The impeachment of former US President Donald Trump would be unprecedented in US history.

The decision on whether or not to indict former President Donald Trump over secret payments made on his behalf during his 2016 presidential campaign rests with a Manhattan grand jury that has been secretly questioning the evidence for weeks.

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The impeachment of Trump, who is running for the White House again in 2024, would be an unprecedented moment in American history, the first criminal case against a former US president.

Law enforcement is bracing for protests and possible violence after Trump urged his supporters to protest a possible impeachment. The indictment could also test the Republican Party, which is already at odds over whether to support Trump next year, in part over efforts to undermine his 2020 election defeat. ,Trump denies wrongdoing and criticizes prosecutors' investigations Manhattan as Politically Motivated.

Here's a look at the silent money investigations, the grand jury trial, and the potential ramifications for his presidential campaign:

WHAT'S THE ISSUE?A grand jury was investigating Trump's involvement in a $130,000 payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to prevent her from going public about a sexual relationship she had with him years earlier to go. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company before being reimbursed by Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, booked the reimbursements as attorneys' fees. In early 2016, Cohen also arranged for former Playboy model Karen McDougal to pay tabloid publisher The National Enquirer $150,000, which then trashed her story in a shady reporting practice known as "catch and kill."

Trump denies having sex with one of the women. According to federal prosecutors who filed criminal charges against the attorney over the 2018 payments, Trump's firm "corrected" Cohen's return of Daniels' payment to cover tax payments.Overall, Cohen received $360,000 plus $60,000 in bonuses for a total of $420,000.

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Cohen pleaded guilty to violating the federal campaign finance statute with respect to the payments. Federal prosecutors say the payments constituted illegal and unreported aid to the Trump campaign, but declined to press charges against Trump himself. It appears that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team is investigating whether Trump or anyone else committed crimes in New York State by arranging payments, or how he settled them internally within the Trump Organization.

In a word, yes. The Justice Department's longstanding policy prohibits federal impeachment against an incumbent president, but Trump, who has been absent for two years, no longer enjoys that legal protection. And in any case, the New York case is not a federal investigation.

A grand jury is made up of people drawn from the community, similar to a trial jury. But unlike juries that hear trials, grand juries don't decide whether someone is guilty or innocent. They only decide whether there is sufficient evidence for someone to be charged. Grand juries exist in the federal court system and in many states.

Proceedings are closed to the public, including the media. There is no judge present nor anyone representing the accused.

Prosecutors call and question witnesses, and grand jurors can also ask questions. In New York, the person who could be indicted may ask for a certain witness, though it's up to grand jurors.

New York grand juries have 23 people. At least 16 must be present to hear evidence or deliberate. Twelve have to agree there is enough evidence in order to issue an indictment. The grand jury may also find there is not enough evidence of a crime or direct the prosecutor to file lesser charges.

Centuries-old rules have kept grand juries under wraps to protect the reputations of people who end up not being charged, to encourage reluctant witnesses to testify, to prevent those about to be indicted from fleeing and to guard against outside pressure.

Grand juries have long been criticized as little more than rubber stamps for prosecutors. Former New York Judge Sol Wachtler famously said that prosecutors could convince a grand jury to "indict a ham sandwich." Defenders of the process say it is a crucial safeguard against politically motivated prosecutions.

One of the final witnesses being called was Robert Costello, who was once a legal adviser to Cohen, the government's key witness in the investigation.

The men have since had a falling out, and Costello has indicated that he has information he believes would undercut the credibility of Cohen and contradict his current incriminating statements about Trump.

Costello contacted a lawyer for Trump saying he had information that could be exculpatory for Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss secret legal proceedings. The lawyer brought it to the attention of the district attorney's office, which last week subpoenaed Costello's law firm for records and invited him to testify.

He was at the building where the jurors were meeting on Monday, invited by prosecutors, ensuring the grand jury had an opportunity to consider testimony or evidence that could weaken the case for indicting.

Trump was also been invited to testify, but his lawyer has said the former president has no plans to participate.

Trump says the indictments will actually help him run for president in 2024. Longtime ally Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina senator, said Saturday that District Attorney Bragg "did more to help Donald Trump

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considering joining the Republicans in criticizing the Trump investigation as political." motivated, "fundamentally flawed".But he also threw the former president one of his first smacks in a tongue-in-cheek joke that threatens to escalate their rivalry. DeSantis said she "personally doesn't know what it's all about paying a porn star to keep quiet about an alleged affair."

comments from other potential challengers trying to convince voters it's on of the time to leave the former president while also grappling with the fact that he remains the most popular figure in the party:

During a visit to Iowa on Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence floated the idea of ​​addressing the allegations of the former President, "deeply disturbing".

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has his own race in mind in 2024, said he doesn't expect Trump to drop out of the race after he's impeached, even though he would be the "good pick" of South CarolinaNikki Haley, an outspoken candidate who also served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News Monday the Bragg case was an attempt to score "political points," adding, "They never want to get involved." "At the end of the day, a person's opinion of him after the indictment isn't going to be any different than it was before," GOP veteran Terry Sullivan said in an interview. "All of his perceived negatives are already written in his name among voters.

The New York probe is one of many legal issues Trump is facing.

The Justice Department is investigating his keeping of top secret government documents at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Fla. after he left the White House and any attempts to obstruct the investigation. Federal investigators continue to investigate the January 6, 2021 riot and attempts to invalidate the election, which Trump says were fraudulently rigged.

Excerpts from the Georgia grand jury special report investigating wrongful interference by Trump and his allies in the 2020 Georgia election show the jury found that "one or more witnesses" committed perjury, and the urged local prosecutors to press charges. The former president never testified, but the report didn't rule out the possibility of other allegations.

It is not clear. Trump said in a social media post over the weekend that he expected an arrest Tuesday and called on his supporters to protest his potential arrest.However, no timeline for the secret grand jury's work has been publicly announced. Trump's spokesman said there had been no notification from Bragg's office.

Law enforcement officials braced themselves for the possibility of an indictment in the coming days or weeks -- or that the President himself might appear in court.

Anna Cominsky, a New York Law School professor and former criminal defense attorney, said her best chance is for Trump's lawyers to reach an agreement with prosecutors to avoid wrongdoing.

"There is a high probability that he will turn himself in, which means you will not see a knock on Mar-a-Lago's door at 5am, officers storm his house, arrest him and leave him behind." He will be taken away in handcuffs," he said... "He allegedly volunteered to report to prosecutors, then was questioned, fingerprinted and photographed on charges.Meanwhile, the judge lists the charges and asks whether the accused pleads guilty or not.

"He's in chaos, so maybe he wants to use that to his advantage," he said.