The charges relate to falsifying business records to hide a payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 election.

In a statement, Mr. Trump said the Democratic authorities in New York were doing Joe Biden's dirty work, accusing them of interfering in next year's presidential election.

John Sudworth reports.

The mass ranks of the media say it all.

Donald Trump provided plenty of big moments in American politics, but few bigger than this - his own imminent arrest.

The news was confirmed in an angry statement from the former president, blaming his political opponents, the Democrats, (who) he said have done the unthinkable.

The case against him centers on this woman, the porn star known as Stormy Daniels, ahead of Trump's 2016 election win.

She was paid $130,000 to stop her going public with claims she'd had an affair with him, something he denies.

His fixer and lawyer, Michael Cohen, was convicted over that payment, along with other charges, back in 2018.

Since out of jail, he has been giving evidence to the grand jury that has now decided charges are warranted.

"This is not revenge. This is about accountability.

I don't want to see anyone, including Donald Trump, indicted, prosecuted, convicted, incarcerated simply because I fundamentally disagree with them.

This is all about accountability. He needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds."

The big question is whether Mr. Trump knew about the hush money.

Although his organization ultimately footed the bill, he has always denied any knowledge.

- Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels? - No.

Unless he refuses to comply, at some point in the next few days, Donald Trump will have to come here to New York.

He will be booked and fingerprinted in the building behind me.

There have the charges read to him and enter a formal plea in front of a judge.

It is an extraordinary moment.

The first president in US history to be arrested

The charges have been brought, not by federal prosecutors but by the New York Attorney General, Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.

Now a key figure in the Trump campaign's claim that this is politics, not justice at work.

As he eyes the White House again, Donald Trump may see electoral advantage in all this.

His opponents, though, will be hoping that a man who has long overridden the usual rules of the political game is about to be brought down with a bump.

John Sudworth, BBC News, New York.

Well, I'm joined now from Wyoming by Amy Edmunds, a Republican former state legislator.

Amy Edmunds, thank you so much for staying up so late to talk to us on the BBC.

What do you make of this moment?

Well, it's a sad moment for my country.

As I heard earlier, this is breaking a 230-year precedence in the United States to have a former president criminally charged is an amazing thing and a sad thing in a country that is also very deeply divided.

So I think it's going to be really important for all Americans to watch very carefully how this trial plays out.

And you are saying this as a Republican and somebody who has voted for Donald Trump twice?

Yes. True.

Someone who also would never vote for him again.

But I am saddened to see it, mainly because most of the legal minds in the country have said fairly clearly that this indictment most likely will not lead to an actual conviction,

which means it's simply going to give former President Trump more time on television, more time to convince his very, very loyal followers that he is a martyr,

which is not going to bode well for the Republican Party.

Right. I wanted to ask you, what do you think this does to Donald Trump? Not in legal terms, but in opinion terms.

The words we've heard from him already are very strong, accusing the authorities, the Democratic authorities in New York, of doing Joe Biden's dirty work,

accusing them of interfering in the presidential election next year.

How much sympathy do you think he will get for that? And how much will that affect the polls?"

I mean, I think he'll get sympathy. I think he'll get quite a bit.

The folks that follow him very, very strongly, this is not going to change their minds at all.

I think for a lot of fair-minded Americans and particularly Republicans, they do see this as a bit of a witch hunt.

These are old charges. We've known that other prosecutors have refused to bring them forward to a grand jury.

They did not believe they had enough evidence.

And nothing that we've seen thus far shows that the current prosecutor really has the goods, shall we say.

So I think all of this just leads to more folks feeling sympathetic to the former president.

Now, we don't know what the specific charges are going to be.

We think we're going to hear those details on Tuesday.

In terms of public opinion, there was a poll that came out just a day before this news and it said that most voters think an indictment should disqualify Donald Trump from the race, the 2024 race.

What do you think of that?

I would agree. I would agree.

This indictment, the indictment of his own behavior on January 6th, there's a list of things, myself as a Republican voter, believe disqualify him from running.

What as a Republican voter do you want to happen to your party now?

I would like us to get back to being the party of Ronald Reagan.

I'd like us to get back to the party of honorable decent folks running for office, speaking the truth and unifying the country, not dividing it, not playing off of divisive politics but unifying it.

Amy Edmonds joining us from Wyoming. Thank you very much for talking to us, a former state legislator.