And we are on the air, obviously, with a truncated version of Meet the Press.

Now, literally, picking up coverage where we just left off, I'm Chuck Todd.

I've been reporting here in Washington on this historic day.

As Donald Trump became the first former president in the United States, ever to appear in court,

having to face a criminal charge, Donald Trump wasn't just a former president when he appeared in court today.

He's also an active current candidate for President of the United States.

He's arguably the frontrunner for the Republican nomination right now.

And he holds considerable sway over his party.

These are pictures of Mr. Trump inside that Manhattan courtroom a short time ago,

where, after nearly a week of speculation, we found out what charges he would face.

34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree,

all of which the former president pled not guilty to.

This indictment is focused on the Stormy Daniels case.

There was no specific conspiracy count included in it.

But in the statement of facts, there seems to be an implication of a conspiracy for what that's worth.

Perhaps a more telling document is the statement of facts.

It was released alongside the indictment itself.

And it's the statement that describes a so-called conspiracy of a catch and kill scheme.

It accuses the former president of orchestrating the scheme with others

to influence a 2016 presidential election,

in an attempt to suppress any negative information about Trump with the national inquire,

basically, it's the magnet as people tried to sell their stories.

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