Donald Trump’s campaign has furiously denied rumours that the former president fell asleep during the first day of his historic criminal trial in New York.
At various points during proceedings on Monday, Mr Trump, who is making history once again as the first American president to ever stand trial on criminal charges, appeared to struggle to keep his eyes open, earning the nicknames “Sleepy Don” and “Don Snoreleone” – the latter a reference to the mafia kingpin Don Corleone from the Godfather series.
The Republican has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in a bid to conceal a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, in order to silence her over an alleged affair in 2006.
The charges on their own are misdemeanours but have been elevated to felonies because Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg says they occurred to violate state or federal election laws.
Mr Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Jury selection in the trail began on Monday and will continue on Tuesday.