The timeline of the Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels scandal: 18 years from a golf course meeting to one of the biggest trials in history

What started as a chance encounter at a charity golf tournament 18 years ago has turned into one of the biggest legal dramas in history.

On Monday, Donald Trump will become the first former president to face a criminal trial over a $130,000 hush-money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels over their alleged affair. 

The trial - set to last between six and eight weeks - will be full of bombshell testimony and drama that are the results of years of scandal.

Witnesses will testify about lurid allegations of hotel suite encounters, blockbuster TV interviews and backroom deals involving the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

The case revolves around the payment made to Daniels by Trump's then-fixer Michel Cohen ahead of the 2016 presidential election to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

She claims it occurred less than four months after Melania Trump gave birth to the couple's son , Barron. 

Since then there have been legal twists and turns at every corner, while Trump has spent four years in the White House and is now in the middle of bid for another term.

Stormy Daniels with Donald Trump in 2006. She alleges they had an affair after meeting at a golf tournament 

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to cover up the hush money payment. Each count carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

He has denied all the counts and has vowed to testify to defend himself against what he claims is a witch hunt by prosecutors out to get him.

Prosecutors will try and argue that his crimes, that would ordinarily be misdemeanors, rise to felonies because he used the payments to help win the 2016 election.

During the trial he will be kept away from the campaign trail as he prepares for his likely November rematch with President Joe Biden.

The political powerhouse who made his name in Manhattan as a real estate mogul has tried to push the case as close to and even beyond the November 5 general election.

Judges have slapped down multiple attempts by him to delay the trial and he still claims he can't 

As Manhattan prepares for jury selection on Monday, Daily Mail.com has put together a timeline of how Trump's alleged affair with Daniels unfolded and led to the political trial of the century.

Daniels claims she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006. The former president has always denied anything happened between them

A $75,000 check from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust was made out to Michael Cohen and dated 2/14/17

July 2006 

Adult film star Stormy Daniels first met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada when she was 27-years-old.

Daniels later told 60 Minutes in a 2018 interview that the then-businessman invited her to dinner.

When she went to Trump's hotel suite to meet him Trump was not dressed to go out and said he had meant they would have dinner in the room, Daniels said. She said they ended up having sex.

Daniels claims he later invited her to a Trump Vodka launch party in California as well as his office in New York City. 

At the time Trump was already married to Melania Trump who several months earlier gave birth to his fifth child Barron Trump. 

July 2007

Daniels said Trump asked her to meet him at his bungalow in the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

The meeting was to discuss a possible appearance in a spinoff of 'Celebrity Apprentice.'

According to Daniels the two spent four hours together but did not have sex. 

May 2011

Daniels gave an interview to In Touch magazine in which she discussed in depth her first meeting with Trump and alleged sexual encounter.

But the interview never appeared in print after Trump's lawyers reportedly threatened to sue. The full interview ended up running in 2018.

June 2015

Trump makes his way down the escalator in Trump Tower in New York City and announces he is running in the Republican presidential race. 

Trump announcing he is running for president at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015

June 2016

Actress and former Playboy model Karen McDougal offers to sell her story of an alleged 10-month affair she had with Trump in 2006 and 2007, while he was married to Melania.

Attorney Keith Davidson represented her.

In a 2018 interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, she said she was in love with the then-reality star and their relationship was 'real'.

She also alleges they had unprotected sex dozens of times. In the end she was the one who broke off the relationship, she claims.

Afterwards she moved on with actor Bruce Willis, who she was pictured with vacationing in Italy in August 2007. 

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal with Donald Trump. She claimed they had an affair that started in 2006

McDougal said in 2018 she was in love with then-reality star Trump and their relationship was 'real'

July 2016

Trump officially becomes the Republican presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention.

He had already been the presumptive nominee having secured enough delegates for the nomination in May. 

The polls at the time show he was heading for defeat against Hillary Clinton, but he remained steadfast in his hopes that he was heading for a victory.

In one of the crowning moments of the convention in Cleveland, he joined wife Melania on stage after she spoke to a crowd of his excited supporters.

Daniels claims her encounter with Trump was shortly after they had their son Barron. 

2016: Trump officially becomes the Republican presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention

August 2016

The National Enquirer obtains the exclusive rights to McDougal's story for $150,000. 

But her claims of an affair are never published and, according to prosecutors, were suppressed in a tabloid practice known as 'catch and kill.'

