Donald Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, which are all classified as felonies under New York state law. These charges stem from payments made to suppress negative information during the 2016 presidential campaign, specifically involving hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, among others. The charges allege that Trump falsified business records to conceal these payments and their true purpose, which was to influence the election by preventing damaging stories from coming out.