including recent York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC are increasing police presence to prepare for potential unrest.

If Mr Trump is arrested and charged, he could be taken to the Manhattan Criminal Court, where steel barricades acquire been erected.