September 2016

Trump's then fixer Michael Cohen reaches an agreement to secure the deal with McDougal but it is never finalized.

October 2016

Cohen is put in touch with Davidson by the magazine and reaches a deal to pay Daniels $130,000 in return for her signing a non-disclosure agreement.  

Cohen sets up a Delaware-based company called Essential Consultants LLC in Delaware and deposits in the account $131,000 that he obtained through a home equity line of credit. He then wires $130,000 from Essential Consultants to Davidson.

An agreement is then drawn up using the aliases 'Peggy Peterson' for Daniels and 'David Dennison' for Trump.

November 4, 2016

Details of the deal between McDougal and AMI are published by the Wall Street Journal four days before the election.

The Trump campaign refutes claims of an affair as 'totally untrue'.

The newspaper also reports that Daniels had been in talks with ABC's 'Good Morning America' for an interview.

November 8, 2016

Trump wins the presidential election defeating Hillary Clinton.

Trump giving his acceptance speech in the early hours of November 9 after winning

January 2017

An arrangement is put in place to pay Cohen for the $130,000 of his own money he spent.

Cohen seeks the $130,000 plus $50,000.

The Trump Organization then decides to pay him $420,000 over the course of a year.

Cohen submits invoices for $35,000 each month for 12 months.

January 20 2017

Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of The United States.

January 2018

The existence of $130,000 payment to Daniels is reported for the first time by the Wall Street Journal.

Reports of an affair with Daniels are 'vehemently denied' by Trump.

February 2018

Cohen admits making the payment but says he was not reimbursed and it was lawful and 'not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.'

In a letter to federal authorities, he contradicted grand jury testimony that Trump got him to pay $130,000 to Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with the real estate mogul, just days before the 2016 presidential election.

He says Trump reimbursed him with personal funds, and later pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law over the hush money. 

The letter appears to be in direct conflict with Cohen’s sworn testimony to Congress given a year later. Cohen said under oath that Trump ‘asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair,’ and that ‘Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign'

March 2018

Daniels sues Trump and Essential Consultants to have the the nondisclosure agreement quashed.

She argues it has no force because Trump - aka David Dennison - did not sign it.

In her legal filing she claims to have had an 'intimate relationship' with Trump in 2006 and 2007.

She claims Cohen paid her $130,000 not to talk about it and that he used 'intimidation.'

Daniels is represented in the case by lawyer Michael Avenatti who becomes a familiar face on TV screens.

April 2018

Trump make his first public comment and says he was not aware of the $130,000 being paid.

The FBI raids Cohen's home and office.

After Trump calls Daniels a 'total con job' she sues him for defamation.

Stormy Daniels exiting district court in New York City on April 16, 2018

May 2018

Trump says he did reimburse Cohen for the $130,000.

On Twitter he says it was done in a monthly retainer which was 'not from the campaign.'

August 2018

Cohen pleads guilty to eight federal charges including campaign finance violations over the payments made to Daniels and McDougal.

Cohen says he was directed by Trump to pay the money.

October 2018

The defamation case brought by Daniels against Trump is thrown out by a judge and she is ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in legal fees.

December 2018

Cohen is jailed for three years.

Michael Cohen on December 12, 2018 after being sentenced to three years in prison

Trump's disgraced fixer is seen driving into Ottisville prison in New York in 2019

August 2019

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. issues subpoenas to obtain from the Trump Organization any records of the payments to Cohen, and also the president's tax records.

Trump sues to block the effort claiming he is immune from criminal proceedings while president.

July 2020

The U.S. Supreme Court decides Trump is not immune.

February 2021

The investigators obtain Trump's tax returns.

November 2021

Alvin Bragg becomes the new Manhattan district attorney.

Cohen is released after serving much of his sentence under house arrest.

January 2023

Bragg resurrects the hush money case which has been referred to as a 'zombie case'.

He meets with Cohen and convenes a grand jury.

March 2023

Cohen testifies to the grand jury and investigators from Bragg's office speak to Daniels.

Trump declines to testify to the grand jury and on social media says he is a victim of political persecution.

He is then indicted but the charges are not immediately detailed.

April 2023

Trump pleads not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Donald Trump heading into criminal court on April 4, 2023 for his arraignment

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg at a press conference after Trump is arraigned on April 4, 2023

April 2024

The hush money trial is set to begin in New York City.