Donald Trump has weathered two impeachment trials, a special counsel inquiry and decades of investigations but it appears his luck has run out. On Tuesday, Trump was accused of engineering a hush-money scheme to pave his path to the presidency and then covering it up from the White House. He pled not guilty, which has far-reaching consequences for his political career, opening a perilous chapter in the long life of the real estate mogul and former president who now faces the embarrassing possibility of a prolonged criminal trial. Inside the Criminal Courts Building in Manhattan where Trump was indicted, the former President sat, almost docile and lifeless, saying fewer than a dozen words, as if stunned by the accusations against him or perhaps stunned that they were able to get him inside a courtroom at all. Later, he would call the case a criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the Democrats to interfere with next year’s presidential election. Of course, he’s using social media to spite those prosecuting him even though these are the kind of charges that normal people go to jail for. The case against the former President hinges on a hush-money payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, who he was having an affair with, made before the 2016 presidential election. While the payment itself wasn’t illegal, the failure to disclose it as a personal expense rather than a business one violates federal campaign finance law and is grounds for criminal indictment. America has been pulled into the uncharted political territory-even Nixon, one of three other American presidents to be impeached, was given a full and free pardon from President Ford that ended any possibility of criminal prosecution. But the political landscape in America was very different back then, not nearly as polarised. While the charges against Trump relate to the payment to Daniels, prospectors have also released background documents which allegedly point to a pattern of trying to suppress politically damaging stories. The Stormy Daniels case is only the tip of the iceberg-and even if he isn’t found guilty, the prolonged legal battle itself is enough to derail his political career, adding a new layer of turmoil to his party’s primary. *