Jury selection in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial officially kicks off Monday in New York City! This is the one about the alleged hush money payments—Trump is accused of violating New York’s campaign finance laws by paying off porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her from talking about an affair she claims to have had with the former president. Trump denies the affair, but his former fixer Michael Cohen says Trump instructed him to pay Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 general election. And once Trump was elected president, he paid Cohen back. Trump claimed the reimbursement was in no way connected to his campaign.

Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with 34 felony counts, arguing the payments to Daniels amount to falsifying business records in the first degree.

There’s a whole host of colorful characters involved in this trial, and we’ll be hearing a lot more about them over the next six weeks. In case you have trouble keeping everyone straight, here’s a guide to help you out.

Role: Manhattan district attorney, and the prosecutor who’s bringing the case against Trump

Known for: Bragg is a seasoned attorney and a lifelong New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn. He graduated from Harvard University, and shortly after started working on white-collar crimes, eventually moving up as a federal prosecutor under Preet Bharara, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bragg continued on to serve as assistant attorney general at the state AG’s office, and that’s where he really became familiar with Trump. Bragg led the team that successfully sued the Trump Foundation and Trump University, while also helping New York state sue the Trump administration over 100 times. In 2020, Bragg launched his first bid for public office and won with 83 percent of the vote, becoming the first Black district attorney of Manhattan. And despite some internal back-and-forth over whether Trump’s hush money case should move forward, Bragg stuck with the case and ended up indicting the former president last year.

Current status: After some heated back-and-forth between Trump’s lawyers and Bragg, the DA managed to minimize delays to the hush money trial and argued it should start on April 15. Bragg is expected to be in the courtroom throughout the trial.

Role: Acting justice of the New York Supreme Court who will be presiding over the trial

Known for: Merchan is a first-generation immigrant, born in Bogotà, Colombia, who immigrated to New York City with his parents at 6 years old. He grew up poor, working odd jobs to make ends meet, and became the first member of his family to graduate from college and eventually law school. By 1994, Merchan was an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, where he worked on financial fraud cases, then moved on to work for the state attorney general’s office. In 2009, former New York City Mayor........

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